The best Ukrainian startup will get a chance to pitch in front of the 400+ investors in Silicon Valley

April 4, 2016
The best Ukrainian startup will get a chance to pitch in front of the 400+ investors in Silicon Valley

Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (UVCA) with the support of fund WNISEF announce competition for the best Ukrainian startup. The winner selected by Association’s and fund’s experts will get a chance for free travel and pitch at conference SVOD (Silicon Valley Open Doors), which take part in May 25-26, 2016 in Mountain View (Silicon Valley, USA). Previous year in the same conference, winner was the Looksery company.

The winner will get:

  • Free Startup Pitch Ticket to SVOD conference May 25-26 in Mountain View (California) and chance for startup pitch among the best 25 participants;
  • Travel grant to cover travelling costs to U.S. and accommodation;
  • Consultation from UVCA investors and assistance with pitch presentation;
  • Assistance with trip organization (visa, flight, accommodation).

Contest jury:

  • Jaroslava Johnson (СЕО, Western NIS Enterprise Fund);
  • Andrey Kolodyuk (managing partner, AVentures);
  • Yevgen Sysoyev (managing partner, AVentures);
  • Alexander Soroka (СЕО, Startup.Network);
  • Aleksey Vitchenko (CEO, Digital Future);
  • Viktor Kompaneyets (head of venture investments department, Digital Future);
  • Igor Shoifot (partner, TMT Investments).

Who can take a part?

  • Seed stage start-ups,
  • Series A companies,
  • Pre-Series B companies.

Criteria for startup selection:

  • Startups not older than 3 years,
  • Raised capital does not exceed $ 3m,
  • Only product startups,
  • Applicant is a Ukraine-based company (legally registered in Ukraine, located in Ukraine) or plans to relocate to Ukraine,
  • Applicant’s business must have plans to grow by at least 5 employees in addition to the founders or existing workforce within 3 years,
  • Applicant business must have plans to increase export revenue (revenue from overseas sales),
  • The team wants and can come to the U.S. on May 25-26, 2016 (Foreign passport. USA visa presence, as well),
  • English language knowledge by startup founder.

Send your presentations in English until April 14 via mail: uvca.svod@gmail.com

On April 21 will take place presentation of selected startups in format in front of our experts: 5 minutes speech + 5 minutes Q&A session.

SVOD – investment conference in Silicon Valley that integrates startups from all over the world with the best Silicon Valley’s and global venture funds (Aspect Ventures, Broadway angels, Yuri Milner, YCombinator, TechStars, 500Startups, Bain Capital Ventures…), Top tech companies, business-media.

SVOD Success stories:

  • Looksery (2015) – Ukrainian startup Looksery (after SVOD it was acquired by Snapchat for ca. $150 m in 2015);
  • Petcube – Ukrainian startup Petcube got its first investment after participating in SVOD – then startup was funded for $3.7 m from Almaz Capital, AVentures Capital, Y Combinator;
  • Evernote – got its first investment after participating in SVOD. Now the company’s evaluation is ca. $ 1 bln.

Historically, every second company gets funding after SVOD Conference.