EBRD: building stronger startup accelerators in Ukraine
Client
EBRDThe background
Ukraine’s startup ecosystem continues to develop despite the challenges of the full-scale war. Yet the quality of support available to startups depends not only on founders and access to finance, but also on the organisations that help entrepreneurs grow: accelerators, industry associations, innovation hubs and other ecosystem players.
Empowering Accelerators in Ukraine was designed to strengthen these organisations. Delivered by Civitta for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development under the Star Venture Programme, the initiative aimed to help Ukrainian ecosystem organisations design, launch, manage and improve sector-focused acceleration programmes for startups and innovative SMEs.
Civitta developed a tailored capacity-building programme combining training, international expertise, hands-on work on participants’ own accelerator concepts, peer learning and individual mentoring. Rather than offering a series of general lectures, the methodology was built around a practical outcome: helping each team develop a structured accelerator model and a concrete implementation plan.
The Star Venture Programme in Ukraine is funded by Switzerland through the EBRD Small Business Impact Fund (Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the TaiwanBusiness – EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America)
Attracting and selecting participants
The first challenge was to identify organisations that not only met the eligibility criteria, but also had the motivation and capacity to create a new acceleration programme or strengthen an existing one.
The recruitment campaign therefore combined two approaches. A broad public campaign promoted the open call across Ukraine’s startup ecosystem through Civitta’s own channels, partner organisations, opportunity platforms including Diia.Business, Hromadskyi Prostir and House of Europe, and specialised media such as AIN.UA and TechUkraine. Overall, the announcement was promoted through more than 30 communication channels.
At the same time, Civitta conducted targeted scouting, proactively identifying relevant organisations and inviting them to apply. The team’s in-depth knowledge of Ukraine’s startup ecosystem made it possible to go beyond organisations that encountered the public open call and identify potential participants across the market.
The campaign and direct outreach reached 38 organisations, while the programme’s communication materials generated 109,760 views. The open call received 25 applications, 19 of which met the eligibility criteria and progressed to detailed evaluation.
Eligible applications were assessed across five areas: motivation and relevance, clarity of the accelerator concept, feasibility and impact potential, capacity to deliver, and commitment to participate. Three Civitta team members independently evaluated each application using a predefined scoring methodology.
Based on the evaluation, interviews and consultations with the EBRD, five organisations were selected: Volia Innovation Kitchen, Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU), Greencubator, Kharkiv IT Cluster and the Ukrainian Association of FinTech and Innovation Companies (UAFIC).
The selected organisations represented agrifood, university entrepreneurship, climate technology, IT and fintech, with different levels of previous experience in startup support and acceleration. Greencubator later withdrew due to internal organisational reasons, while the remaining four organisations completed the capacity-building activities, Strategic Bootcamp and individual coaching sessions.
Needs assessment: building the programme around participants’ real needs
Before the training began, Civitta conducted a comprehensive needs assessment for each selected organisation. Rather than applying the same standard programme to everyone, the team first analysed each participant’s level of maturity, existing capabilities and development priorities.
The assessment combined application data, a structured prioritisation exercise, one-to-one semi-structured interviews and a review of organisational materials. It covered areas including team capacity, previous startup support experience, accelerator concepts, target startup segments, scouting and selection, mentor and partner networks, funding and sustainability, operational capacity, governance and impact measurement.
Despite differences in experience and sector focus, several common challenges emerged. These included defining a clear value proposition and target startup profile, building stronger startup pipelines and selection processes, structuring engagement with mentors and partners, developing sustainable funding models, improving impact measurement and translating strategic ideas into practical implementation roadmaps.
Based on these findings, Civitta prepared a Needs Assessment Report and five Individual Action Plans. These became the foundation for the workshop curriculum, selection of experts, mentor matching and individual support throughout the programme.
The learning programme: from accelerator positioning to impact measurement
The learning programme was organised around five thematic modules, following the logic of building an accelerator from the ground up.
Teams first explored where their programme should sit within the ecosystem, who it should serve and what needs it should address. They then moved on to programme architecture and value proposition, followed by startup scouting and selection, engagement with mentors, investors and corporate partners, and finally community building, sustainability and impact measurement.
This sequence helped participants move systematically from defining why an accelerator should exist to understanding how to operate it effectively and measure its long-term results.
Between March and June 2026, Civitta delivered eight online sessions across five thematic areas, totalling 13 hours of expert-led learning. The programme involved 10 local and international experts and practitioners from organisations including gener8tor, Plug and Play Tech Center, Startup Wise Guys, 500 Global Eurasia, THINGS Stockholm, Dealflow.EU/Ventures.eu, Basedcollective and Enablers School.
International expertise was carefully adapted to the Ukrainian context. Before each session, Civitta briefed speakers on the participating organisations, findings from the needs assessment and the specific challenges they were working to address. This helped translate international accelerator practices into practical guidance relevant to operating in Ukraine, including wartime constraints on investor engagement, reliance on donor funding and limited founder pipelines in some priority sectors.
Accelerator Blueprint: turning learning into an accelerator model
The Accelerator Blueprint was the central practical tool connecting the different stages of the programme.
After workshops and mentoring sessions, teams used new knowledge, tools and expert feedback to progressively develop their own accelerator concepts. The Blueprint covered the programme value proposition, target startups, programme structure, scouting and selection methodology, mentor and partner engagement, sustainability, implementation roadmap and key success metrics.
By the end of the programme, each organisation had developed a practical framework to guide the launch or further development of its accelerator.
The workshops were complemented by two mastermind sessions and three facilitated reflection sessions. The latter were introduced in response to participant feedback, providing dedicated time to discuss workshop content, compare experiences and explore how new tools could be applied in practice. Civitta also provided continuous follow-up support and tracked progress through practical assignments between sessions.
Strategic Bootcamp: turning concepts into implementation plans
Following the online phase, the teams joined a two-day in-person Strategic Bootcamp designed to consolidate their learning and move from accelerator concepts towards implementation.
The Bootcamp combined expert-led workshops, practical working sessions, a mastermind session, structured peer feedback and a community networking event. Teams refined and presented their Accelerator Blueprints, validated key programme design decisions with peers and experts, and built connections with other accelerator organisations and ecosystem stakeholders.
Peer learning was particularly valuable. Although participants represented different sectors, they faced many of the same challenges around startup pipelines, mentor engagement, sustainability and impact measurement. Working together allowed teams to compare approaches and explore solutions beyond their own organisational context.
The Bootcamp also included the Community Event: Effective Partnerships, which brought together around 30 representatives of participating organisations, Civitta, EBRD and the wider startup ecosystem. The event featured a panel discussion with representatives of the Ukrainian Startup Fund, YEP, SET University and Startup Kitchen, focused on practical approaches to building effective partnerships within the startup ecosystem.
The discussion was followed by an informal networking session, giving participants an opportunity to exchange ideas and explore potential collaboration.
Individual mentoring support
Group learning was complemented by tailored one-to-one coaching and mentoring. Each organisation could receive up to three sessions of approximately one hour with Civitta and selected international mentors.
Mentor matching was based on the Individual Action Plans and specific organisational needs. Depending on the team, sessions addressed programme design, fundraising, mentor management, startup scouting, impact measurement and other strategic or operational challenges.
This combination of shared learning and individual support helped teams refine their Accelerator Blueprints and implementation roadmaps while finding practical solutions to organisation-specific challenges.
Programme results
Four organisations completed the full programme cycle, moving from an initial assessment of their needs to structured accelerator concepts and implementation plans.
Throughout the programme, they refined their positioning and target startup profiles, strengthened programme architecture and value propositions, developed startup scouting and selection approaches, structured engagement with mentors, investors and corporate partners, explored sustainability and funding models, and defined success metrics and approaches to impact measurement.
The programme therefore went beyond transferring knowledge: it helped participating organisations turn that knowledge into practical frameworks for launching or improving their own accelerators.
Testimonials
Final feedback confirmed the practical value of this approach. Participants particularly highlighted the quality and diversity of international experts, mentoring, the Strategic Bootcamp, the progressive learning journey and the opportunity to build new professional connections. In some cases, those connections had already developed into concrete partnerships and joint applications.
Twelve representatives of the four organisations that completed the programme responded to the final survey. The overall programme rating was 97%, with 11 out of 12 respondents giving the maximum score. The Strategic Bootcamp received 98%, while mentoring, networking and work on accelerator concepts each received 95%.
At the time of the survey, all four organisations were continuing to develop their acceleration programmes. Nine out of 12 respondents were directly involved in programme design, and the majority planned to launch within six months.
“Before joining the programme, we had mainly focused on incubation initiatives and had only observed how accelerator programmes work. Empowering Accelerators in Ukraine gave us the knowledge and confidence to design our own accelerator. After each workshop and mentoring session, we refined our concept, and now we’re excited to launch it and introduce the new opportunities that Kharkiv IT Cluster will offer the community.”
Anastasiia Tarabanova
“This programme laid the foundation for our future accelerator. To be honest, before the programme started, I thought I had a solid understanding of how accelerators work. But once we began working with the methodology, blueprint, and more, I quickly realised how many important aspects I had overlooked. The programme gave us practical knowledge and a clear roadmap for where to start and how to move forward.”
Anton Khodysko
