Ukrainian PE & VC Summit 2025: Ukraine Investment Framework Panel Highlights

Today, we are breaking down the second Ukrainian PE & VC Summit, providing the essentials of the past panels. Chronological order applies, hence meet the Ukraine Investment Framework as Part of the Ukraine Facility Reconstruction Programme, featuring Andriy Kolodyuk and Charles de Crombrugghe from the European Commission.

The EU wants to alleviate the burden of the Russian invasion, while also bringing Ukraine to European standards. To do so, the Ukraine Facility Reconstruction Programme was initiated, consisting of several pillars.

Pillar number two is where we will focus. Also known as Ukraine’s Investment Framework, it’s all about the private sector. Firstly, Charles wanted to make it clear about the size because of misleading headlines in the press. The framework comes with €9.3 bn, which consists of €7.8 bn as guarantees plus €1.5 bn of blended resources.

The often-mentioned €50 bn sum is a result of combining all the other pillars, including macroeconomic financing, in addition to future capital mobilising efforts that do not affect the framework.

The European Commission's endeavours to enchant Ukrainian capital markets are ongoing, but it’s a tough job. The thing is, they are massively underdeveloped, being ten times smaller than the Polish ones (which are considered a lighthouse compared to the other markets in Europe).

Capital markets are of significance because they bring to the business risk capital, which can pull in other types of financing on itself. Risk capital drives innovations and entrepreneurship. Moreover, there is a consensus that the reconstruction of Ukraine can not be done without the private sector.

Besides, successful private equity funds and cases can fulfil the role of testimonials to investors around the globe. A good example would be one of the biggest recent M&A deals between Xavier Niel and Datagroup-Volia. Charles’ opinion is that the big chunk of the story happened only because of Horizon Capital, as Xavier was looking for a local partner with an excellent reputation and a proven track record.

But let’s not forget that a holistic strategy for private capital in Ukraine includes not only the private sector but the government. Reforms are needed, as well as a functioning market, stock market, and the entire value chain of consultants, lawyers, and auditors who can serve external investors.

The EU has two primary instruments to boost the PE sector. The first one is engineering the programs to de-risk investments to Ukrainian funds. It’s called budgetary guarantees. They help to counterbalance LPs potential losses, who can create a claim if the worst happens.

The second instrument is blended resources: making commitments inside funds throughout the implementing partners with funded resources.

From Charles' own experience working in a private equity fund in Brussels, without an institutional anchor investor like EIF, it was challenging to attract LPs. That’s why we need to push IFIs to engage more in the Ukrainian market.

To do so, Ukrainian funds and other players need to showcase to institutional investors a mature pipeline and deal flow. It’s not enough to simply show the capital demand.

The second Ukrainian PE & VC Summit was organised by UVCA in joint efforts with the Polish Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (PSIK), ICU Ventures, Google for Startups Warsaw and Rymarz Zdort Maruta. Technical partner — DreamX.