The first complete cycle business incubator Happy Farm opened in Ukraine

June 6, 2012 in Ukraine, officially launched Happy Farm business incubator, which will render development services to startups, as well as their further support and investment attraction. The aim of Happy Farm business incubator is the search and commercialization of new technologies and developments. The main source of Happy Farm’s revenue is selling its own shares after the augmentation of capital of startup companies. The first competition for the selection of projects has already started.

Priority areas of Happy Farm startup projects are IT, Mobile, Cloud Computing, Games, Social Networking, SaaS, Biotechnologies, Alternative Energy.
Mentors of Happy Farm business incubator will be the best Ukrainian and international experts – well-known businessmen experienced in the development and implementation of startups projects as well as in venture investment. The main mentor’s task is to teach and advice startup teams how to achieve the main goal - to increase the value of projects. Supervisory Board is also formed as a part of Happy Farm business incubator that makes joint decisions concerning the selection and development of startups projects. The Board consists of: Igor Shoyfot, investor, entrepreneur and professor at Berkeley University (USA); Vlad Voskresensky, the founder and CEO of InvisibleCRM (Ukraine-USA); Anis Uzzaman, a partner of Fenox Venture fund (Japan-USA), and others.

Happy Farm is meant to be an innovative community that provides all the first-order conditions for startups’ business development, maintenance and investments attracting - says Anna Degtereva, director of Happy Farm business incubator. - IT industry in Ukraine is fast developing. Our country assumes fourth spot in the world rankings about the number of certified programmers. Knowledge and experience of our professionals are highly appreciated by the international market. It's time to create a positive and stable ground for them to earn money and develop technology in our country, not in Europe or the United States. Happy Farm has been created exactly for this purpose.

The first competitive selection of Happy Farm projects launches in June 6, 2012 and will last till July, 10. It will consist of several stages. The first stage is submitting application at the incubator’s website. The second stage is interviewing via Skype. As a result of Skype-interview the top 30 startups will be determined and able to pass the following stages of selection. The third stage is the presentation of projects by the authors to the members of the Board. As a result of projects presentation a dozen members of the business incubator program will be determined.

After passing through all stages of selection 10 best projects will get the status of resident of the business incubator and start to work.

Ukraine is one of the most amazing places for innovation. I was fortunate to be involved in several successful projects in Ukraine, and it is amazing how quickly they can learn the principles of innovative business, how talented they are in generating their own ideas, and their solutions are effective - said Igor Shoyfot, a member of the business incubator’s Board.