U.Okay.-based restricted companions Venrex and Samos Investments are this week backing the launch of a brand new VC primarily aimed toward investing in startups led by Ukrainians inside and outdoors the war-torn nation. The LPs are higher recognized for being early institutional traders within the profitable early stage startup funds Seedcamp and Entrepreneur First.
1991 Ventures is the brainchild of Ukrainian brothers Denis and Viktor Gursky, who’re higher recognized for operating incubation and accelerator packages inside Ukraine.
The U.Okay.-based VC is launching with a £15 million ($18.8 million) fund to spend money on each Ukrainian and Central Japanese European (CEE) startup expertise.
Though some would possibly say investing in Ukrainian startups is loopy when the nation is within the battle of its life in opposition to a brutal invasion by Russia, as we coated not too long ago, two years after the invasion, Ukrainian-born startups are nonetheless faring properly.
The Gursky brothers beforehand backed greater than 200 startups between 2016 and 2024, by way of their incubator Social Increase and their 1991 Accelerator.
Lots of these have been out of their hometown of Mariupol, made well-known after its heroic battle in opposition to Russia and from the place its staff managed to relocate to security. Startups backed thus far embody authorized tech startup AXDRAFT, European toll fee app eTolls and cybersecurity firm Osavul.
Over an interview Denis Gursky, founding associate of 1991 Ventures, advised me: “There’s a wealth of untapped expertise in Ukraine and Central and Japanese Europe… My brother, Viktor, and I need to create a pipeline of high-quality dealflow to that.”
He stated the LP backers of the fund, “are very to faucet into Japanese European and Ukrainian particularly.”
Gursky additionally stated: “It’s very onerous for Ukrainian founders to faucet into London. So we wish to present them with pre-seed or seed funding in order that they’ll… entry bigger rounds sooner or later and perceive how the U.Okay. could be a springboard to world funding.”
However 1991 Enterprise gained’t be the one Ukrainian-born fund vying for the eye of their brethren founders.
There’s additionally Ukrainian VC fund Roosh Ventures, which has beforehand backed Reface AI, a face swap app with 250 million-plus downloads, and Deel, a payroll answer that permits firms to pay individuals in 150+ international locations.
Moreover, SID Enterprise Companions was launched by the co-founders of outsourcing firms Sigma Software program and IdeaSoft and the Datrics product.
SMRK — launched in 2013 by Oleksandr Kosovan, founding father of MacPaw, and Andrii Dovzhenko — has invested in Osavul, Deus Robotics, Aspichi and Prengi.
Then there’s Flyer One Ventures, which has backed Vochi, Allset and PromoRepublic, amongst others.
Lastly, TA Ventures is maybe one of the best recognized and most energetic Ukrainian VC internationally, headed up by the almost-ubiquitous Viktoriya Tigipko.
It has invested in additional than 200 startups, together with 15 Ukrainian ones, and made 42 exits, in line with Crunchbase.
Lots of the tech firms Ukraine will produce within the forthcoming years are prone to be both “dual-use” or associated to protection. As an example, nearly 200 firms produced drones in Ukraine final 12 months, up from seven in 2022.
