23 women veterans received €7,000 grants to develop their own businesses under REDpreneur Women
On 17 April, the final stage of business idea presentations for the first cohort of the Ukrainian Red Cross REDpreneur Women programme took place. The initiative is aimed at supporting women veterans in developing their own businesses.
Opening remarks were delivered by the Minister of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine, Nataliia Kalmykova; First Deputy Executive Director of the Ukrainian Veterans Foundation, Nina Rogovets; and Deputy Director General of the Ukrainian Red Cross, Illya Kletskovskyy. They emphasised the importance of supporting veteran entrepreneurship and creating opportunities for women to achieve professional fulfilment after military service.
The first cohort of REDpreneur Women focuses on supporting women veterans who aspire to pursue entrepreneurship, develop their own initiatives, and establish businesses with a social impact.
During the event, participants presented the business projects they had developed throughout the training. Each participant progressed from shaping an initial idea to developing a full business plan, gaining knowledge in entrepreneurship, receiving mentoring support, and acquiring practical tools to grow their businesses.
As part of the pitching session, participants presented their solutions to an expert jury, demonstrating not only the commercial potential of their ideas, but also their social impact, innovation, and readiness for implementation in the current context.
Following the evaluation, 23 winners were selected to receive grant funding to launch or expand their businesses.
The winners include entrepreneurs working across a wide range of sectors, from manufacturing and agriculture to the creative industries. Supported initiatives include a mobile wood chip production unit; the Sleepy Mouse bedding workshop; the “Svii Druk” printing centre; the KOLO LADNA inclusive space with barrier-free access for rest and recovery; natural confectionery production; cosmetology projects; the Global Language Hub English language school; the “Zillia” inclusive café with an adaptive menu; the Blast designer clothing brand; the “Territory_SPA” training and wellness centre; Merkuzo Creative Lab, which provides graphic design and branding services; the Living Clean cleaning service; the “HLEIA” dairy farm; and the Quail Farm.
The selected projects also include initiatives in gastronomy and local production, such as “Marianivski Smakolyky”, a farm produce delivery service and family-run apiary, as well as the SafeSkills Women Lab applied safety centre for women, the “Tolerance Space”, and Kolo — a café and support space for veterans and their families. An educational strand is also represented, including the development of children’s literature based on age-appropriate psychology.
REDpreneur Women is implemented by the Ukrainian Red Cross in partnership with the Austrian Red Cross, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Veterans Foundation, with support from the NACHBAR IN NOT Foundation (Austria) and the Austrian Development Agency. The training and mentoring components of the programme are delivered in partnership with the Ukrainian Future Business Incubator.
