The investment market is developing rapidly in Ukraine. Its roots go back to 1992, when it was represented only with one fund named Ukraine. It financed over thirty Ukrainian companies. Over the recent years, Ukraine sparkled brightly on the radars of investors. Due to the fast and continuous development, numerous startups from this country received international fundings of their globally-oriented products. Being on the top of European outsourcing market, Ukraine is also a great source of startups that successfully conquer their place in the market. Today we will tell you about the must-know venture funds in Ukraine that support the development of startups nationally and globally.
TA Ventures
Let’s get acquainted with TA Ventures first. This fund has been supporting awesome companies since 2010 and by now has made 97 investments. TA Ventures does seed and early stage venture investments in SaaS, online marketplaces, digital health, big data, deep tech and other sectors. At seed stage, it can invest 100-250k, and at series A a startup can expect 250-500k of investment.
It works globally, focusing on Europe (mostly on Germany and the UK) and the USA. Here are some names TA Ventures supported: NU3, Dreamlines, Auctionata, Azimo, FinanzCheck, SumUp, Wallapop and many others. The latest investments are made into StyleLounge, Clark and Wunderflats. TA Ventures recently invested $1 mln in eTachki, an innovative Ukrainian startup that created the first Ukrainian online auction for selling used cars. A founding partner of TA Ventures Viktoriya Tigipko said that this startup has a great potential and everything needed for success, that’s why such a sum of investment is reasonable and well-balanced.
The main added value of TA Ventures is its ability to find teams of highly skilled and a cost-effective developers in Eastern and Central Europe. The company is open to collaboration with other VC funds and angel investors.
UAngel
This Ukrainian business angels network provides a platform for entrepreneurs to get acquainted with investors and for investors to syndicate locally and internationally. This is a closed group of high networth individuals. Founded back in 2014, UAngel has grown significantly and became a European Business Angels Network member. Kyiv is the location of the network’s headquarters. The major tasks of UAngel include supplying the members of the network with investment projects, offering opportunities for international deals, assistance with negotiations and closing deals, educational initiatives and, in general, facilitation of the investment climate of Ukraine.
UAngel is one of the major elements of Ukrainian startup ecosystem development, as it connects business angels with projects that are appealing to them. The network offers access to information about investment deals, holds various events, meetups and trainings for the members. UAngel brings Ukraine one step closer to a tighter integration with the global market, as it stimulates the cooperation of Ukrainian and European investors.
WannaBiz
The history of WannaBiz started back in 2011 in Kyiv. Having begun as a startup incubator, WannaBiz turned into a venture fund in the last quarter of 2015. The directors of the company decided that it is high time for such a transformation, since seed funding is gaining extreme popularity in the market. WannaBiz gives small business owners an opportunity to market online professionally, promote their businesses and manage their online presence.
In the nearest future WannaBiz will focus on venture funding and stop being an incubator. The company plans to gather a fund of $5-10 million from private limited partners. The investment targets are companies that work in advertising, digital marketing, mobile, B2B SaaS. WannaBiz helps startups to grow into a world-class companies. Among its portfolio companies you can find names like ClickGanic, Kwambio and Adtena. At this moment, WannaBiz offers up to $50k in funding, targeting seed stage and round A fundings of startups with Ukrainian founders.
AVentures
AVentures is another venture fund company located in Kyiv, Ukraine. It launched a venture fund back in 2012. Since that time it has been investing in web-related projects from Ukraine and CEE. So far, it has made 13 investments into 10 companies. It does seed and early stage venture investments in its focus area – digital economy. AVenture targets the following categories of technology: B2B, e-commerce, software, gaming, mobile technology, payment technology and other ventures, related to social media. It partners up with top global venture capital funds and IT-entrepreneurs.
AVentures team follows the win-win approach, it is very committed to supporting the development of local startup community. The company tries to do their best in order to maximize the value both parties can receive with the help of feedback, advice and introduction of potential business partners. Speaking about companies AVenture funded, we should mention Augmented Pixels Studio, nuPSYS, VOX Audio Player, CheckiO, StarWind Software, Sixa and PetCube. AVentures offers beneficial cooperation opportunities not only to startups and entrepreneurs, but also to investors. The company does all the hard job on choosing the startups which have the highest success potential and selects them based on their rich experience and expertise.
KM Core
This high tech holding company was launched in 2010, with headquarters in Kyiv, Ukraine. It offers a fresh approach to technology investment. It develops and commercializes technologies that are emerging in Eastern Europe. However, the geography of KM Core is not limited by these regions, as the company constantly monitors the global market for the innovative products and services. KM Core focuses on information and communication technologies, microelectronics and nanotechnologies. Apart from that, the company supports numerous large-scale cultural and educational projects. KM Core believes they can help the world to balance the development of intelligence, high technologies and culture with their work.
KM Core partners with TA Ventures, TAS Group, Apex Ventures, Microsoft, UIA and other well-known and highly respected companies. Speaking about investments, we can say that lately the company supported UaRpa. It also works with six other innovative startups that are at the early development stage but show great potential. Most likely, we will hear about them very soon.
As you can see, Ukrainian venture market has some strong players that support the technology growth and development a lot. There are other venture funds that deserve attention, apart from the ones we’ve described in this article. Take your time to learn about them to see more opportunities Ukrainian venture business has to offer.
