New co-working space for startups from Ukraine officially opened

ISE Accelerator & Venture Capital Firm had the pleasure and honor to take part in the official ceremony of cutting the ribbon of a new coworking by our friends and partners from Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge. PUSB supports the Ukrainian ecosystem since 2018 and yesterday the team celebrated an opening coworking for Ukrainian startups temporarily relocated to Warsaw.

We are grateful to Łukasz Wawak and Михайло for their energy, efforts, and great contribution to building 🇺🇦 🇵🇱 cooperation 🔥💪

This is possible thanks to: 

Ministerstwo Funduszy i Polityki Regionalnej, Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych / Warsaw Stock Exchange (GPW)Ukrainian Startup FundFundacja Fundusz Współpracy

From official press-release:
 
On September 8, a new co-working space for startups from Ukraine was officially opened at the headquarters of the Co-operation Fund Foundation. As part of the opening, there was a discussion about how Ukrainian startups cope during the war and what help is most important to them now.

Startups from Ukraine, in the face of the war in their own country, are looking for new ways of business development, especially in Poland and the European Union. The Cooperation Fund Foundation and the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy, implementing the Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge project, extended the support conducted since 2018 with a new aid formula. An office space dedicated to Ukrainian SMEs has been opened at the seat of the Warsaw Cooperation Fund Foundation. Co-working offices will not only be a workplace, but also an opportunity to establish beneficial cooperation for Polish and Ukrainian partners and a platform for the exchange of experiences and knowledge between entrepreneurs. 

“With the beginning of the full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine, we began to consider how to preserve the achievements of the recent years of Polish-Ukrainian cooperation in the field of innovation. We asked Ukrainian technology companies what actions on our part will help to survive the invasion. The answer was to enable business development in Poland and establish cooperation with Polish technology recipients and investors. This is how the idea of ​​opening a coworking space was born, which we hope will contribute to establishing business partnerships beneficial for Poland and Ukraine, ” says Łukasz Wawak , project manager of the Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge.

“Development aid support is targeted at countries whose development is in the donor's long-term interest. Russian aggression made us clearly, both to Poles and Ukrainians, that we not only have common aspirations and values ​​(European, pro-Western), but also common strategic interests. Poles and Ukrainians are the sons and daughters of the area known as the "Baltic-Black Sea Bridge", so we are children of a geographical area that connects two seas like a bridge and - if it is well connected - provides access to world markets for products of traditional branches of the economy. PUSB's ambition is to play a similar role in the area of ​​innovative, digital economy, namely - combining the potential of Ukrainian innovators (engineers, programmers) - with the Polish investment community and financial experts. Intentionally it is supposed to allow young Ukrainian companies to reach global markets. I am convinced that the office space that we are opening today together with the advisory support we provide as part of the project will be of great benefit to achieving this goal. " -Tomasz Jegier, President of the Management Board of the Spółrpacy Fund Foundation

The PUSB project has been operating since 2018. During this time, the project team met with many talented teams from Ukraine who, by developing new technologies, have great potential for the global community of innovators.

“During the 4 years of the program, 200 startups received substantive support from the project. I think this is a good result. Therefore, I hope that we will soon be able to resume our work also in Ukraine, ” said Maciej Aulak, director of the Department of Aid Programs at the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy.

The activities of the Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge are largely based on partner relations built simultaneously in Poland and Ukraine. The wide dimension of cooperation, reaching the most interesting technological projects and wide media impact is possible thanks to the participation of partners - the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the Ukrainian Startup Fund and a number of partners from public institutions and private companies.

“The Ukrainian and Polish ecosystems release more technology graduates each year than there are educated in the entire United States. And this is a key condition for the emergence of powerful production companies in our countries. That is why it is important that projects aimed at cooperation between Polish and Ukrainian entrepreneurs operate actively, even during the war. Thanks to the PUSB project, every startup from Ukraine has access to a community of innovators, can build a network and find friends in the Polish ecosystem. Thank you that the PUSB team prepared resources so that the cooperation between the Ukrainian and Polish ecosystems that had started before the war could bear fruit now " - noted Oleksandr Romanyshyn, partner of ISE Corporate Accelerator, Coordinator of Digitalization Stream at the National Council for the Reconstruction of Ukraine. 

The Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge offer is an excellent opportunity for Ukrainian startups to take advantage of other development programs dedicated to startups from abroad. These activities support the implementation of innovations in the Polish economy and contribute to the emergence of a greater number of technological solutions in the Polish industry. 

The opening of Co-work PUSB was attended by the President of the Cooperation Fund Foundation, Tomasz Jegier, a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ms Magdalena Sidorowicz, and Mychajło Chaletskyj, an expert of the Ukrainian Startup Fund. The beneficiaries of the action were also present - a dozen or so startup teams from Ukraine who are already working at Co-work PUSB or are about to start this job.

About the PUSB Co-bag:

Ukrainian startups that meet the following conditions can use coworking:

1. They are Ukrainian citizens who develop proprietary products and / or services with high technological start-up potential before February 24, 2022.
2. They run a business or are looking for opportunities to expand their business activity on the territory of Poland and the European Union.
3. Their startup is registered under a business / company for no longer than 60 months.
4. He completed the application form at www.startupbridge.eu .
5. It has been positively verified by the Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge team.
6. He signed the contract and the regulations for using the PUSB Co-bag.

Coworking has already been booked by a dozen startup teams, the number of places is limited. Coworking hours are from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. The cost of use is PLN 2 per month. Address: Foundation Cooperation Fund, ul. Górnośląska 4A, 00-444 Warsaw. 

The Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge (PUSB) project has been implemented since 2018 by the Cooperation Fund Foundation in cooperation with the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy under the Polish Aid program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. The aim of the project is to search for business potential among Ukrainian technology projects and connect them with the Polish innovation support ecosystem