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multiple drones, has raised funding from the D3 fund and accelerator. The investment amount was not disclosed, but for D3, the standard check size is $125,000. Swarmer, founded by Sergey Kuprienko and Alex Fink in May 2023, specializes in software for managing drone swarm missions (when there are two or more UAVs in the sky, but all have the same target). Meanwhile, the aerospace company Firefly Aerospace, founded in 2017 by Ukrainian entrepreneur Maks Polyakov, announced the closing of the third tranche of series C investment at a $1.5B preliminary valuation of the company. Existing investors include AE Industrial Partners, and new investors include Mitsui & Co. In total, Firefly Aerospace has raised $300M in investment since February 2023. The final closing of the round is planned in the near future.
The DFC and MIGA accelerate investment insurance in Ukraine. The American Development Finance Corporation (DFC) will send a special representative to Ukraine to hasten the acquisition of insurance by investors. He will advise both Ukrainian and international businesses on cooperation with the DFC. “We urge strategic investors to apply for insurance. The tool is already available, and the DFC plans to intensify its work in this direction," noted Minister of Economy Yulia Svyridenko. The DFC is currently interested in working with Ukraine's energy sector. The DFC has already supported $400M in Ukrainian projects and promises to start financing several more. "We hope that the corporation's intention to mobilize $1B of investments in Ukraine will very soon lead to the implementation of new projects," Svyridenko summarized. Also, MIGA and the Ministry of Economy agreed to create a working group to speed up and optimize the investor insurance process. "We are working on creating the Military Risk Reinsurance Fund, which will help bring large, international private reinsurers and Ukrainian insurance market operators to the market.”
The war destroyed foreign currency lending in Ukraine. The Russian full-scale invasion has practically destroyed the demand for foreign currency loans, contributing to the reorientation to lending in the national currency, which is a good indicator for the economy, said the top manager of the NBU, Pervin Dadashova. She noted that previously, the primary motive for foreign currency lending was lower interest rates for such loans, which led to problems in the absence of real needs and income in foreign currency. Dadashova noted that the loan portfolio has recently stabilized and returned to slight growth. Now, banks face the task of compensating for their losses incurred during the war, which amount, according to various metrics, to about 15%. "The loan portfolio quality is normal and even better than before the war. That is, banks are not exposed to as much credit risk as they were a few months ago," the financial expert emphasized. She clarified that so far, the small growth observed in the loan portfolio is related mainly to growth within the framework of state support programs.
Manufacturers and critical material processors propose investment projects worth $800 million. These proposals are related to the extraction of critical raw materials, their processing, and the production of final target products. The participants of a sectoral working group have proposed 29 reform projects. Most of the proposals (14) relate to the access of future subsoil users to geological resources and production sharing agreements, 11 would provide access to infrastructure and financial incentives from the state for new projects, and 4 involve mining policy. Following industry expert discussions, 19 proposals for policy changes were identified and recommended for implementation. The industry’s total investment potential
61 UKRAINE Country Report December 2023 www.intellinews.com