Ukraine will allocate more than 400 million to startups

The Ukrainian Startup Fund has begun to consider funding applications.

The Government of Ukraine has allocatedabout 440 million hryvnia ($ 18.36 million) for developmentinnovative startups in the areas of blockchain, cybersecurity, augmented reality and artificial intelligence, robotics and software, financial and educational technologies, defense, healthcare and e-commerce.

Fund financing is designed for two years. The first tranche this year will amount to 40 million hryvnias ($ 1.67 million), in 2020 - 240 million hryvnias ($ 10 million).

Consider business projects will be observanta fund council, in which there are only two representatives from government agencies, while the rest of the observers are representatives of the market. Thus, the state gives the right to choose relevant startups to specialists and maximally distances itself from the distribution of fund resources.

Competitive projects will be selecteda commission at the initial stages of their development, pre-seed and seed, evaluating primarily innovation, commercialization, team composition, required funding, relevance and viability of the project.