Roman Girshfeld, President of HF Agro and LOZOVA MACHINERY, was invited to the expert committee of the OPEN INNOVATION TECH CHALLENGE competition for innovative projects of technology start-ups.

The program is designed to support young innovative businesses in the agricultural, energy, educational, and healthcare sectors. The winning start-up in each of these areas will receive a $10,000 business development grant. The organizer is the Ukrainian Hub, which supports business strategies in Ukrainian start-ups by introducing innovative solutions and experience of technology entrepreneurs from the United States and Europe.

Roman Girshfeld, President of LOZOVA MACHINERY and HF Agro, acted as an expert in the Agri Tech category.

“Together with the best Ukrainian and American experts, we have selected relevant projects for participation in the pitch competition. It was not easy, as we received many applications from talented and promising teams. It is a great honour for me to act as a jury and mentor, to communicate with the participants,” commented Roman Girshfeld.     

As part of an intensive educational and competitive program, a mentor session was held, where Roman Girshfeld and experts assessed the presented projects, their commercialization and prospects, gave feedback to the participants about the specifics of finding a market for a start-up, entering new markets, marketing and technologies.

Thanks to the knowledge and experience of Roman Girshfeld, LOZOVA MACHINERY has become a successful brand not only in Ukraine, but also in the world market, and HF Agro becomes known on the Ukrainian market in just a few months.

“Thanks to the Ukrainian Hub organization, which supports Ukrainian entrepreneurs through training and consultations and gives them the opportunity to become a mentor and share their practical skills with young business representatives and bring them closer to success,” noted Roman Girshfeld. 

OPEN INNOVATION TECH CHALLENGE is a training bootcamp for representatives of technology start-ups, which aims to support young innovative businesses. The course opens its doors to 20 experienced teams developing innovative technology businesses in agriculture, energy, education, and healthcare. Through a competition, the jury will determine the winner of the start-up in each specified area, which will be awarded a business development grant of $10,000.

Ukrainian Hub is an organization created at the initiative of the Ukrainian-American Coordinating Council (UACC) to support Ukrainian entrepreneurs through training, consulting, mentorship and communication with international start-up ecosystems.