Representatives of NTU «KhPI»: rector professor Yevgen Sokol, director of the Institute of Computer Modeling, Applied Physics and Mathematics Oleksii Larin, and team member of the Spark startup center Olena Garashchenko held meetings and negotiations with CEO of Gigahertz Venture company from Germany, investor Stefan Schandera. They discussed the prospects of investing in Ukrainian startups and the criteria for their selection.
Thus, the offline business breakfast with Stefan Shandera was attended by Oleksii Larin, Director of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Computer Modeling, Applied Physics and Mathematics (ESI CMAPM) of NTU «KhPI», and representatives of the online and offline team of the SPARK startup center of NTU «KhPI», in particular Olena Garashchenko. During the meeting, they discussed the prospects of investing in Ukrainian startups and the criteria for their selection. Mr. Shandera noted that his company is interested in investing in the best Ukrainian projects and establishing cooperation between startups in Ukraine and the European Union. «In addition, Gigahertz Venture company is looking for startups at the pre-seed and seed stages in all promising industries. NTU «KhPI» has a very strong engineering potential, an active and focused administration, in particular, represented by the rector, and we will definitely be able to find common ground and develop interesting cooperation», the investor said. At the same time, Oleksii Larin, Director of the CMAPM Educational and Scientific Institute of NTU «KhPI», emphasized that not only financing but also the expansion of networking outside Ukraine, in Europe and the world is important for Ukrainian hardware startups.
Also, Stefan Shandera met with the rector of NTU «KhPI», Professor Yevgen Sokol, who offered the investor to implement systematic cooperation with international partners. According to the rector, they represent an independent expert review of student and academic startups which are being formed and growing on the basis of the startup center «SHARK» of NTU «KhPI». This is necessary in order to form a sustainable system for selecting and further attracting investments in startup projects by university professors and students. Mr. Shandera agreed to consider the roadmap for the mechanism of creating such a system proposed by the rector of NTU «Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute».
In addition, during the meeting, the key criteria for selecting startups were discussed: the presence of a prototype or the concept proof, company registration in Ukraine, and also the possibility of dual use of the product. Separately, the participants discussed the creation of an «Academy of Angels» in Kharkiv, an educational program for training of the local business angels. The event brought together representatives of Kharkiv startups, IT companies, and business incubators.
We would like to remind you that Stefan Schandera, CEO of Gigahertz Venture, visited NTU «KhPI» in 23rd of October.
