New grant program from USAID “Investments for Business Sustainability”

In 2024, grant programs in Ukraine will not lose their popularity, because every entrepreneur who just wants to start his own business always needs additional funds to implement all his ideas and plans.

However, in practice, citizens of Ukraine quite often wonder what grants exist today and how to become a participant in them.

Therefore, in this article, we will talk about one of the USAID grant programs "Investments for Business Sustainability", which was previously called "Financial Sector Reform".

What is the purpose of the grant program?

The main goal of the USAID "Investments for Business Sustainability" grant is to support systemic changes in the economy of Ukraine and increase financing offers for Ukrainian businesses, by transforming the country's financial sector into a developed market that meets EU standards and is integrated into international financial systems.

As part of the project, it is planned to create at least 20,000 new full-time jobs and increase exports and sales volumes of Ukrainian enterprises by $250 million over the next three years.       

Who can become a participant in the program?

 The project from USAID "Investments for Business Sustainability" intends to provide future grants to Ukrainian medium and large enterprises, which are commercial structures, with an annual turnover of 8 million US dollars and more.

Contest participants must meet the following criteria:

• be active private enterprises that are currently legally operating in Ukraine and sell goods to domestic or foreign retail consumers or companies.
• have sufficient management capacity, assets, and equity to manage co-investment grants of between $250,000 and $2 million.
• to be able within 12-24 months to realistically increase the volume of sales in the amount of five times the amount of the joint investment grant, and to achieve sales growth for a total amount of at least 2 million US dollars.
• to be able to increase the employment of Ukrainian citizens in Ukraine.
• be able to secure a minimum one-to-one contribution or more, either in cash from the company, third-party funding, clearly verifiable in-kind contributions, or a combination of all these types of contributions.

How will the process of selecting potential candidates for participation in the grant program be carried out?

• Stage No. 1 - evaluation of submitted concepts according to the following criteria:
• Demonstrated ability and willingness to achieve proposed sales, export, and job targets.
• Proven market and business model to achieve the proposed results.
• Achieved multiplier (multiple increase) of sales and export volumes compared to the amount of the grant.
• Growth in the number of jobs.
• Co-investment grant cost-sharing exceeds the required 1:1 ratio.
• Catalytic impact, i.e. sustainability and the possibility of scaling the economic impact on the company, sector, and employment;
• Stage #2 -participants who present the best concepts for the use of grant funds given achieving the goals of the program will be invited to submit grant applications.

Importantly! As part of the grant program, grants in the amount of 250,000 to 2 million US dollars are expected. The maximum size of the joint investment grant program is up to 15 million US dollars.

What is the deadline for submitting concepts?

Until 22:00 Kyiv time sometime on February 29, 2024, by sending them to IBR_Grants@dai.com.

If you have any questions regarding the USAID grant program "Investments for Business Sustainability", please contact the "Prikhodko and Partners" law office.

Our team is always ready to provide clients with all the answers to questions that will arise during future cooperation because we perfectly understand the problems of obtaining grant programs in Ukraine. Get in touch!