On March 13, the final and the announcement of the winners of the scholarship program took place THINK ON. Ukraine from Lenovo. The winners were the woolen workshop GUSHKA from Ivano-Frankivsk region, Biobalans and StatusCase. The enterprises divided the grant fund in the amount of 1 million hryvnias among themselves.
In 2024, the THINK ON training and grant program. Ukraine focused on supporting micro-entrepreneurship and small business. Representatives of ten businesses took part in the final pitching session, which had seven minutes each to present their business project, substantiate its realism and feasibility of attracting grant funds. Based on the results of the pitches, the expert jury chose three winners among them, distributing the prizes and funding as follows:
- 1st place, GUSHKA — UAH 500;
- 2nd place, Biobalance — UAH 300;
- 3rd place, StatusCase — UAH 200.
About the winners
The GUSHKA brand has been restoring the traditions of sheep farming and weaving for about 6 years, making hand-made carpets, bedspreads, panels, pillows, ottomans and clothes on vintage machines. They plan to use the grant funding to create a wool processing center, overcome technical limitations in production volumes, and increase exports. The second place this year went to the company Biobalans, which protects agricultural crops from pests by biological methods, using UAVs to spread biological substances. The team will use the funds received for the purchase of drones that are not affected by EW systems and will not stop working under any conditions. The owner of the company StatusCase, which took 3rd place this year, thanks to 200 thousand hryvnias, plans to implement a new, specially developed technology for the production of covers, and to double the volume of sales.
"It was a very powerful project, one of the strongest of its kind. Not only in the financial sense, but also in terms of high-quality training, involvement of mentors, networking, - shared Natalya Stavnycha, CEO of GUSHKA. — There are 10 finalists, and we have already had time to discuss collaboration ideas with three of them."
Composition of the THINK ON jury. Ukraine
The jury included entrepreneurship and investment experts:
- Taras Jamalov, CEO of Lenovo in Ukraine and chairman of the jury;
- Andriy Fedoriv, marketer, entrepreneur, investor, founder of marketing agency Fedoriv Agency. GP and CEO of Vesna Capital Investment Fund;
- Lidia Pashchuk, head of the School of Small and Medium Enterprises, specialist in business reorganization and business consultant on bringing products to the market;
- Maksym Zaika, operations director of Marie Fresh Cosmetics, winner of the first THINK ON grant program. Ukraine;
- Yaroslav Yaroslavskyi, multi-entrepreneur and investor, business development advisor and co-founder at PLATMA, mentor at Huge Thing/Google fot Startups, board member of Sikorsy Challange, founder of BF "Swichado".
The jury team evaluated the live performances of the ten finalists, focusing primarily on the sustainability and prospects of the business project and the enterprise in general, innovativeness, thoroughness of the arguments for attracting funds, the ability to present and lead a discussion.
"This year, we aimed to support small and micro-enterprises with resources and expertise," says Taras Jamalov, CEO of Lenovo in Ukraine. — With the change in the business environment, we refined the format of the program and provided even more opportunities for training and professional networking. Therefore, I am sure that thanks to the acquired knowledge and mentoring, the finalists will be able to scale their own enterprises and move from the category of small to medium and large, as the members of the jury have repeatedly wished them."
About the program
To participate in the THINK ON training and grant program. Ukraine in 2023-24, 146 enterprises submitted applications. Lenovo provided even more opportunities: networking, mentoring sessions and professional pitching training, gifts from Forbes Ukraine, Lean Institute Ukraine, Indi Vision program partners, as well as an in-depth training course on developing and scaling your own business. The course was available to everyone regardless of participation in the program, about 1 entrepreneurs from all over Ukraine joined it.
THINK ON training and grant program. Ukraine was launched at the end of 2022 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the ThinkPad laptop brand, and for the second year in a row it supports the development of innovation in small businesses. Last year, the jury had to choose one winner, and it was Bionerica, a berry and mushroom harvesting and processing company. The winner directed a grant in the amount of 1 million hryvnias to expand production capacity.
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About Lenovo:
Lenovo is a global technology company with revenues of $62 billion, ranked 217th in the Fortune Global 500, with 77 employees worldwide and serving millions of users in 000 markets every day. Focused on a bold vision of enabling Smart Technology for Everyone, Lenovo has become a leading global player in the PC market, continuing to expand into growth areas that drive the development of "new IT" technologies (client, edge, cloud, network and intelligence), including servers, data storage systems, mobile devices, software, solutions and services. This transformation, together with Lenovo's world-changing innovations, is creating a more inclusive, trusted and sustainable digital society for everyone. Lenovo is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as Lenovo Group Limited (HKSE: 180) (ADR: LNVGY). For more up-to-date information, visit the site https://lenovo.ua and check out the latest news on StoryHub.
