Seeds of Bravery, €12M in Grants and 300+ Ukrainian Startups

Seeds of Bravery Closes with €12M in Grants and 300+ Ukrainian Startups Integrated into the EU

While the world’s headlines focused on the front lines, a different kind of resistance was being built in the cloud. Today, the Seeds of Bravery (UASEEDs) project concludes its 2,5-year mission, marking a historic win for the European Innovation Council (EIC). Since December 2023, the project has funneled over €12? in direct funding to 318 Ukrainian startups, ensuring that the country’s brightest minds didn’t just survive the war – they scaled through it.

Seeds of Bravery, €12M in Grants

From water sanitation systems to AI-driven MedTech, these “Seeds” have grown into a forest of innovation. With 80 documented success stories and thousands of connections made across the continent, the project proves that even under fire, Ukraine’s greatest export remains its ingenuity. This isn’t just a closing report; it’s a blueprint for how a nation stays digitally sovereign during the darkest of times.

Project results and achievements

The project was created and launched as a response to the request of the Ukrainian startup ecosystem: to develop innovations, scale technologies and products, enter new markets and build a successful business despite difficult circumstances. And now we see the incredible  impact of the project – its educational and mentoring programs and grant support – on the community of innovators in Ukraine. Hundreds of startups supported by Seeds of Bravery have already found new partners, signed cooperation agreements with European stakeholders, attracted external investments and moved to higher stages of development.

In two years, the project has become a catalyst for growth for hundreds of teams: it helped them go from idea to first customers, from MVP to scaling, opened doors to European markets, partnerships and investments, strengthening the position of Ukrainian startups as full-fledged players in the international innovation ecosystem.

Within 7 work packages in partnership with FundingBox, Ukrainian Startup Fund, CyberInnovate, AxisBIC, INNOV8, Institute of Physics, Accelerace, EIT Health, Luxinnovation, YEP Accelerator, Techosystem, Sunrise Tech Park, Da Vinci Labs, Impact Hub Stockholm, Vacuum Deep Tech Acceleration, Plug and Play, Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship, Aalto University, the following results were achieved:

Financial Support

• 318 startups were supported with grant funding for a total amount of €12,2M
• 163 startups applied for EIC – European Innovation Council grant programs, with 2 winners Women TechEU (HYDRATICO, S-Lab)
• 2 Investor Literacy Programmes with 6 workshops engaging 300+ Business Angels

Market Integration

• 20 Market discovery programmes – 37 ?ountries covered
• 2870 startups participated in Market Discovery Workshops
• 23 Market fast-track programmes helped 183 Startups build Go-To-Market Strategies
• 25 Demo days – 290 startups pitched in 24 countries
• 308 start-ups participated in 10 industry specific Soft Landing Workshops
• 2430 European investors and corporations reached – it’s a win-win situation: it increases the investment attractiveness of Ukraine and gives the investors an opportunity to gain because Ukrainian Startups are worth investing in.

Cross-border scaling

• 97 pro bono legal advice, consultations & Legal Lab Webinars with 438 attendees
• Matchmaking activities with corporates, investors, partners, potential customers – 619
• 265 UASEEDs beneficiaries participated matchmaking service
• UA Tech Ticket programme USF – 541 UA tech tickets issued
• UASEEDs Delegation showcasing at major tech events: 34 major tech conferences visited of UA Startups.
• 61 co-working Spaces in Europe
• 60 EU investors and accelerators joining UASEEDs
• 6 online onboarding and matchmaking workshops delivered for startups, each with 35+ participants
• 580+ investor–startup connections facilitated through Demo Days and matchmaking activities

Results of educational programmes

• 5 Investment Readiness Programmes – 60 Startups completed
• 5 Proposal Writing Bootcamps – 100 Participants
• 8 Pitch Training Programmes – 91 Participants
• 8 Legal Lab Webinars – 202 Attendees
• 50+ one-on-one VC meetings held with UASEEDs startups to review fundraising strategies and improve investment readiness
• 63 startups participating in the Deep Tech Accelerator
• 79 startups participating in the Deep & Digital Tech Booster
• 2 new entrepreneurship programmes launched: Science2Business, Summer School for Entrepreneurs (236 scientists and innovators gained entrepreneurial skills, 20% of them launched a startup; 279 mentors engaged)
• 4 FEL editions of Female entrepreneurs/C-level managers via FEL program (100 participants)
• 315 beneficiaries supported across acceleration, incubation, and leadership tracks — counted per programme
• 80 success stories of UASEEDs startups have been published on pages 2 of the catalogs: «Roots of Innovations: Inspiring Stories of Startups» and «Seeds of Bravery: Growth Edition». They are available via the links: «Roots of Innovations: Inspiring Stories of Startups» and «Seeds of Bravery: Growth Edition», articles and podcasts.

We are proud of the results of Seeds of Bravery, which were made possible thanks to the cooperation of partners from Ukraine and Europe: funds, accelerators, incubators and mentors who shared their experience, supported, organized mentoring sessions, workshops, bootcamps.

Seeds of Bravery, which was launched as a support program, has become a real powerful support for Ukrainian founders. We thank the partners, all the mentors and experts who joined the work within the project, and the startups who actively participated in the Seeds of Bravery initiatives. Let this experience become the foundation for global growth, and each next step is another proof of the power of Ukrainian innovation.

About the Seeds of Bravery project. Seeds of Bravery is a €20 million project funded by the European Union under the European Innovation Council (EIC) to support Ukrainian technology startups.

The project’s mission is to develop and scale the Ukrainian deep tech industry, bring together corporations and governments for the benefit of small and medium-sized enterprises, and stimulate innovations that benefit users in Ukraine, Europe and beyond.

Seeds of Bravery’s work is based on the cooperation of 17 partners and 2 associate partners who integrate Ukrainian innovators into European markets.

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