9 new "unicorns" and 500 startups per million Ukrainians: how the Ministry of Digital Affairs plans to pump up "Diya.City" by 2030

According to the Concept, Ukraine should turn into a real «startup factory» and one of the largest technology hubs in Europe. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is preparing to approve the Concept of Digital Transformation until 2030, where a separate large block is dedicated to the development of IT business, the special regime «Diya.City» and the attraction of venture capital.

dev.ua carefully studied the document and tells how the state plans to grow new GitLab, Grammarly, or MacPaw.

Unicorn Factory: Key KPIs by 2030

The government has set itself (and the industry) extremely ambitious, mathematically measurable goals. By 2030, the ecosystem should reach the following indicators:

• 9 unicorn companies (startups whose market capitalization exceeds $1 billion).
• 500 startups per 1 million population. Roughly speaking, this means that there should be over 15,000 active technology startups operating in Ukraine.
• 200,000 specialists working under gig contracts or in the staff of resident companies of «Diya.City».
• 450 Ukrainian startups that will attract seed or round-A funding of 100 thousand euros or more.
• 350 startups that will successfully enter international markets.

Whose expense is the banquet: meet «Diya.City Invest»

To grow such a number of startups, hackathons alone are not enough — «smart» money is needed. Therefore, the Concept envisages the launch of a new powerful tool — «Diya.City Invest».

(Recall that we wrote about the creation of «Diya.City Invest» in February of this year).

This will be a mechanism for attracting venture capital (presumably under the «fund of funds» model or through blended financing mechanisms). The state plans to facilitate the creation of up to 10 new venture funds under the «Diya.City» umbrella, which will collectively attract over 200 million euros to the market.

The goal is to give founders access to capital within the country, so that Ukrainian developers do not register companies in Delaware or Cyprus at the very early stages of attracting investment, but remain in Ukrainian jurisdiction. In addition, the Government promises to guarantee the stability and transparency of the legal regime of «Diya.City» so that investors do not fear sudden changes in the tax code.

Ecosystem instead of a «bare» tax break

The document recognizes that «Diya.City» cannot function solely as a quiet haven for IT professionals. Therefore, the concept expands the understanding of space to a full-fledged ecosystem:

1. Integration of players: The Innovation Development Fund (USF), the Diya.Business network, accelerators, incubators, and Diya.City will be synchronized. This should create a seamless path for a startup: from an idea at a hackathon to the first grant, acceleration, raising venture capital, and Diya.City resident status.
2. Hard-tech infrastructure: The state promises to open up access to state laboratories, testing grounds, and prototyping spaces for innovative teams. This is especially critical for startups in defense-tech, robotics, and hardware development, which need not only coworking spaces and laptops, but also machine tools, 3D printers, and testing grounds to develop. By 2030, it is planned to create at least 100 such prototypes based on state laboratories.

Resume

The plan looks like a dream for any techno-optimist. 9 unicorns is a colossal leap for the economy (for comparison, now they can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and most of them are legally American or European companies). Whether this concept will be implemented will depend on two factors: the immutability of the rules of the game in «Diya.City» and the willingness of foreign venture investors to pour hundreds of millions of euros into Ukrainian R&D.