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good morning everyone I think we're going to go ahead and get started um just want to point out again that um at the bottom of your screen you are welcome to use the globe to select the language that is best for you we'll have simultaneous interpretation throughout today's conference so with that let's get started so welcome to the US Department of Commerce and the department of state's virtual conference series to support women entrepreneurs in Ukraine we're glad you are all here my name is Kate ecer and I am the co-founder of the W Marketplace we are an international economic development business with a mission to support women entrepreneurs globally through delivering technical assistance training and Consulting Services we are proud to be partnering with the US Department of Commerce on this important series today's conversation will Center on access to Capital and financial resources in the digital economy before we get started I have a few housekeeping notes all attendees will remain muted throughout today's conference so that we can get smoothly through our full agenda we're recording today's conference so if you do not want to be a part of a recorded event now is your opportunity to sign off and we will send all registered users a copy of today's recording recording please use the chat bottom button at the bottom of the screen to submit questions we'll try and get to all of your questions at the end of the conference with that I would like to welcome everyone again to today's conference we have an excellent and very full agenda the virtual conference titled access to Capital and financial resources for success in the digital economy is the fourth in our series of six virtual conferences to support women entreprene during today's conference we will be hearing from expert speakers and leading voices in capital investments from both government agencies and private sector we will hear from women focused on fostering Economic Development and innovate Innovative programs to support and rebuild Ukraine's economy we will also hear from women entrepreneurs and leaders who will share their experiences and their perspective on the support and resources needed in Ukraine to support growing and maintaining their business in the digital economy our goal for these conferences is to allow the US government the Ukraine government and other stakeholders to hear directly from women about the most pressing challenges and barriers they face today we want to provide policy makers in the United States and Ukraine with a better understanding of the specific Market reforms needed in Ukraine to effectively support women entrepreneurs and position them for Success we are also hoping that the entrepreneurs who are speaking and who are part of the audience are inspired by one another and know that their voices are valued and heard again we are glad that you are here today and hope you will attend our two future conferences today's program will will um excuse me today's program will be divided into three sections first we will begin with three extraordinary keynote speakers then we will move to hear from a panel of entrepreneurs which will include the opportunity for Q&A for those entrepreneurs and finally we will close with two additional outstanding speakers following the panel discussion we will be launching a series of poll questions that we would like each of our attendees to answer we want to hear from you your respones will help shape our recommendations and final report finally as a reminder you can access your preferred language at the global icon located at the bottom of the screen without further delay I would like to introduce our first keynote speaker Lisa CER country manager for the international Finance Corporation IFC Ukraine and mova in this capacity she is responsible for the ifc's work to mobilize investment and support from the private sector in these two countries while overseeing ifc's response to the war in Ukraine and the post-war recovery agenda in the region Miss Kastner has taken this role at a time when the region is deeply affected by War and economic uncertainty despite these challenges the private sector can play a significant role in the recovery of the region and its economic transformation wel welcome Lisa thank you Kate and thank you uh colleagues it's it's a real honor to be here and I'm I'm very interested in the topic so very pleased to be included today um let me introduce first a little bit IFC and why uh this topic is relevant and then a a bit of context I hope that might help set the agenda for today um and a little bit about what IFC is trying to do within this agenda of both gender and uh digital Finance so uh the international Finance Corporation is is part of the World Bank group uh we're the part that's focused on the private sector we're the largest uh development financial institution globally focused on specifically on the private sector so for IFC gender is is one of the key priority areas um not only because we're a Development Bank and and we think it's important socially and and ethically but also uh there's plenty of evidence showing the business case uh for uh involving more women in into business um for IFC the the way we look at um gender finances through a couple different uh mechanisms the first is around financing so like I mentioned we provide a lot of financing to the private sector and through banks and I will give a couple of examples of what we're doing in Ukraine but we try through this financing to to also reach women L businesses but also uh we have uh quite a quite active advisory program so it's not only about providing financing but also capacity um some of that is through projects with um the financial regulator for example I'll give a couple of examples in Ukraine where we're working with the National Bank um with businesses but also through um convening forums and discussions with like the one today so I'm I'm again very very happy to be part of this um for me this topic is interesting this kind thinking about um access to finance for women and the digital angle um because I think through digital platforms whether it's digital platforms to reach markets or digital platforms to access financing uh less less represented groups in the economy including women um Can can perhaps be reached and I I look forward to hearing what um some of the other speakers have to say on that so let me set a little bit of context um globally uh women-owned businesses smaller businesses smmes represent about onethird of of all businesses in Emerging Markets but they have a financing Gap IFC estimates of close to2 trillion us do um in addition women are the majority of the bank of the world's unbanked population uh with about 700 30 million adult women in Emerging Markets without a bank or mobile money account uh in in Europe and Central Asia I think um the the Gap may be less than in some other regions of the world but there's still some statistics suggesting that there's a long way to go so if you look at startups led by women um the figures I have is that of of all startups in Central and Eastern Europe are led by women um the labor force participation um is is low uh across Central and Eastern Europe and the World Bank estimates that the economy of this region so including Ukraine but all of Central and Eastern Europe could actually be 20% higher if women were to participate in the labor market at the same level as men and uh there is still a gender wage Gap um it's 35% in Georgia 7% in Poland and Ukraine is somewhere in the middle between those two at about 18.6% now in Ukraine um there is a positive trend I guess every horrible situation has a silver lining and we've all seen how women in Ukraine are are really stepping up in all kinds of ways um in 2023 there was a significant increase in uh women's participation and Entrepreneurship 56% so more than half of new individual entrepreneurs uh were founded by women but in Ukraine there still is a gap the overall share of women LED businesses is um 31% so about that global average I mentioned before um in Ukraine also access to finance lags behind lags behind that of men so um if if about 81% of women in Ukraine have uh some kind of financial account for men it's 87% so not a huge difference but still um 6 percentage points um and then on the topic of digital access in Ukraine the data that we have is that about 77% of women use the internet compared to 82% of men so again not a huge difference but still um something to think about so what what does IFC do in gender uh so globally last year in our in our previous fiscal year which ended in July we achieved our highest volume of gender inclusive projects ever um so this is really a big priority area for IFC in the Europe region more than a third of the investment projects we financed last year um had a explicit component related to um to gender a couple of examples in the region and then I'll I'll move to Ukraine before finishing up um an interesting one in uh Georgia that we financed last last year which was uh focused on forcibly displaced people from Ukraine living in Georgia was with Georgia crystal which is a large micro Finance institution uh and they started piloting microloans uh to to ukrainians who wanted to start a business or already had a business in Georgia and the focus was on women um with a target of at least 40% of the credit portfolio uh should be to women owned businesses now of course we all know that number should be at least 50% but I guess 40% is higher than what they were getting already so it was a stretch Target one other example is a fund so there's an impact fund called the European fund for Southeast Europe um which is in the Southeast Europe um which has uh 50 $50 million of investment across 15 countries um with a a singular focus on on financing women L businesses so that's just a couple of examp examples of the sorts of things uh that that we've done in the region now moving to Ukraine uh before I wrap up um it was interesting for me to think about this topic of how how uh access to finance uh particularly for smmes comes together with the sort of digital agenda because actually in IFC we have different teams working on some of these topics so some are focused on access to finance others on digital and digital infrastructure um but as country manager I'm I'm the one who gets to connect the dots which is always interesting so I I think actually the the topic is um it's very interesting to think about them together because one of the ways to reach groups that are not reaching something as I mentioned at the beginning is of course through a digital platform um and in Ukraine we are working in both directions um and doing a little bit of work to actually put the digital and the finance together so on on finance just just to give an example um actually a couple weeks ago when I was in um Kiev we announced another um risk sharing facility where we're working with local banks who um want to provide more financing to smmes but they're constrained in how they manage their risk so we share that that risk with them and the one we announced a couple weeks ago was with rifi in Ukraine um and it has a particular focus on on smmes we've uh previous viously have done a couple with uh OTP Bank OTP leasing and credit agrial for a total of $500 million in financing available to Ukrainian smmes um I was digging for data on how much of that is going to women and it's it's a good outcome of this event is I will keep digging because I was I did not find enough datas and it's not that the numbers were low but I don't know that the banks are tracking it so I think this is um a lesson learned is you know what gets what gets measured gets done um so we need to push our uh partner Banks to to look more at how much of that is is reaching women L businesses on the digital side we announced a couple weeks ago um together with ebrd with whom we provide quite a bit of co- financing in Ukraine um a large Telecom transaction which is supporting the merger and capital Investments of uh data group and Life Cell and the objective behind that financing is to ensure that even through the full-scale Invasion the mobile and telephone services in Ukraine continue to develop and grow um and speed up um so we're supporting also the the digital side um the one program we have where we bring these two two lines together the digital and the finances work that we're doing uh together with our world Bank colleagues with the National Bank of Ukraine which is regulatory work around how Ukraine can develop uh a more uh cashless economy so on that we're working on regulatory issues around digital payments and open banking um regulations around digital Financial Services um and how to leverage more Cloud Technologies which I think is is particularly relevant in a situation where in some regions of Ukraine it's it's difficult to um to get to a bank or or to be able to to move around so My Hope Is that uh by connecting some of these dots between um access to finance for women and access to digital infrastructure and removing regulatory barriers that that we can contribute to some of the objectives that I think are implicit in our discussion today about how how uh women can can better access Finance through through digital Platforms in Ukraine so I'm really looking forward to hearing um the other speakers and and to learning uh particularly from the panel of entrepreneurs which looks very interesting and and to hear some of the challenges and opportunities that those entrepreneurs see on the ground so thank you very much I'll stop there Lisa thank you so very much you said some really critical things that I think that we will definitely follow up with and and make sure that we get some visibility not the least of which is the focus on digital payments and the connecting of financing with the digital economy we you know I am a first firm believer that the digital economy is a GameChanger for women and it's a a sort of once in a-lifetime GameChanger because we are seeing the connection and the access to business to customers to financing to knowledge to everything through the digital economy and so we really appreciate the work that IFC is doing and and the focus you have as you said what's measured gets done and so bringing those things together and the more we can raise visibility to that all the better so thank you so much and we will continue this conversation so all right now let's move to our next um keynote speaker we are and and I love this because Lisa referenced this we are very honored to have Barbara Ram ramsus here as the global director of gender and inclusion for the European Bank of reconstruction and development so ebrd she has a establish the bank's approach to integrating equality of opportunity and human capital considerations into private sector investment and policy engagement her focus is on creating Equitable access to employment skills entrepreneurship and finance as well as key infrastructure Services reflecting the specific needs of women youth aging populations and migrants and others Barbara has 25 years of leadership experience in design and delivery of multi sectoral Economic Development programs and strategies in Central Europe Eastern Europe North Africa Asia and United Kingdom so welcome Barbara thank you very much Kate I'm absolutely delighted to be here and uh to join this event so thank you very much for for inviting me um we've already heard uh quite a lot about um sort of global statistics about entrepreneurship and how important it is as as engine for the economy the same of course also applies to Ukraine in fact if you look at micro and medium-sized Enterprises they are very much the backbone of Ukraine's economy um in fact they comprise I think it's 99.9% of business entities they provide about 75% of all jobs and they create 64 65% of the value added so so this is really this is the economy that keeps Ukraine going now um and that will also ultimately uh redevelop re um construct rebuild this country when when the war ends women in this context play a huge role um we have seen some figures from 2023 where 50% of newly registered private Enterprises were actually set up by women and in 2024 this number so far has already gone up to about 59% so so women are driving this economy particularly when it comes to to setting up new Enterprises many of those women are actually draw on their own personal savings uh to launch dis ventur so we can already clearly see that there's a huge need uh to provide more support and and to get them the skills the tools the finance in order to do this at at a much bigger scale so let's look a little bit at who are these women entrepreneurs in Ukraine most of them 88% um actually have an at least an undergrad degree so they are Highly Educated most of them 90% live in in the big cities um and most of them and I think that's actually a very good statistic most of them set up their businesses because they see an opportunity um so it's about 74% um that that really want to to um realize their entrepreneurship um ideal their entrepreneurship ideas um where else the other about 23% actually do that because of necessity quite a few because they have to take over a business from a partner who has left because they're drawn drafted into the war or have left the country um and many and and and the others because they don't see any other economic opportunities and it's also important to keep a focus on those so we have the in a way the opportunity ones and then we have the necessity ones um if we look at the challenges that women entrepreneurs face uh in Ukraine today it is very much about attaining Finance uh to start up and and then grow their business but it's also about a a lack of of confidence in the banking system and but also low awareness about um special programs um loan programs but also advisory programs and how to access those so and and I think particularly in for for women entrepreneurs in more rural areas there's also a huge uh challenge to actually hire people both the skilled and unskilled people um because there is as as we know a lot of movement of the population a lot of people have left particularly the rural areas have moved to the bigger cities or have left the country altoe so this focus on human capital is actually also very important uh in relation to uh growing up the business so um maybe very briefly um at ebrd we support women entrepreneurs we support smmes uh we invest into the real economy uh in Ukraine in fact we are the largest Institutional Investor in Ukraine we've so far since February 2022 invested over 5 billion euros directly into Ukraine's real economy um and we continue to do that we continue to have this focus in this context we specifically also look at human capital and particularly gender equality so um at at a corporate level for EB we have uh gender equality and promoting gender equality one of our top three strategic priorities so this really very much permeates everything that we do and indeed in Ukraine 80% of our investments have a specific focus on protecting the livelihoods and jobs uh including specifically also for women so how do we do that if you look particularly at the at the sector and access to finance we have uh women in business programs we which we have established now for over 10 years across 24 countries and we've actually invested 1 billion EUR already in over about 50 partner financial institutions in order to enable uh women to access loans and to access Finance these um women in business programs in a way try to to shift the market they tried to not just put more Finance into the market um dedicated to women entrepreneurs but actually change the way that the market works that change the way that the market recognizes women as as a viable and important Market segment um and so this is about building the capacity of our partner financial institutions to recognize women um as a market segment to then build products and services that are tailor made for that particular Market segment as it would be for many other market segments um and to then um actually also add Finance through lift first loss risk covers for example to really make the finance flow into the market that is then complemented uh with also building uh capacity on the part of the smmes for them to actually know to have the right skills to know um how to uh invest how to access Finance how to uh build business plans and and and and a market proposition that is viable so we we in a way look at both the supply and and and and we've actually seen uh tangible um impact of of these kind of activities um maybe not yet in in Ukraine but uh in turke we've seen 23% growth in women L um SM msmes um we've also seen increases in profit we've seen job creation going up and also productivity gains not just for thees themselves but for the entire economy so it it's really important that that it's it's that that shift of the market um and and changing the way that the market operates uh in order to really give women uh a very lasting um access into the market and the stake in in in this in this market and for that um what we do is we have our women in business programs but then we also look at policy reforms so we're working with the women entrepreneurship Finance Initiative for example to actually build capacity of central banks uh to collect sex disaggregated data to better understand where are the bottlenecks if you look at the regulatory system uh for women to set up and grow their businesses and how can those um regulatory barriers be removed for women to do that so in a way that that this focus on on on supporting women entrepreneurs uh including in Ukraine including in in in uh circumstances that are very very challenging where women had to maybe relocate their businesses or where they lost access to their supply chains or access to their markets is something that we have been doing um really from February 2022 onwards so if we look at digitalization digitalization of course plays a huge uh role in this context because it is digital technologies that can actually open up markets that can act open up access to supply chains that can act uh open up access to to much more remote markets that can allow women entrepreneurs for example to operate from all sorts of different parts within Ukraine and actually even from outside of Ukraine so we also have some of our clients who've actually relocated to say Poland or or somewhere else and who are still running their businesses uh in Ukraine producing and and and operating in in Ukraine so so digital Technologies are are a big um driver I think now of of the Ukraine Ukraine's economy um but Al also of course going forward so if we look at Ukraine the ICT sector overall um has actually been flourishing uh already before the war but has taken on a new sort of importance uh within the economy since the start of the war and the government and and and and policy makers clearly have focused on that very strongly there are several National strategies that specifically focus on this this digital transformation um of the economy and supporting not just the smmes but but the entire economy in this context so if we look atmes specifically there's of course then a need to build capacity again on all parts of this ecosystem that I described earlier it's the financial institutions to to use digital Technologies in order to make make finance and and and also the non-financial services that they offer available to smmes women L ummes included um in in a better way then uh capacity building also to the women entrepreneurs themselves for them to better understand how to access how to use those digital Technologies also how to invest in in in applying digital Technologies within their own businesses to acquire the KN how they need to um for for that uh and also the finance which I think is is is essential so bringing together this this focus on in uh opening up Finance um and combining that with building capacity both in relation to recognizing women as an important Market segment but also recognizing the the The Leverage the catalytic eff effect that um um digital Technologies can have in this context is something that we do with with our clients directly partner financial institutions thees and then also the policy makers and going forward uh we will very much continue to do that um as the war situation changes and as hopefully the country moves into more of a recovery effort um why this will be particularly important as well so maybe I leave it at that but I'm also very much looking forward to the conversation and the discussion that is to follow thank you very much thank you so much Barbara so much of what you said is so critical to us both from the work that you and ebrd are doing from a policy side but also on the ground and I think connecting those two things is really one of our key objectives for certainly this discussion and to promote that in terms of you know helping these women to build capacity and build awareness of the tools that are available to them and voice you know how best that they can access them and really make that move in the digital economy because you know we've seen for many years that women L businesses are such an economic engine and we see the return in their communities in their families in health and economics all across the board so appreciate you and the work that ebrd is doing so thank you so much for joining the conversation today so next I want to move to our our next keynote speaker which is an amazing woman that I've had the opportunity to get to know a little bit so Yana Chapola uh director of the veteran Center Ukrainian defense Leadership Center at the national keev m High Academy she established the center in May of 2024 and to date has served more than 70 veterans both men and women they've received specific Educational Services Jana has extensive experience in program management and international cooperations her Focus has always been on education as a pivotal investment of empowering people and ensuring their success and enabling their skills for Independence soana welcome glad to have you here today uh thank you colleagues uh thank you um my fellow speakers uh it's a pleasure and an honor to be here obviously uh on this as I'm joking sunny day because if if you've ever been to Ukraine in this time of the year you can rarely see Sun anywhere so today as well we have our very typical Ukrainian sunny day uh if you don't mind I'll share a presentation and maybe you'll you know be able to uh see something okay uh and something that we got used to saying during qu can you see my screen yes you're great okay thank you so yeah as Kate mentioned and thank you for the introduction uh my name is Yana voo I'm uh here in uh C Ukraine I'm the director of the veterans uh Resource Center at the National University of C Milla Academy and uh we are called Ukrainian Defenders Leadership Center so even though in our name we do not specifically have ident um women as our target audience we are working with veterans who served in the military who are now protecting our country from their uh full scale Russian invasion uh we do work with women and as a university as a um public uh higher education institution we also feel our responsibility uh in part sorry I think that that's not on my side I think that yeah someone unmuted uh so uh yeah about the center uh our Center uh is an educational and the research Hub uh our work is dedicated to fostering a society where V veterans both when men and women have a pathway for their professional growth uh and can take an active role in shaping the uh country's future and just today a couple of hours ago we actually had a round table uh at C Milla academy uh that was devoted to the role of private and state initiatives to engage uh veterans into the Ukraine's economy uh so as um my colleagues previous previously mentioned right now uh women in Ukraine are you know in charge of so much more than and are expected to be engaged in so much more uh that maybe a couple of years ago and I'm a proud feminist I'm not afraid to say that out loud and we are recorded here uh but I do know that you know my colleagues uh feel a lot of um you know responsibility uh when joining the Army uh which is a very specific you know and very special uh role for them but also working in all uh areas of our economy including digital economy uh so we want to inspire uh our veterans to take on leadership roles uh including women um who served in the military to be proactive we do not expect them or we do not demand them to be proactive because they served the country you know they've they've done uh what they uh were kind of expected or not even expected to do but we also see that for the veterans for those and I'm talking not about the uh not about those people who chose military career as a career because we have those those as well but in Ukraine as you know uh a lot of civilians joined the army in 2022 so now we are talking about those civilians who changed their role and became military servicemen and women now are coming back to the civilian life and we want to empower them to you know to to continue take charge uh in their civilian um civilian activities uh I would also add here that a lot of veterans especially women uh and ALS um are interested in starting their own business businesses entrepreneurship is uh something that is oftentimes discussed and uh well in in terms of uh you know Ukrainian infrastructure being uh destroyed and um also uh a lot of infrastructure that was not destroyed also needs an update because we are talking about I mean we we are not ignoring the fact that Ukraine uh has been working towards the updating our infrastructure for a very long time so now we're just like you know we have two jobs to do um and women are demonstrating their uh you know Pro proactive engagement uh in this Society um so this is I hope you can see this slide yeah this is my team you're looking at so we are uh well we are five women uh who are uh working on uh this topic um and I'm proud to to be surrounded by this powerful women uh we uh often have a joke that in Ukraine since we don't have well because of the demographic situation and then the war we don't have enough people so all ukrainians now have to carry on two jobs well these ladies are carrying on Two And even more jobs at once and I'm just proud to share that slide with you uh and trying to bring back our conversation to the digital economy and to the the round table that I've just mentioned and because it's you know um on the top of my head so we had a very productive discussion today with representatives of with uh women and men uh veterans and representatives of small businesses and mid level midscale level businesses uh trying to find to discuss and find weights on how to engage more people uh into the into the business um field how to encourage them to start their own businesses but also how to provide them with career guidance we are like as in in my introduction Kate mentioned that I'm a strong believer in education and I do think that there are a lot of problems that can be solved with education I'm not only talking about higher education I'm talking about vocational education or post-degree or non-degree education I'm talking about the Workforce Development and uh all the stuff that is right now crucial for uh for Ukraine and uh specifically for Ukrainian women who uh for um some of them uh were you know were not able to get the proper education some of them were never expected to to take charge to be Brad winners uh right now they are facing uh a lot of challenges in that area uh we are also talking about women who are you know caretakers who take care of their husbands or of their elderly parents or there are kids or for everybody for that matter because that's how we do things you know we uh we we we we care about people we cannot ignore that part of ourselves and this is just something that is there so uh we at the Veterans Center uh we we do believe that uh to you know to to support uh women's uh engagement uh into business area into the labor market uh including the digital labor market marking um labor market uh educational uh opportunities uh can can help that them a lot and Empower them it also builds a very strong community and there's a couple of uh photos here uh so we have um one of the programs uh that we uh launched is the leadership and resilience uh program for uh vord veterans uh and the goal of the program is to provide support and professional government uh to those who as I mentioned wish to work in the field of public policy for example Community Building other relationhip initiatives uh for the Reconstruction and yes uh and uh I mean well I'm answering my own question uh that was just uh in my head we uh we've been thinking about the ways to you know to to find the best way to adopt this program to offer this program we had conversations about uh offering maybe separate programs Maybe programs for men and for women separate groups but then we realized that the network that is created here uh is one of the one of the most uh I would say crucial um outcomes that that we receive from the program we have proactive men and women who are looking for the ways you know to to find their path and uh we're seeing how the network that they work with uh empowers them to do that uh moving on uh there are several programs for the career guidance and career counseling for war veter war veterans that we uh offer they are also uh gender neutral we offer them for both men and women and we also see how uh you know they it builds uh these strong connections I would say and also understanding for that I would emphasize that uh for those who maybe you know are know a bit more about the Ukrainian military unfortunately we have still prud this towards women who serve in the Army um I would say the pro proactive part of the population understands understood long ago that if you want to serve you know it doesn't matter you're whoever you want this is one one of the most prestigious I would say I would say professions right now but still we do have that and I'm not ignoring that and bringing people together in one room and you know uh ensuring that they can communicate with each other want to work with each other it just uh creates uh creates Miracles uh um just I'll yeah I don't want to uh you know to to give you too much of the information here and I know that my time is limited but I just wanted to uh add two uh two points here we are working with uh on several workshops uh we assist uh the state employment service uh on providing um guiding uh career guidance to Veterans uh who are choosing uh their new career path and here uh as you can see on the picture uh most of the participants are women uh they often times find it difficult to communicate with Veterans for you know mostly men uh unfortunately with the the war and with the power grid and um with the security issues they are not that flexible in their travel as they used to be so I would say that even though we are talking about the digital economy here but I would say that uh a lot of challenges that can be answered in Ukraine right now are through the you know online offering of online activities and engaging people and I'm not saying that meeting offline is not important uh obviously communication you know is everything and I've witnessed for example when people from zapia joined our Workshop in C and they well they were they were extremely excited and they were crying um and and thinking us because apparently uh the last time they were out of their cities of Pia was before co uh because Co and that was five years ago so Co hit and then the fullscale war started and zapia oblas 70% of zapia oist is occupied so they they are not able to travel that much and apparently with everything that is happening right now they are expected to provide the best Services they can but they were limited in their professional development opportunities um learning OPP opportunities uh that they will urgently need uh so I'm just you know pointing that out that out because I know that we are strong Believers in the digital economy we are looking for the ways to engage people uh in it uh but also you know uh seeing uh seeing each other from time to time uh with our full bodies not just our tops of our heads in the camera would uh definitely you know encourage people to to work together and uh at the end of this discussion we're rather meet me talking of it's not rather discussion I'm looking forward to the discussion later I would say that uh one of the things that uh we think is important uh to um um uh to include in all the planning that uh we or the ministry of economy or any you know any Institution for that matter in Ukraine is is a trauma-informed anything trauma informed communication trauma informed guidance trauma informed informed work and policies this is something that we've uh we find uh very helpful for all for businesses who hire Veterans for businesses who hire women uh to be you know aware of uh our own Journeys Journeys for that matter and when we are talking about trauma informed we do not meet mean only military experience uh all of us here I'm sure had their own stories and had their own you know experiences and had their own traumas uh that they went through or their relatives went through and we uh with the instruments with the proper instruments and proper um education understanding how to you know um engage in situations and uh make sure that people are comfortable and you as a person uh are comfortable uh in in working with others uh this is just something that that we are working on and I just wanted to share that so maybe you know when planning next activities when working on something uh you just uh think about uh trauma uh informed ways of communting and engaging uh your colleagues your peers so yeah we are building Community we we are smiling here we um trying our best these uh men and women are uh amazing uh the the women who served in the Army who are now coming back who are now uh in the process of finding their career on of engaging into the economy of um you know uh establishing uh their plans next steps it's a uh it's a uh I would say it's a challenging but also very uh real rewarding uh thing that we are trying to as a university and as an institution and but also as as a separate entity within the the higher education institution we are trying to uh offer and uh do what we can uh because there's three roles I think three major roles for any University in the world in the world it's educate uh it's research obviously but it's also service and this is the time for us in Ukraine to to take charge in the the service area uh to those who who need our um assistance and uh Our advice um on this note I'm thanking you and I will be happy to answer any questions later uh if you have any thank you and thank you it's delighted to be here Jana thank you so much and thank you for the important work that you are doing for the veterans and their families that's much appreciated so I would also like to thank our two other keynote speakers for this section of the agenda wonderful to start this conversation and as I say start the conversation because we're excited now to continue this and so we want to turn now to our panel so our panel today is moderated by my co-founder and other half Susan Gates and she's the CEO of the W Marketplace and she she has some amazing women entrepreneurs with her and I want to remind you that following the the panel discussion we have time for questions for our audience so please put those in the chat at the bottom of your screen and we will get to those and then during that Q&A part I want to point out that we are going to serve those poll questions that we mentioned and we would like everyone to take a minute and answer those all of our attendees it's so important to hear your feedback no matter where you are that we capture that and this is like a moment in time when you're thinking about it and so we appreciate your response to that so with that Susan I want to hand it to you and please introduce our extraordinary group of entrepreneurs thank you so much Kate and um I just Echo Kate's thanks um for our previous three keynote speakers who joined us this morning your broader perspective on what's happening with financing and access to Capital within Ukraine and within the larger region is is such an important um context setting I think for our discussion that we will be having with these three really incredibly impressive entrepreneurs from Ukraine I will very very briefly introduce them and then I will ask each of them to um actually introduce themselves quickly and talk about their businesses quickly and then we will move on to um we will move on to a discussion of how financing has impacted their businesses because as you will hear from them each business has has gained financing through some different models and that financing has really impacted the way that each of their businesses has grown and shifted and I apologize I've recently gotten a cold so my voice is a little bit a little bit froggy this morning so apolog it's that time of year so without further Ado I would like to introduce um and apologies for my pronunciation I am working on my Ukrainian but it is still not good so um Dasha kichuk um she is the CEO of EA brush um EA brush is an incredible um business that makes sustainable toothbrushes and has grown globally from what I understand um we'll let Dasha introduce her business in moment we also have Anna NAA and she is the CEO of TK domash textile and this is a really fascinating textile company that has transitioned her business and done really really interesting work again with some um financing and then we have Elena martinenko the founder and director of FG habets which is an agricultural business so we have three very very different and ver companies this morning all who will be sharing their experience directly with financing as um women entrepreneurs so um Dasha so let's do this so um Dasha if you'll please introduce yourself and your business and then we'll move on to Anna and then to Elena and then we will go back and start with our questions so Dasha if you would like to introduce yourself hello hello everyone ladies it's lovely to meet you and my warmest words all my warst words go to the previous speakers Kate thank you so much and it was lovely to meet you last summer this summer in Slovenia I'm sorry I'm also a little bit sick it's this time of a year also since like even if I'm calling from warmer lisban I'm calling from Portugal is still winter and it is still getting pretty cold and uh and um I'm getting sick as well so yeah uh I'm thanks for having me I'm truly delighted to be in such a great company out there uh I'm the CEO of EA H we are making eco-friendly disposable products and we're making them out of paper and we are selling them to hotels and Airlines just to replace their plastic disposables and as any any other startup says to make this world a little bit better uh yeah we have grown the company we have started this company together with my husband uh five years ago and yeah we have grown it from just an idea and the first prototype that was made in the um in in in our in our flat with our hands uh and we've grown it to the company that sells to Netflix Delta Airlines and JetBlue and we have fundraised lived in Silicon Valley for a while so yeah my journey is is really interesting out there and I will be I would love to share this and Inspire maybe someone in in this call today thank you so much Dasha I can't wait to dive in a little bit more about your adventures in Silicon Valley so we will um we'll get there but first I would like um Anna to please take a moment to introduce herself and her business uh hello for everyone my name is Anna uh I'm sell of T Tex company one of the biggest Ukrainian textile companies uh we um produce by ourselves for bricks uh we have our own production uh of readymade goods like home textile clothing for children newborns adults making a different kind of shoes also and we have uh a new production of uh needed needed fabrics and needed items uh so our focus is not just on business but also on social responsibility one of our key initiatives is uh the SE stress schol it's very interesting and uh very good opportunity to have a new job for uh uh any woman who want to um have new skills and to have to have a possibility to earn money so uh it provides essential skills training for individuals particularly who who are dis placed right now in Ukraine and as we look for the future we are seeking likeminded Partners who share our vision uh for expanding production and educational while reaching New Market and uh uh now we uh believe that our product have Global potential uh and invite you to join us uh to join uh some information about our company and uh thank you for this possibility to speak with all of you thank you so much Anna um I'm excited to hear about how you have developed and expanded your company and about this training program that you have developed this intersection of Workforce Development and financing obviously is really incredibly important so we will come back to that um after we have um Elena have the opportunity to introduce her business and um herself so Elena [Music] for [Music] thank you thank you so much Elena that um I think it's really Fascinate well I'm very fascinated to hear about the impact that these low interest interest loans had on your ability to um transform and to be Innovative with your what we would think of I think as um a very traditional business and your ability to transform that business with additional lowcost financing so actually why don't we start there since I have you here on screen why don't we start with um your experience and if you can tell us a little bit about how that lowcost financing how you were able to apply for it what was the financing where did the financing come from you know kind of what was your experience with applying for that loan and then how did that loan help you to transform and grow your business us [Music] [Music] [Music] comp [Music] [Music] um for that's a really amazing story Elena thank you I mean the impact is very clear from this low interest interest loan I mean you mentioned employment you mentioned the ability to have some savings to reinvest those are all such important impacts you also mentioned that it was easier or that you were not successful with applying for financing earlier um could you just give me a little bit more um understanding of the difference so you mentioned collateral you mentioned um having to have assessments of your the value of your farm can you just share a little bit more about the difficulty in um achieving financing prior to this lowest loan [Music] for for [Music] wow okay thank you you that is that is you just brought up so many important issues thank you so much for helping to explain you know the difference between applying for that Grant and then receiving that low interest interest Ro loan I think that gives us a really clear picture of some of the issues that we have to deal with or that women entrepreneurs have to deal with when um you know accessing capital for our businesses thank you so much for that so I'm going to switch gears a little bit um but we're going to go to another region that is um maybe stereotypically known as a difficult place to raise money so we're going to switch to Silicon Valley and we're going to bring um Dasha back into the conversation Dasha we would like to hear from you your experience I think you mentioned Silicon Valley um when you introduced your business we'd love to hear a little bit more about what that experience was like but also maybe to pull back a little bit and understand um what was happening in your business that led you to this point of wanting to reach out to venture capitalist what was happening what was that decision Point within your business yeah of course uh thank you for these questions so as I mentioned we've started building F around five years ago even I think it's already six years ago and uh we were like we were back then we were still having our like normal jobs and day-to-day jobs and we just were dreaming of what if it will happen what if like everything will work out what if this company will actually be a rocket and fly to the sky and it happened in some way it started happening uh during the co we've managed to fundraise our first uh Angel investment check for a company which which was a miracle because we were selling to hotels and Airlines which were closed and I just had a baby like couple of months ago before the co started so everything seemed like a nightmare for a startup but we have actually managed to get to our first acceleration program uh which was startup Wise Guys it's a European acceleration program for startups and then we've managed to find our Angel investment and we have raised $500,000 to build EA and to like start building our company out there and yeah everything seemed like like a miracle for us so we have had our money we had our manufacturing we had our first customers and actually one of our like biggest customers is Netflix has reached to us themselves I haven't reached to them so that was that was a true miracle and we thought oh my God we're actually actually making everything happen and this life actually brings us some great presence out there and we the team was growing everything seemed really really great and then uh the war started in Ukraine the full invasion War started on February 24th 2022 it was in the middle of a time when we were delivering our first Badges of products to our clients in Europe and Ukraine because our manufacturing was in China so the badge of around 100,000 tooth brushes were stuck in the middle of the ocean and not delivered to Ukraine um and we had to care about our family first of all about our child about our team we had to pay our salaries and care about people out there and we didn't know we had had zero idea what to do next we didn't know like what's going to happen tomorrow in in an hour like it was a true nightmare every every nich Ukrainian went through this and especially those who have their businesses you have more things to care about other than your personal safety and your family safety you have to care about your business as well because it's it's the other child of yours that you have to care about and um what happened out there is that we we really need another capital in order to fulfill those orders that we had we needed another Capital to get another orders because a lot of customers that we had pre-war were cancelled or postponed because basically what what they're saying is that we were under direct danger of death that's why we cannot work with you anymore so business is a tough place to be and nobody will be nice to you anymore and that's how I felt it I'm like okay I have to fight once again not just for me but for my business as well so we need to look for Capital and that's what we actually did we' started looking for funding uh and uh We've applied for Silicon Valley B based acceleration program and VC fund five startups they have renamed right now they five Global and I have had my interviews and calls with them during the bomb shelling in Ukraine so it was during the night it was morning in Silicon Valley I was back in Kev and yeah there were crazy things happened and that's when I thought that human body can go through a lot of things through through tons of stress and through a lot of things even now I'm not in Ukraine right now but what do I see that people have who go through hardest bomb shelling that we get through for the couple of for last four months I think there there was no night without drw or rocket shelling and people wake up go to work do their normal job they smile and then they earn it and that's what we're going through and that's I'm not an exception that's how we did it and we were accepted after I think it was a couple of months three or four months of interviews with 500 startups and that's how we've managed to secure funding from them it was a great thing for us as well so we've managed to move to Silicon Valley and to try to fundraise and to build our company there so we have managed to do some decent sales during uh our being in Silicon Valley so we we've signed up contract with with Delta Airlines jet blue and a couple of hotels and Distributors out there Silicon Valley itself is a great place to be it's a good place to fundraise uh Susan you've mentioned that it's it's a place where it's hard to fund raise but I will not agree with you on that because Ukraine is much harder right now to fund raise Silicon Valley must be easier but yeah venture capital is going through hard times at the moment and it's for everyone if you are not an AI company it's really hard to fundraise because yeah we are getting through some restructuring and Rebirth of startup industry out there so yeah times are challenging but when we understood that we got concentrated on sales more than on raising capital and on being more sustainable as a company itself and we understood that we have to refinance ourselves without external capital for now and then when the times are better and if we need it still then we'll go for another round of fundraising so that was our story in Silicon Valley and then because of the cost of living in Silicon Valley is is a thing it's like it's crazy expensive to live there that's how we moved to Portugal and now we're living there I have the happiest baby on Earth and I I always say that Portugal is my biggest therapy country out there so my heart is getting healed and yeah we are still working on fi and bringing this rocket to the sky in for us in in a better place than than Silicon Valley for us didn't work but I love this place it's a great place to be you learn a lot and you get more and more Professionals for every day but it for me it didn't work as well thank you thank you so much for that Dasha I think that you know you touched on so many things that I think are common for you know any startup business but then you add in another layer of being a a female entrepreneur um our hearts are always um um I feel like our hearts are always divided with our you know with our families and you're a you're a new parent as well um and between our our business children and our birth children so you have really been birthing two businesses and on top of that going through this incredible difficulty as you mentioned of you know taking calls while you're in the middle of um a war crisis and the fact that you have um you know you've con you have continued to grow your business and you've continued to grow your sales and that you have also um you know you are making adjustments and thinking about the financing for your business differently based on what's happening within your business I think is a really that's a really interesting um lesson and story to tell I think it's something that um those of us who have raised money understand that um it comes at different times and has different purposes so thank you for sharing that story as well and we're really happy for you that you're in Portugal and you are having a chance to um pull back and focus on your health and also the health of your business so thank you for thank you for sharing your story we're going to move to um a little bit of a different story we're actually going to talk about a s a bu talk with a woman who has rece successfully received a grant and gone through a Grant application process that has um really helped her to develop and um new opportunities for her business so this is Anna again with the textile business in Ukraine Anna if you could please join us and I would love to hear a little bit more about how the experience of applying for this Grant and then how this grant has affected your ability to um to develop your business create new opportunities and um what that was like for you uh thank you very much first of all I want to say that um we make a uh main three things than wor Stars uh first of all we uh understand that we need to find new opportunities for our company because uh even uh their unnown seems to exist uh because stopping our production was not an option for us and we had a responsibility to keep all our employees to get um uh to get back in Ukraine we all now located and work in Ukraine all of our employees come back because we have uh full of work we guarantee that then uh they come back they um understand that they have work and they can earn money so this is very important and uh what did we do first of all we worked harder so there is no another option uh we uh work more than even eight hours per day we work without holidays without weekends we understand that we need to um more we need to do more and more things uh and uh uh we start to participate in more kind of tenders for example we exploring International markets we seeking out new clients so uh then we start to do it we understand that uh our products is very nice they are competitive but we can make uh something new uh something new products and we can um make even more production lines and more assortment so we try to thinking uh deeply and we start to find finding um some grants and that is why we um like right now we participate in them and uh uh we win a lot of Grants one of these was for um a new line of our products for needed products so uh it's uh program usate with usate konics uh so um after we win this uh Grant and we uh started working on it we um make more than 40 uh new jobs at our Factory so that is why it helps us to um have new jobs new people come uh to our Factory and uh we making more and more Goods uh and uh it's really helpful for business because it's only one um like sample uh which we have because we have another kind of samples we're making we have grant for uh English version of our website it's the really help us and we win this grant with giz um and it help us to go to the international markets and uh nowadays every people uh in every country they can go to our website to make um a worldwide delivery of our products and it helps to uh going uh and to sell our products uh to export yeah so it's the second point that we used and the third one is of course it's banking banking institutions because uh we understand that we need uh uh money so that is why we go into different kind of banks for credits and it's also helpful for us because uh uh if we're talking about tenders uh in which we are participating like big company um there are some um some not good for business conditions of payment so we need to ship all the goods and after we received the money and this banking institution they help us to uh buy raw materials for example yeah to start production and um it's really help for us so it's a short of our uh experience of our company thank you so much for that Anna I think that you know each of our panelist today has really shown how different forms of financing has helped them to grow their business so um you know I'm hearing from you that grants have been incredibly important for your business and from um from Elena obviously the low interest interest loan was profoundly impacted her business and then Dasha you know the experience of both raising money and then um using that money to grow Revenue has just been really um impactful as well I would like to ask each of you um how have dig digital resources enabled you to either increase your customer reach or other resources so have you used um digital tools for financing or to extend your business Revenue so just kind of what is that intersection of um of the digital Marketplace and your business and Anna maybe we'll start with you and then we can move to Elena and then to Dasha uh for our business it's very important we just of from this year we start to export our products so it's really good possibility to uh sell our products in different kind of marketplaces and is why um we make English version of our website with different kind of currencies you can choose it and moreover we have experience to have grants uh to go for example to the exhibitions uh trade missions for different uh countries to present our products and to sell them directly in this uh market so we use it and we think that it's for our future so that is why want to expand in it in the um last New Years fantastic thank you let's move to um let's move then to Elena Elena can you also respond to that question please regarding digital tools and your ability to grow your business [Music] [Music] okay thank you thank you for um being clear about that that helps us to better understand the role that digital tools are playing so thank you that was a great answer and then can we shift to Dasha quickly please and Jos I'd love to hear what digital tools you're either using to help grow your business or to access information or other Financial Resources yeah of course I will be really different from other ladies because I'm from World which is really digitalized and like we all use all of those AI base and all of the digital tools that we can ever use and that's actually the tool that can really accelerate your future growth in sales or your outreaches so we use like I am a really really good user at LinkedIn and all of the social media out there we use all of the Outreach uh tools out there I've used them in both in order to outreach to VCS and like Angel Investors out there you can use a lot of different databases and Linkedin again Twitter for to to makeing contacts with journalists out there and to get some PR and media attention uh even um as Anna said you are visiting a lot of uh international trade shows and and international events that's first thing that you have to use before going to the event is you have to use your LinkedIn and Twitter in order to get ready for the conference and to make those valuable contacts because yeah everybody likes offline but but we are living in online era right now and right now it's AI online era and we have to adjust and we have to use those tools as much as possible and as for the online marketplaces we like we have our own like Marketplace we use the strip for that and we use like a lot of online tools in order to emphasize and to make our sales much easier we we are starting to use Amazon in Europe as our platform to sell our products out there as well because they take care a lot of about a lot of things in your business that you don't want to care a lot about so yeah we use a lot of them like I said I'm really different from other ladies from classic business out there startups are really different absolutely and thank you for highlighting tha