The Ukrainian Startup Fund held the 26th Pitch Day
On June 4, the Ukrainian Startup Fund held its 26th Pitch Day to select startups for state financing. The event took place in offline mode on the territory of the hub for startups and tech companies – iHUB. 12 startups made presentations (pitches). All of them are at the seed stage (each of them applies for state grant funding in the amount of $ 50,000).
The event was opened by the participants of the discussion panel on the subject of what a successful Ukrainian startup is and what its prerequisites are. Among the participants were Acting Head of Sales and CTO Delfast Sergey Dovgopolyy, SEO Djooky Andrey Dakhovsky, founder and CEO of Skyworker Lydia Terpel. The discussion was moderated by Alexander Ryabtsev, founder of StartupInUA. In the discussion, participants shared their vision of the success of startups, what metrics matter, their own experience in attracting investment and comment recent government initiatives to support startups, including Diia City.
Who is the jury made up of?
- Kateryna Degtyar. Chapter director at Startup Grind Kyiv.
- Olena Mazhuga. Investment manager at Genesis Investments.
- Sergii Dovgopolyy. Managing partner at FeelGoodLabs businesses accelerator.
- Andrii Gulyi. Head of analytics at INDAX.
- Maksym Beshleul. Founder and CEO at MedicalLife.
- Yurii Sereshchenko. Managing partner at Quarter Partners.
- Dmytro Chernukha. Industry Innovation manager at DTEK.
The main criteria for evaluating projects at the seed stage are team, market, product, the feasibility of financing, strategy. In each category, a maximum is 5 points (in total maximum is 25). The passing score for a recommendation to the Supervisory Board for a grant is 15 points.
The results
This time the audience award according to a vote in the telegram channel was gained by the startup Awesomic.
Startups Noplag, MeteoControl AI and Awesomic received a special prize from the event partner iHUB in the form of three months of free use of their workplaces.
A special prize from the event partner Unit School of Business in the form of a scholarship for free education at the school for entrepreneurs according to the Berkeley methodology was received by the startup Copra.
The teams Noplag, MeteoControl AI and Awesomic also received a special prize from UNIT.City – 3 months of free access to the modern coworking – NEST, which is located on the territory of the innovation park + its infrastructure.
According to the results of the Competition Сommittee’s assessments, the following startups rating list was formed (from the highest score to the lowest):
- Awesomic. An app that matches companies tasks with the best fit designer instantly. Client gets the result on the next business day for a flat monthly subscription. 3000 design projects completed on Awesomic platform by companies like Reface, People AI, Restream and others (Kyiv).
- Copra. A Ukrainian manufacturer of premium segment speaker systems and amplifiers. We have more than 20 patents in the USA, Europe and Ukraine (Odessa).
- DreamApp. Dream interpretation app (Kyiv).
- Onyx. A new, patented for it’s segment product with the contactless towel drying principle, which is produced and designed in Ukraine and has been already exported to the European countries and Israel. In line with a unique esthetic and engineering solution this product is highly functional for both delicate towel drying and other textile goods, and for efficient heating of the bathroom (Cherkasy).
- Noplag. Plagiarism detection and resources for academic writing (Kyiv).
- Meteocontrol AI. A platform that helps farmers with insurance by an affordable product using satellite data and our algorithms (Kyiv).
- skillsetter. A modern simulation-based online-courses that help people to get skills to get a job in an IT-company (Kyiv).
- Delight. An interactive book is with the elements of shadow theatre of shadows. A product consists of book as an accordion, pages of that are intagliated a stencil illustrations histories of fairy-tale, that by means of light and shade form on ceiling or walls of apartment of history of fairy-tale and adding to her, are addition in a smartphone with technology of recognition of elements and AR technology (Chernihiv).
- Saport. Quick connection to a plumber, electrician etc to solve household problems (Kyiv).
- FIT-Budget. An online platform (SaaS) for accounting in budget (non-profit organizations established by public authorities) institutions of Ukraine. This is the first and only “cloud” solution for accounting, payroll, work with government agencies and financial reporting (Kharkiv).
- The Great Catalog. A marketplace that combines all 3D and BIM models for architects and designers in one place (Kyiv).
- EcoNanoBuild. Production of a new generation of ecological building materials – sulfur-asphalt concrete (Nano-asphalt® and Nano-concrete®) with the use of industrial waste (Kyiv).
At the USF Supervisory Board meeting, which will take place in the near future, it will be decided which startups will receive grant funding.
We remind that according to the results of the 25th Pitch Day 6 startups were funded: CASERS, Zirity, 12Climb, elKYC, craftit.online and Re:zume.
