About GEN in Ukraine

The Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) has been engaged with Ukraine since the early years of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), with the first national campaigns coordinated by the Association ‘Socio-Economic Strategies & Partnerships’ (SESP). By 2010, Ukraine was already running one of the larger campaigns in Europe, with more than 35,000 participants taking part across the country, and the campaign continued to grow through 2011 and 2012 under SESP’s coordination. 

Around the middle of the decade, hosting responsibilities transitioned to Startup Ukraine – the country’s first dedicated education center for entrepreneurs – led by long-serving GEW host and Startup Nations policy advocate Anna Petrova. Under Startup Ukraine, the GEW campaign expanded into a truly national celebration. By GEW 2016, partners and entrepreneurship hubs were leading activities in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Lviv, Odesa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, and Chernihiv, with key partners including PrivatBank – which used the week to roll out its “Wave Business Forum” and KUB “Country of Successful Business” program – alongside hubs such as Chasopys in Kyiv, Spalah and I Coworking Hub in Dnipro, IT-House in Ternopil, Impact Hub Odesa, and Urban Space 100 in Ivano-Frankivsk. In 2018, GEW Ukraine continued to expand alongside its Eastern European peers in Moldova, Belarus, Hungary and North Macedonia. 

In recognition of the resilience and creativity of Ukraine’s GEW campaign through extraordinarily difficult circumstances, GEW Ukraine was named a finalist for the GEN Compass Award for Inspiration + Resilience in 2022, alongside organizations including UNDP Syria, GEN Caribbean, Growth Palestine, and the American University of Armenia. 

GEN’s policy engagement with Ukraine has deepened significantly in recent years. The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Startup Fund are both members of the Startup Nations community – GEN’s global peer network of government ministers, officials and policy advisors – and Ukraine was among the new member countries welcomed into the community as it expanded through 2022 and 2023. Ihor Markevych, a member of the founding team of the Ukrainian Startup Fund and a co-organizer of IT Arena, has continued to champion the ecosystem in his current role as manager of the EIT Community Hub Ukraine. Ukraine’s landmark Diia.Business platform – the government’s digital ecosystem for entrepreneurs – is also profiled on the GEN Atlas, GEN’s curated global knowledge portal of public sector policies and programs introduced to remove barriers to entrepreneurship and increase rates of new firm formation, and is a regular reference point in GEN’s Startup State weekly policy briefing. 

In September 2024, GEN Vice President Matt Smith traveled to Kyiv to connect with leaders from the Ukrainian Startup Fund, the EIT Community Hub Ukraine, IT Arena, and the Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office (EEPO), and to tour UNIT.City – one of Ukraine’s flagship innovation campuses. The visit reinforced GEN’s long-term commitment to keep the Ukrainian ecosystem connected to the global entrepreneurial community even as the country continues to navigate the impact of the ongoing war. 

Ukrainian startups have also engaged with GEN’s flagship founder programs. Three Ukrainian companies have reached the global finals of the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC), the pitch competition run by GEN and Saudi Arabia’s Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority, Monsha’at, which gives applicants free training, mentorship and exposure to investors at every stage. Kyiv-based UniExo, an exoskeleton company building wearable medical devices to support patient recovery, reached the EWC 100 in both 2019 and 2020, and Promin Aerospace, a Kyiv-based aerospace startup developing an ultra-lightweight launch vehicle, advanced to the EWC 100 in 2022 and pitched for a share of the global $1 million prize pool. Promin Aerospace’s journey is a notable example of Ukrainian deep-tech entrepreneurship continuing to scale internationally throughout the war, with backing from programs including the Support Ukrainian Startups NOW Program, Seeds of Bravery, and Google for Startups. 

Beyond the country’s borders, the broader GEN community has worked to support Ukrainian founders displaced by the war. GEN UK launched Restart Ukraine, a dedicated program to help Ukrainian women entrepreneurs – who account for roughly 90% of those displaced by the conflict – relocate, restart, and scale their businesses in the United Kingdom, with financial support from LinkedIn and a network of volunteer mentors and business advisors. Danish Entrepreneurs, the GEW host in Denmark, has carried out extensive work to support Ukrainian founders, which was recognized as a finalist in the EU SME Awards. In Lithuania, the Imaguru Solidarity Hub in Vilnius has provided free workspace, mentoring and consulting for Ukrainian entrepreneurs in exile. GEN Moldova has also led creative-hub exchange visits connecting innovation communities in Moldova, Ukraine and Armenia. Within Ukraine, U-NATION, founded by Yan Shipiro, launched a new accelerator in Odesa to keep early-stage founders moving forward. 

GEN maintains relationships with key Ukrainian ecosystem stakeholders, including the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Startup Fund, Startup Ukraine, the EIT Community Hub Ukraine, the Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office (EEPO), IT Arena, UNIT.City, and U-NATION, as well as long-standing partners such as PrivatBank, Impact Hub Odesa, and Urban Space 100. Through GEW Ukraine, the Startup Nations community, the Entrepreneurship World Cup, the GEN Atlas, and cross-border initiatives such as Restart Ukraine, GEN continues to keep Ukraine’s founders, ecosystem builders and policymakers connected to the global entrepreneurial community – and is committed to working with its Ukrainian partners in the long work of regeneration ahead.