Success stories

EU funding for Ukrainian entrepreneurs
Be realistic, demand the impossible
Ukraine
 | 
19/04/2019
How Ukrainian entrepreneurs receive concessional financing thanks to EU loan programmes Focus magazine, together with the EU Delegation in Ukraine, is launching a special project on the opportunities for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) available in the country thanks to EU programmes. Focus will tell the real stories of entrepreneurs who have received funding and acquired the necessary...
Roksolana Vakulenko, director of Vip-Toys - company that Toys launched the production of children's toys with EU4Business Support
Ukrainian toy manufacturer attracting European investments
Ukraine
 | 
11/04/2019
Two years ago, Vip-Toys launched the production of children's toys in the city of Rivne in Western Ukraine, operating under the Doloni-Toys trademark. Production immediately began to grow rapidly. The range of goods was initially small, with the company producing and selling just four types of toy, employing 15 people and with two pieces of equipment. Now, the range includes dozens of items, with...
Ukrainian entrepreneurs, who are now confidently gaining their place in the EU market, went to Chile to get useful tips for successful exporting
How to grow blueberries and what Ukrainian growers can learn from their study visit to Chile
Ukraine
 | 
03/04/2019
Chile is the world's leading producer and exporter of blueberries. Ukrainian entrepreneurs, who are now confidently gaining their place in the EU market, went to Chile to get useful tips for successful exporting. In recent years, the Ukrainian blueberry sector has been demonstrating the highest growth rates in the fruit and vegetable sector in Ukraine, with a total production area of 2,100...
The Public Private Dialogue (PPD) Network consortium
Moving ahead together
27/03/2019
As an EU-funded project comes to an end, its participants stick together to form an international Consortium. At the end of 2018, the 5 th Eastern Partnership Business Forum was held in Vienna. This annual event was a little different to the norm. In addition to the traditional panels discussing important areas of development, the annual meeting of the working group of an entirely new...
EBRD and EU help Georgian wine makers expand at home and abroad
Uncorking Georgian wine worldwide
Georgia
 | 
20/03/2019
Autumn is the busiest season of the year in Kakheti, the main wine-making region of Georgia . Early in the morning farmers and their families rush to the vineyards to pluck ripe grapes from the vine, while trucks deliver the fruit to processing factories. The harvest is a time for both hard work and celebration for everyone in rural areas, including Valerian Feikrishvili. “I have been working in...
Operation Liberalisation
Ukraine
 | 
20/03/2019
Doing business will soon become easier for Ukrainian entrepreneurs: retailers will be subject to simpler regulations and there will be fewer grounds for penalties. The Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) is working to promote the de-regulation of this sector as part of the FORBIZ project. Mykhaylo, 42, is the IT Manager of a small retail company that is expanding its chain of home furnishing...
Tekla Mamageishvili
Georgia: Optical entrepreneur makes ambitious plans for innovation with EU4Business support
Georgia
 | 
08/03/2019
“Leonardo da Vinci was one of the first to describe, with almost complete precision, the anatomy of the eye and optical system in the 15th century. He is perceived as the biggest innovator in modern science, and not only in science,” Tekla Mamageishvili, Director of a Tbilisi-based eye clinic, explains when asked about the name of her company. Tekla is sure that her Da Vinci Clinic will become a...
Olha Radinovych
Olha Radinovych: I didn’t think we could increase production and enter European market
Ukraine
 | 
07/03/2019
Olha Radinovych founded a company with two other female friends 14 years ago, when each of them had only $100 in their pockets. At the time, their business idea seemed risky. Now, she is the director of the company, a Ukrainian manufacturer of orthopaedic and medical products. The company produces 87 kinds of orthopaedic products and more than 100 different compression knitwear products. The...
Manana Chqareuli
Stitching it all together
Georgia
 | 
07/03/2019
“I’ll never forget the moment I realised that I needed to hire more people. And that with the help of EFSE, I could.” Ever since she can remember, Manana Chqareuli has loved sewing. Friends, family, neighbours – whoever needed a rip repaired, a patch sewn on, a hem taken in, or some other alteration, would always find Manana thread and needle in hand. “I can’t really explain what it is, I just...
Irina Gloveli, director of the Tech Engineering Group
A woman in business: Georgian company increases profit by 7.5% with support from EU4Business
Georgia
 | 
06/03/2019
The Tech Engineering Group is one of the companies in Georgia that received support from the 'Women in Business’ programme, implemented by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), with support from the European Union, among other donors. Irina Gloveli, who became the director of the company in 2017, shortly before this support arrived, says it is difficult, though not...