Prominent Ukrainian entrepreneur Alexander Olshansky and partners have opened a business incubator in Ukraine called Voenkubator, which can be translated as “Armincubator.” The project is planned exclusively to develop startups that show promise for the military and intelligence fields, Ukrainian tech blog AIN.UA reports.
Voenkubator targets startups that develop information processing and retrieval, image processing, monitoring of public places and work with large sets of data. In addition, hardware startups will be chosen to develop drones, simulators and terrain observation systems.
The partners plan to take on three or four Ukrainian teams for incubation in the near future. Contacting Alexander Olshanskiy via his personal Facebook page is sufficient to apply.
Startups will receive investments between $50,000 to $500,000, and in return the incubator will take a share in the project that will depend on the size of the investment.
To help the startups, the incubator will engage a wide range of experts with experience with military structures and military technology. “Most of our experts will be people who received their knowledge in the ‘80s,” Olshanskiy told AIN.UA.
The priority for the project, according to Olshanskiy, will be to raise the country’s military potential. But making money on the projects will also be possible. For example, the technology could be sold abroad.
The volume of money available to the incubator will be several million dollars. Olshanskiy did not disclose the source of the funds.
Olshanskiy’s partners will be Alexander Osipov, cofounder of the security system developer FF, and Yevgeny Belousov, who will head the project.
Osipov, Olshanskiy and Belousov announced their project at a press conference on Monday
Last month, Olshansky made the decision to run in the early parliamentary elections in Kiev. They will take place this Sunday, October 26.
In spite of the political tumult, the Ukrainian high tech scene has seen a range of new initiatives this year – most of them with no link with military matters. Along with brand-new industry associations, such as business angel network UAngel and the Ukraine Venture Capital Association (UVCA), a new generation of internationally-oriented startups and venture funds is emerging.
