Last month PrivatBank, a major Ukrainian bank, launched a business incubator allowing entrepreneurs from all fields, including high tech, to jump start their business from scratch.
The incubator will operate as part of ‘Country of entrepreneurs,’ the bank’s national program for enterprise development and job creation. This program aims to create no less than one million jobs within two years.
The business incubator will allow 20 pre-selected projects to benefit from mentoring and expertise in such areas as management, sales system, accountancy and legal aspects.
In addition, they will enjoy access to online courses which PrivatBank has designed jointly with Ukrainian online education platform Prometheus.
Moreover, the most promising projects will receive financial and administrative support from PrivatBank.
“We are seeking not only to educate and lend moral support to entrepreneurs, but also to help them build a ready-to-operate business, be it manufacturing, services or trade,” comments Alexander Nikolenko, head of Small and Medium Business Department at PrivatBank.
As of September 21, the program attracted as many as 40 applications from various fields — from IT to garlic production, reported Ukrainian high tech blog AIN.UA.
The application deadline is October 15. Finalists will be announced on October 21.
As part of the ‘Country of entrepreneurs’ program, the bank has recently launched a logistics service for small businesses. The offer will allow them to use a wide network of PrivatBank’s 1,460 automated parcel terminals located in Ukraine.
Earlier this year, PrivatBank launched an advanced P2P and P2B lending service, allowing individuals and businesses to borrow money from each other directly.
Source: PrivatBank (1, 2), AIN.UA.
