Investments, wartime business and opportunities were discussed during the premiere GreenBusinessTalk, who held Greencubator on June 29 as part of the project "Climate innovation vouchers».
The series of video discussions began with two champions of the green startup sector who, despite the challenges, continue to work and move forward - Bohdan Bayovskyi with GLOBAL SOLUTIONS and Sergey Sereda with "DOMINION". Not so long ago, both companies attracted a total of more than 2 million dollars in investments and grants. How they managed to achieve this, they told during an online broadcast, the recording of which can be viewed at link. We share the important moments of the conversation.
The second round of investments is with American investors
MONDIAL SOLUTIONS company (prengi.com) automates service business processes real estate objects, in particular, the Prengi online service allows you to manage maintenance processes at a large enterprise, housing stock, etc. The company used a grant from the "Climate Innovation Vouchers" (CIV) project for energy management expertise, in particular at Ukrposhta. Prengi service users include both Ukrainian companies (Mac Paw Property, Zhytlobudinvest, Dragon Capital, KFC, NOVUS, Ukrposhta, Velmart) and foreign companies (NUVIA dental, The City of Hollywood, Lutheran Service).
"Before the war, we had only a few days left to sign a contract with investors for a large amount," recalls Bohdan Baiovsky, executive director of MONDIAL SOLUTIONS (https://prengi.com/). - But the war made its adjustments, and we focused on supporting our existing clients in Ukraine and finalizing the functionality. At the same time, we saw an opportunity to enter the American market. We began to carefully study the volume, the available players and ways to capture its share. They formed a new team and strategy, developed a business plan and went to investment funds. The first thing the team faced was that the whole world supported Ukraine at that time, but investors did not want to cooperate with Ukrainian companies because of the high risk."
Another important point was the minimum income threshold required to work in the American or European markets. MONDIAL SOLUTIONS talked to many companies and although some declined, they provided the Ukrainian company with many useful product and development advice. This helped MONDIAL SOLUTIONS significantly and they conducted productive negotiations. Also, in the long term, they decided to cooperate with our companies and concluded a partnership agreement with SMRK, which specializes in venture capital investment. Thus, in 2023, the startup attracted $500,000 seed investment from the SMRK fund.
"Our next steps include the second round of investments, active work on the American market and attracting customers," says Bohdan Baiovsky, executive director of MONDIAL SOLUTIONS. - We need to show stable growth. The second round will be with American investors."
Pilot pipeline - for underground delivery of goods in London
Dominion Company (PIPES.one) developed a mobile factory for the production of polymer pipelines on construction sites, they currently sell both polymer products and equipment. Due to the Voucher from the CIV project, the company received European (DIN) and Ukrainian certification. "DOMINION" attracted a grant from Horizon Europe in the amount of about 1,500,000 euros, and also implements projects of other donors. Serhiy Sereda is an ambassador of the European Innovation Council (EIC), which recently announced a grant of 20 million euros to support the innovative community of Ukraine.
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, several engineers from the "DOMINION" team went to the Armed Forces, some of the workers went abroad.
"By February 24, we planned to enter the international market and offered global players to come to Ukraine and see our technology. The presentation was scheduled for February 28, 2022. But all plans changed... Our production was in Vyshgorod, we saw all the events in Gostomel from the office window... Even after the de-occupation, we joined the restoration of sewage and water management in Gostomel. We volunteered as much as we could - recalls Serhii Sereda, co-founder of the DOMINION company - My team and I moved to a safer place. Now we have launched a line that produces the profile we need for the production of pipes in a mobile workshop. We hope to have a full production cycle in Ukraine."
For many companies, the war became an extremely serious test of strength, but for some it also became an impetus to quickly enter international markets.
"We worked more in Ukraine, of course, we planned to enter the international markets, but we constantly postponed it, took our time, and the war became the impetus for entering the international market, for obtaining investments for work," Serhiy Sereda notes.
Currently, the company is working on a pilot project with a startup from Great Britain. We are talking about underground delivery of online orders by pipes in London with a meter tunnel and a standard polymer pipe. This can replace them with 40,000 trucks per week.
New participants of the competition: it is worth daring to...
Among the wishes for the next wave of participants, who will be able to submit their applications as early as July 20
the first impulse for a successful project is to dare at all, because it actually opens up opportunities, the second is the team and strategy that you will get.
"Before we met Greencubator, we generally had modest plans, we did not expect that we would be able to move so quickly," recalls Bohdan Baiovsky from MONDIAL SOLUTIONS. - When we received the Vouchers grant, developed this module, at that moment we were very much on the rise, it seemed that we could conquer the whole world at once. At that time, many new clients, well-known companies, came to us. We started moving very quickly, and already at that time we started studying foreign markets."
You need to look globally at your project, how to implement it in other markets, look for potential partners, or think about the way to the buyer of your product. According to Serhiy Sereda, such a tool as the Climate Voucher helps to go through this path.
"You have equipment, good indicators, videos, but until you have certification, the market won't talk to you, because you have to do your homework," Serhii Sereda from "DOMINION" says. - In our case, we have to produce various samples of pipes, give them to a certified agency for testing, after which another agency will confirm compliance with European standards. It is not at all fast and not cheap. Therefore, in our case, the Voucher was very useful and timely. He opened up an opportunity to work with the market."
"Ukraine can become an important regional hub for implementing projects both in Ukraine and on a global scale," concluded the moderator of the discussion, Roman Zinchenko, co-founder of Greencubator. - Let's move on, build a business for the green reconstruction of Ukraine and access to global markets."
We remind you that the new wave of the "Climate Innovation Vouchers" competition has already started July 20, 2023 year More information about grants and winners of previous stages can be found at site climate.biz . Registration for the opening of the third wave via the link /https://climate.biz/znup/
