Developing Ukrainian-founded businesses in Estonia

Estonian Refugee Council in collaboration with Baltic Innovation Agency invites war refugees from Ukraine with prior entrepreneurship experience to participate in “Boost” business development programme with the aim of further developing your business or helping you restart your business here in Estonia. The programme provides the participants with training and knowledge on business development and on ways to raise the competitiveness of the businesses. The programme will take place in two locations, Tartu and Jõhvi, and entails study- and cultural visits in addition to the training workshops.

A total of up to 30 Ukrainian founded small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or individuals with prior entrepreneurial experience will be selected to the programme. At the end of the programme, 3 teams selected by an expert jury will be awarded with a grant in the amount of 1000 euros.

Online information session	22 August 2023, 18:00 - 19:30
Deadline for applications	4 September 2023, 12:00
Announcement of participants	8 September 2023
Programme kick-off event (in Tartu)	16 September 2023
Bi-weekly trainings	16 September - 10 December 2023
Four study visits	October and November 2023
Cultural events	October and December 2023
Demo Day	First half of December 2023

Who can take part?

The programme is open to all war refugees from Ukraine living in Estonia, who have founded a small or medium-sized enterprise in Estonia or have prior entrepreneurial experience. You can either apply as an individual or as a team. The training sessions will be carried out in Russian language.

How does it work?

The business development programme lasts for 4 months (14 weeks) and consists of bi-weekly physical training sessions. Each training session is a 1-day workshop that includes presentations on the selected topics from experienced trainers, 1-on-1 mentoring and time for individual and peer learning sessions. The programme will have a total of 8 sessions. The initial indicative topical focus of the sessions is (subject to change):

Kick-off
Management and strategic thinking
Social impact and social business models
Branding and marketing
Digitalisation and IT tools
Access to finance
Pitching training and presentation skills
Demo day

Two business development programmes will be held simultaneously, one in Tartu and the other in Jõhvi. The kick-off and demo days will be held jointly while other workshops will be held in their main locations. The programme is supported by study visits and cultural events.

To learn more about the programme, please register for the online information session held on 22nd of August.

During the programme, you will have the opportunity to acquire new skills and knowledge about the ways to implement and further develop your enterprise in Estonia and therefore increase your resilience, competitiveness and growth potential. The knowledge that you will receive will be a long-term asset that is helpful to making further steps on your entrepreneurship path as well as life in Estonia.

Once your application to the programme has been approved, you will receive all necessary guidelines. A kick-off event for the programme will take place on 16th of September and the programme will be concluded with a demo day in December.

How to apply

If you're interested in applying to take part in this programme, please submit your application through this platform by 4 September. Please note that you will need to create a user account.

Applications are evaluated on the basis of their business potential as well as social and economic vulnerability, by a jury of entrepreneurship and labor market experts.

If you have any questions, please contact maria@bia.ee

The Developing Ukrainian-founded businesses in Estonia is part of the Estonian EU external border programme 2014-2020 and co-financed by the European Union in the amount of € 103 899,87.