Google announced the launch of the second stage of funding of the special Fund for the Support of Startups in Ukraine in the amount of $10 million for the allocation of grants (no need to return, if all the proposed conditions are met within a certain period of time) during 2024.
It is about the initiative to support startups in Ukraine Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund — a special fund appeared in March 2022. Then Google allocated the first 5 million – in total, 58 domestic startups selected in several rounds during 2022-2023 received various funding and support under the grant program. Among the grant recipients of the Google program are the well-known drug search and delivery service Liki24.com, the developer of bionic prostheses Esper Bionics and the developer of the remote heart monitoring service Cardiolyse. The startups, supported by the Ukraine Support Fund, received $15.8 million in follow-on funding, achieved 100% revenue growth and significantly increased the number of jobs, despite the war and economic challenges.
The other day, Google announced the launch of the second stage of funding and doubled the amount of funding to $10 million. As in the first stage, selected Ukrainian startups (to be named gradually over the course of a year) will receive up to $200,000 in equity-free funding
This is when the funds are provided without the obligation to return an additional amount of money above the principal amount of the loan or investment, as well as mentoring support from Google, product support and another $300,000 in Google Cloud credits.
Submission of applications will begin later this year (the exact date is not announced) on the website of the Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund initiative — there is a FAQ section where you can find answers to all the main questions about the initiative.
Since the start of the devastating war in Ukraine, Google has committed more than $45 million in cash and $7 million in in-kind donations to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine and those fleeing the war unleashed by the Russians. Other recent Google initiatives in support of Ukrainians and Ukraine include assistance in protecting against cyberattacks (Project Shield), combating disinformation spread by Russian propaganda, 50,000 Chromebook laptops for Ukrainian teachers, and 50,000 Workspace licenses, thanks to which civil servants get free corporate mail, cloud storage and other Google Workspace services.
And this is all, of course, very cool and Ukrainians are very grateful to Google for their help. At the same time, we are all still waiting the future without Russia a normal Ukrainian-language search and a fixed system of recommendations on YouTube, because how much can you shamelessly impose Russian-language content from Russian-language sources.
The competition of ITS authors is ongoing. Write an article about game development, gaming and gaming devices and win a professional Logitech G923 Racing Wheel or one of the low-profile Logitech G815 LIGHTSYNC RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard!
