Up to 500,000 Hryvnias to Start a Business: Ukraine’s State Grant Program “єРобота”

Since July 2022, Ukraine’s government has offered non-repayable grants to people starting or expanding a business. Collectively known as “єРобота” (Ye Robota), the program takes applications through the e-government platform Diia (see also our article on the e-passport app). It began four months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started, and in September 2026 its central grant was substantially reorganized.

This article is based on the text of Cabinet resolutions in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine’s legal database and announcements by the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine (hereafter, the Ministry of Economy), as of September 24, 2026. All amounts are in hryvnias.

The Basis: Two Cabinet Resolutions from June 2022

At the center is Cabinet Resolution No. 738 of June 21, 2022, “On Certain Issues of Providing Grants to Businesses.” It took effect on July 1, 2022, and had been amended more than 30 times by May 2026. Within this resolution are separate “procedures” (Порядок) for each type of grant. Grants for processing-industry enterprises are set out in Cabinet Resolution No. 739, adopted three days later, on June 24, 2022.

As of September 2026, Resolution No. 738 includes the following procedures.

• A “microgrant” for starting or expanding one’s own business (applications were accepted through August 1, 2026)
• A grant for establishing or expanding orchards, berry plantations, or vineyards
• A grant for building or expanding greenhouses
• A business grant for combat participants, people disabled by the war, and their families (accepted through August 1, 2026)
• A grant for building vegetable and fruit storage facilities (added in January 2026)
• A one-time payment for energy independence of small businesses (added in January 2026; accepted through May 31, 2026)
• A grant for starting or expanding a business (added in May 2026, applied from September 1)

The funding comes from the state’s unemployment social-insurance fund and the state budget. For the microgrant and the new grant, the fund’s money is administered by the State Employment Center. Payments are made through banks that have agreements with the Center, such as Oschadbank and PrivatBank.

From September 2026: Two Tracks — Starting and Expanding

In an announcement on May 7, 2026, the Ministry of Economy explained that it was consolidating the microgrant, which had operated under separate rules, into a single procedure and making the amounts more flexible. The amounts under the new procedure, applied from September 1, are as follows.

Add-ons based on conditions are added to the base amount: 5% for applicants aged 18–25; 20% for a veteran’s business, a VAT-registered business, a holder of a Ukrainian patent relevant to the business, an internally displaced person or relocated company with more than six months of business experience, or hiring two new employees; 30% for operating in one of the nine oblasts near the front line (Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Chernihiv) or in Slavutych in Kyiv Oblast, or for replacing equipment destroyed by the invasion; and 50% for a business in a priority sector set by the government. Multiple add-ons are combined, but the total does not exceed the maximums in the table above.

How the money may be used is also set out in the resolution. It is centered on purchasing equipment, machinery, and business vehicles, with caps such as: up to 50% of the grant for renovating premises or purchasing raw materials, up to 25% for business rent, and up to 10% for advertising. Applications require a business plan, and applicants choose a business period of two, three, or five years.

The Microgrant Before This Change

The microgrant, accepted through August 1, 2026, was a scheme in which the amount depended on the number of people hired. Under the rules from January 2026, the amount was up to 100,000 for simply registering as a sole proprietor (double for those aged 18–25), up to 200,000 for hiring one person, and up to 350,000 for hiring two or more, with higher caps of 300,000 and 500,000 respectively in areas near the front line. The Ministry of Economy explains that it changed this scheme, in which employment was a condition for everyone, so that the starting track no longer requires employment.

The Condition for Not Repaying: “Returned Through Taxes”

The grant does not have to be repaid, but there are conditions. Under the new procedure, if the total taxes and social-insurance contributions (the unified social contribution) paid during the business period are less than the amount of the grant received, the recipient must repay the difference. If the contract is terminated early, the difference from the amount paid up to that point must also be repaid. The former microgrant worked on the same principle, over a three-year period. In a March 2025 announcement, the Ministry of Economy explained that the grant is returned to the state as taxes through the business’s activity.

For the expansion track, the recipient must create a new position and hire someone within three months of receiving the funds, and keep that person employed for 18, 24, or 54 months, depending on the chosen period. If the hire is not made within three months, the entire grant must be repaid. However, if it can be documented that assets bought with the grant were lost to Russia’s invasion, repayment is not required.

The resolution also specifies who may not apply: people actually located and doing business in areas of ongoing fighting or under occupation; companies with investors registered in Russia or Belarus; and businesses that produce or sell alcohol (except wine and similar products), tobacco, or weapons, or that operate currency exchanges. Under the new procedure, a bank first checks the applicant’s creditworthiness and other factors, then a regional employment center reviews the business plan and also conducts an interview. The State Employment Center makes the final decision, selecting the highest-scoring applications within the budget within 20 days of the deadline.

Grants for Agriculture and Processing

Besides the grant for one’s own business, there are grants tailored to specific types of business. The main conditions in the resolutions and the Ministry of Economy’s announcements are as follows.

• Orchards, berry plantations, and vineyards (Resolution No. 738): for planting 1–25 hectares, 400,000 per hectare, up to 10,000,000 per project. The applicant covers half the project cost themselves (about 20% under certain conditions).
• Greenhouses (Resolution No. 738): for greenhouses of 0.4–2.4 hectares, up to 2,000,000, 3,500,000, or 7,000,000 depending on area. The applicant covers half the project cost themselves (about 20% under certain conditions).
• Veterans and their families (Resolution No. 738; accepted through August 1, 2026): up to 250,000, 500,000, or 1,000,000, depending on the number of people hired.
• Processing industry (Resolution No. 739): according to the Ministry of Economy’s announcement of March 2, 2026, grants for adding equipment go up to 8,000,000, and for restoring a plant damaged by attacks, up to 16,000,000. The state and the business split the cost 50/50 in principle, 70/30 if buying only Ukrainian-made equipment, and 80/20 for restoration and for businesses in areas near the front line. The conditions are hiring at least five people and paying, within three years, taxes exceeding the amount of the grant.

Funding for defense-technology development works through a separate mechanism, covered in our article on Brave1.

єРобота by the Numbers

According to the Ministry of Economy, from the program’s launch in July 2022 through March 2025, about 25,000 businesses received grants totaling 12 billion hryvnias. The breakdown is as follows.

In the same announcement, the Ministry of Economy stated that businesses receiving grants had created more than 65,000 jobs and paid over 9 billion hryvnias in taxes (equivalent to 75% of the amount disbursed). A later announcement put the number of grants decided under the own-business track at more than 34,000 by May 2026, totaling about 9 billion hryvnias, of which just over 7,000 were individuals newly starting a business, and put the number of jobs created at more than 60,000. For the processing industry, the figures through March 2026 were 1,316 grants totaling 6.7 billion hryvnias. Because each announcement counts a different scope (the whole program or a single track, disbursements or decisions to disburse), care is needed when comparing the figures.

єРобота is also positioned as part of the “Made in Ukraine” policy supporting producers. The scheme that returns money to buyers of domestic products is covered in our article on the National Cashback program, and the loans on which the state subsidizes the interest are covered in our article on the “5-7-9” SME loan program.