Ukrainian startups are attracting growing attention from investors far beyond Central and Eastern Europe. In 2025, Ukrainian tech companies raised $498M in equity and grant funding, according to AVentures Capital’s DealBook of Ukraine. Defense tech emerged as the fastest-growing segment, attracting more than $129M.

For Czech investor Petr Šíma, Managing Partner at DEPO Ventures, that creates both an opportunity and a problem: some of the region’s most interesting technologies are emerging in Ukraine, but US and Western European capital is competing for the same companies.

Now, DEPO Ventures has additional capital to compete. The Czech Republic’s National Development Investments has selected DEPO Ventures One SCSp to manage a new Ukraine Fund designed to back startups from Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia that are looking to develop business activities and partnerships in Czechia.

National Development Investments, a subsidiary of the Czech National Development Bank, is committing €3.8 million to the initiative, with the possibility of increasing its investment to €5.8 million if conditions around private capital and deployed investment are met.

For DEPO Ventures' Petr Šíma, however, the bigger goal is connect technologies being developed in Ukraine with Czechia’s industrial and manufacturing base.

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