Acceleration programfor Ukrainian defence startups

Full-cycle mentoring support

Attracting the first investments

Enabling products development upon Defence Forces requests

Application deadline: 15.05.2024

The mission:

To create conditions for the systematic development of the country's defenсe sector. This includes:

Creating a sustainable defenсe industry in Ukraine with high competition between technological companies
Ensuring the competitiveness of Ukrainian military technologies in global markets
Enabling products development upon Defence Forces requests

Acceleration format:

Startups

Months of training

70_%

Practical cases

100

Hours of online lectures

1:1 meetings with mentors

30_%

Theoretical knowledge

Full program

Principles of Defence Builder:

Comprehensive assistance in scaling from "garage production" to a sustainable company
Ensure a business approach to building a project
Give access to battlefield testing for feedback and rapid product iterations
Provide a platform for exchanging crucial competencies such as management, operations, production, etc.
Create opportunities to attract financing from Ukrainian and international investors

Preferred domains:

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)

Unmanned ground vehicles (UGV)

Unmanned surface vehicles (USV)

Cybersecurity

Avionics

Means of Electronic Warfare (EW) and Electronic Surveillance (ES)

Software

Sensors

Demining solutions

Other

All successfully accelerated projects receive:

Post-acceleration support for 6 months
- 3 guaranteed intro meetings with investors
- Support in fundraising
- Assistance with testing products on the battlefield
- Assistance during the process of putting into service
- Support in communications with external investors and grant funding programs
- Monthly 1:1 meeting with a personal mentor to solve a specific request during three months
Self-education materials
Community of like-minded founders and mentors
Network of profile investors from Ukraine, Europe, the USA, and other countries
Demo Day
project pitch to 70+ investors

How to secure a spot in the acceleration program?

Eligibility criteria for application approval:

Team starting from 2 people with established roles

English level of B1+ is necessary for at least one team member

Product MVP

OR - A limited supply of the product to the military
OR - Prior agreement on supply
OR - $25.000 of attracted investments

OR - Product testing feedback
OR - Verified feedback from the military

Ability to spend up to 10 hours per week to complete the program

Apply now

Selection committee:

Valery Krasovsky

Co-Founder & CEO at Sigma Software Group

Daria Yaniieva

Investment Director at Sigma Software Labs

Vital Laptenok

General Partner at Flyer One Ventures

Michael Shneider

CEO at Kyiv School of Economics

Anton Tokarev

Head of Growth and Investments at Genesis

Military expert

...

Mentors:

Leaders of tech-companies with experience in building and scaling complex technological products and top-level military with an understanding of the battlefield needs.

They will share their expertise and provide ready-made frameworks for solving the accelerator teams' challenges.