The European Innovation Council (EIC) has announced the project called Seeds of Bravery aimed at providing €20 million of support funding for Ukrainian startups, technology entrepreneurs, and the ecosystem. The EIC also announced the consortium of more than twenty organizations as the partners of the program.

Furthermore, the support program provides for the creation of a €12 million fund for Ukrainian innovative startups, as Cyber/nnov8 founder Sviatoslav Sviatnenko informed.

Ukrainian startups
Image: The European Innovation Council

What does the program provide for?

  • The support program aims at becoming a life jacket for Ukrainian startups, helping them grow and integrate into the European innovation ecosystem so that they can become key drivers of Ukraine’s economic recovery.
  • The initiative will support at least 200 Ukrainian technology startups with grants of €60,000 for further development of their innovative and business activities. In addition, companies will also receive non-financial support such as consulting services, coaching, mentoring, and partnering.
  • The €20 million support funds will be provided through a pan-European network of start-up associations, business support centers, incubators, and accelerators. The network selected through the competition is coordinated by the Accelerator FundingBox based in Warsaw. The consortium includes 22 startup organizations and associations, including 6 Ukrainian partners, as well as partners from 13 other countries.
  • As the founder of Cyber/nnov8 Sviatoslav Sviatnenko reported, hundreds of Ukrainian startups, scale-ups, and entrepreneurs will receive support thanks to Seeds of Bravery. Together with the Ukrainian Startup Fund and FundingBox (key partners and coordinators), Seeds of Bravery will manage a €12 million grant fund. In addition, other partners are involved in the project.

“Thanks to Aalto University, we will make our universities and scientists more entrepreneurial. The best European experience of acceleration and incubation will be transferred to us by several top world partners at once. We have another key European institution among our partners — EIT, European Institute of Innovation and Technology, and we will continue to launch the programs in Ukraine even faster in addition to the already announced EIT Jumpstarter,”

Svyatnenko said.