In the Ukrainian ecosystem, the biggest problem with access to financing is observed at the Series A — B stages, when companies from the technology sector need to raise $3-5 million.
In the Ukrainian ecosystem, the biggest problem with access to financing is observed at the Series A — B stages, when companies from the technology sector need to raise $3-5 million.
This opinion was expressed by the principal of Horizon Capital, Anna Shuvalova, during an event of the Diia.City United union, a dev.ua correspondent reports.
«It all depends on who needs to attract investment and at what stage. Access to money at different stages is now different… There are indeed certain difficulties at the Series A-B stages, but even in this segment there are positive changes. IFC said that they are ready to invest, the EBRD looks more positively at this segment, the international global alliance Endeavour Ukraine was launched. Through a partnership with the global Endeavour, it has access to their Catalyst fund, which can potentially play a big role in Ukraine. They have just started, so I won’t talk about the results now, but it looks like even in this Series A-B segment, there is more money,» the representative of Horizon Capital noted.
As for the seed stage, according to Shuvalova, there are enough funds for startups, both Ukrainian and international, that are ready to invest in them right now.
At the same time, Horizon Capital usually considers investments starting at $10 million.
«At the stage where we invest, our minimum check is $10 million. We invest from $10 to $30 million on average, we can do more. Less in very exceptional cases. This is due to the fact that the size of our fund is $350 million, we raised this fund and completed fundraising last year. We simply cannot afford to have too large a portfolio, because we invest certain resources to work with this portfolio,» she explained.
According to Anna Shuvalova, at this stage there are not many companies in the technology sector, and they face completely different risks.
«If there is a significant presence in Ukraine, especially physical assets, then investors are, of course, very concerned about the ability to manage these risks,» said a representative of Horizon Capital.
She expressed hope that activities related to insurance of Ukrainian companies will be intensified in the near future.
As dev.ua previously wrote, Horizon Capital raised $350 million during a full-scale war and invested in Preply and GoIT.
Also last year, Horizon Capital invested in Viseven, a Zhytomyr-based marketing company that provides services to the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries.
