How much Ukrainian startups are asking for, by sector and stage
Funding asks are the one number every founder on our catalogue states and every investor reads first. The distribution behind them is less obvious than it looks.
Maksym Burmistenko
Founder, Oniks Capital
Catalogue data as of
Start with the median, not the average
$175,000
median funding ask
Mean: $333,413, across the 63 of 66 companies that state an ask.
The gap between those two numbers is the whole story of this dataset. A handful of large asks — one above three million — drag the mean to roughly twice the median. Quote the mean at a partner meeting and you will describe a market that does not exist.
The median is $175,000. For most European funds that is below the minimum cheque size, which is the structural reason this end of the market goes unserved rather than anything to do with the companies in it.
By stage
| Stage | Companies | Median ask |
|---|---|---|
| Idea | 8 | $25,000 |
| Pre-seed | 48 | $175,000 |
| Seed | 6 | $375,000 |
| Growth | 4 | $337,500 |
Idea to pre-seed is a 7× step. Pre-seed to seed is roughly 2×. And then growth-stage companies ask for slightly less than seed-stage ones, which is not a progression — it is four companies, and four companies do not make a trend. We are showing it rather than hiding it because dropping the row would tidy the table into something more persuasive than the data supports.
By sector
Restricted to sectors with four or more companies, for the same reason.
| Sector | Companies | Median ask |
|---|---|---|
| Fintech | 4 | $500,000 |
| HR tech | 4 | $275,000 |
| AI/ML | 9 | $175,000 |
| SaaS | 5 | $175,000 |
| Media | 4 | $125,000 |
| Marketing tech | 6 | $100,000 |
| EdTech | 7 | $75,000 |
| Other / unclassified | 10 | $75,000 |
Fintech to edtech is a 6.7× spread. Part of that is real: payment rails, licensing and compliance cost money before the first customer, and an edtech company can be built by two people and a Notion page.
Part of it is anchoring. Founders read what companies in their sector raise in the US and price accordingly, without adjusting for a market where the operating cost of a full team is a fraction of the same team in Berlin. When an ask looks 3× what the plan needs, that is usually what happened, and it is worth asking about directly rather than treating it as a red flag.
Three questions to ask about an ask
- 1What milestone does this buy? A number without a milestone attached is a wish. The good answer is specific and falsifiable — "18 months of runway to 500 paying customers" — and it tells you what the next round would be priced off.
- 2What is the real monthly burn? Ukrainian operating costs are genuinely lower and founders often under-explain this, leaving an investor to assume the plan is thin when it is simply cheaper.
- 3What happens at half? If the honest answer is "nothing works", the plan has no staging in it. If it is "we skip the second market and still hit the milestone", you are talking to someone who has thought about it.
None of these need a data room. They need one call, and they will tell you more than the ask itself.
What these figures are not
Every number here is an ask, not a raise. We do not publish closed rounds we cannot verify, and at this end of the market most rounds are never announced anywhere — so we have no basis for a completion rate and will not estimate one.
Treat this as a guide to what founders on our catalogue are asking for in 2026. It is not a valuation benchmark and should not be used as one.
Common questions
- How much funding do Ukrainian startups ask for?
- The median ask on our catalogue is $175,000 and the mean is $333,413, across 63 companies stating an ask as of August 2026. Pre-seed companies ask a median of $175,000, seed-stage companies $375,000.
- Which Ukrainian startup sectors ask for the most?
- Among sectors with four or more companies, fintech posts the highest median ask at $500,000, followed by HR tech at $275,000. EdTech is lowest at $75,000 — a 6.7× spread between top and bottom.
- Can foreign investors invest in Ukrainian startups?
- Yes. Many Ukrainian startups are incorporated or hold a parent entity in Delaware, Estonia or Poland specifically to make foreign investment straightforward. Ten of the 66 companies on our catalogue already operate from outside Ukraine.
Maksym Burmistenko
Founder, Oniks Capital
Oniks Capital builds verified company files on early-stage Ukrainian startups — registry filings, direct contact with founders, and analysts who work the market in Ukrainian. We publish what is verified and mark what is not.
Looking for Ukrainian companies?
The catalogue holds the company files behind this analysis — sector, stage, location and funding ask, with the verified parts marked.
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