Growth Program: Ukraine
Unlock the exponential growth of your scale-up
Startup Wise Guys Growth Ukraine is a four-month acceleration initiative exclusively tailored for 12 ambitious Ukrainian scale-ups, offering unparalleled mentorship, tailored guidance, and fundraising support to amplify their business footprints in Europe and globally. The program, runs in cooperation with EBRD and is supported by Taiwan Business-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund as a donor.
We recognize the fiery passion of Ukrainian entrepreneurs, who are eager to put their nation on the global business map. That’s the driving force behind our program – to connect you with a continuously growing community of visionaries, market leaders, and investors who resonate with your ambition.
Our growth program empowers startups with intensive 1:1 support, tailored scaling strategies, and European exposure. Connect with industry leaders through our network and advisory board, all while crafting a robust, future-proof business plan to scale to the next level.
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Gain discipline and guidance
Growth Program provides you with a proven roadmap and connects you with industry experts who have been there and done that. It will keep you on track and support making strategic decisions and overcoming challenges with the guidance of those who understand your path to growth.
Learn from the best
Apart from working with two dedicated coaches, you will be able to tap into our vast mentor database that unites practitioners and seasoned professionals, who are guided by mission to help startups thrive and grow.
Tune-up your sales and fundraising strategy
Through work with the program's Managing Director and the fund's General Partners, you will learn hands-on ways to scale your sales strategy, prepare for expansion in European markets, and develop your fundraising strategy.
Expand your network
The program will have various matchmaking and networking opportunities with investors and corporates, both online and onsite at the graduation event held in Vilnius, Lithuania.
About the program
Application Process
Applications are now open for the Growth Ukraine Program. There will be 2 cohorts of 6 startups. The deadlines:
- The first cohort - October 22, 2023
- The second cohort - November 17, 2023
Our team will carefully review all applications and once we identify potential candidates that fit our requirements we will reach out to schedule an interview!
Note: applications are checked on first come first serve basis.
Week 1-5 / Module 1
Startup Diagnostic, Strategy Assessment, Operations, and Market Engineering Sprint
Week 7-10 / Module 2
Sales, Marketing, and Growth
Build a data driven growth plan and prepare to enter new international markets by building an effective sales and marketing strategy. Then, test your product market fit validation through our one week product sprint.
Week 8-9 / Module 3
People Strategy, Finance & Data Driven Design
Focus on leadership and people strategy for scale ups. Then, focus on financial audit readiness, and finally utilize a data driven approach for process & system design, and create a customer & product development roadmap.
Week 10-11 / Module 4
Fundraising, Investment Readiness, & Strategy Roadmap
Scale up your fundraising and investor readiness by preparing investor materials, including your investor documents and deck for an international fundraising landscape. Finally, create your roadmap for fundraising and investor strategy to help you achieve success 3-6 months post-program.
After the program
Don’t think that after the program we stop working together. We're here to help you prepare for the next round. We'll assess your fundraising strategy for the long term and even explore the possibility of investing in your venture.
Why now Ukraine?
From 2018 to 2021, we saw Ukraine’s startup scene spark and it was definitely one of the hotbeds of breeding talented and successful startups. To this date, we have backed in total 42 startups with Ukrainian founders with a proud tally of 2.78M EUR. However, the start of the war radically changed the landscape. In terms of startup support, a lot of focus was aimed at military tech, many founders joined the country’s defense forces or dived deep into voluntary work supporting others.
Even in the current environment, the number of new companies exceeds the number of businesses that have closed (by 5.6x), however the longer the war drags on the more the existing Ukrainian companies will need in-kind assistance in order to survive. Currently, Ukrainian startups are not hiring new employees and have a glass ceiling limiting their ability to grow. We see an opportunity to help them break that glass ceiling by running a targeted accelerator program aimed at reducing these obstacles.
It would be a great match if you are…
Ukrainian-rooted, forward-thinking, and ready to tap into European markets.
This accelerator program is tailored for startups that align with one or more of the specifications below:
- At least one of startup founders has a Ukrainian passport.
- You’re a B2B SaaS startup in various verticals scaling up.
- You have a scalable product in operation.
- Your startup boasts a minimum of 2 founders and a team of 3+.
- You’re demonstrating proven traction, with an MRR of 5000+ EUR, or engaging paid pilots with promising clientele.
- Secured at least pre-seed level funding.
- Globally ambitious in scope.
- Fluent in spoken English.
14
Exits
370+
portfolio companies
700+
founders network
80%
Survival rate
Marvelous mentors
Learn from the best practitioners out there in intensive 1:1 tailored sessions. Our mentors will help you fill the gaps and boost your expertise to ensure the company's growth.