YEP Accelerator Opens San Francisco Office and Launches Silicon Valley Track for Ukrainian Startups

Ukrainian startup founders with traction, paying customers, and Silicon Valley ambitions now have a direct route to San Francisco — backed by the EBRD and funded by Switzerland.

📍 Kyiv, Ukraine → San Francisco, USA  ·  May 15, 2026  ·  3 min read

YEP Accelerator is opening a new office in California and launching a dedicated Silicon Valley track for growth-stage Ukrainian startups ready to enter the US market. The program, implemented with support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) as part of its Star Venture Programme in Ukraine and funded by Switzerland through the EBRD Small Business Impact Fund, culminates in a one-month residency in San Francisco. Applications are open through May 31, 2026.

From Kyiv to Silicon Valley — but only if you have traction

This is not a program for early ideators. YEP’s Silicon Valley track is explicitly designed for Ukrainian startups that have already built something real: a live product, paying customers, and a founder capable of leading sales and investor conversations in English. The focus is on hands-on US market entry preparation, not theory — a deliberate departure from the classroom-heavy model of traditional accelerators.

Eligible startups must operate in B2B SaaS or other scalable business models, be planning to enter the US market within the next 12 months, and be actively preparing for venture funding in Silicon Valley.

Five weeks in San Francisco

The program’s centrepiece is a five-week immersion in the San Francisco startup ecosystem. Founders will live and work together through a coliving and coworking setup designed to eliminate distractions and keep the focus entirely on growth, fundraising, and network-building. Throughout the residency, participants will work on building a US sales pipeline, developing a scalable go-to-market strategy, expanding their Silicon Valley network, and preparing for meetings with customers and investors.

Access to major tech events is built into the program, including San Francisco Tech Week, TechCrunch events, and One Way Summit. Partner events with Berkeley Haas, Silta Group, Mazepa League, and others round out the ecosystem exposure.

The program culminates in a Demo Day where startups pitch for access to up to $1.8 million in potential investment from nine partner venture funds.

The institutional backing that matters

The program’s infrastructure rests on two significant institutional pillars. The first is the EBRD Star Venture Programme — one of Europe’s most established startup support frameworks, which has directly supported over 350 early-stage companies in 26 markets since 2019, with portfolio startups collectively raising over €573 million in funding and seeing their average revenue grow sixfold. The Ukraine track is funded by Switzerland through the EBRD Small Business Impact Fund, with additional donor support from Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and the United States.

The second pillar is the Ukraine-Moldova American Enterprise Fund, which invests in building competitive economies and sustainable business opportunities across the region — adding transatlantic weight to what is ultimately a market-entry play.

Why Ukrainian founders are ready for this moment

The YEP Silicon Valley track arrives at a meaningful inflection point for Ukrainian tech. The country’s startup ecosystem has spent the past four years proving resilience under pressure — building products, retaining talent, and attracting international capital despite conditions that would have stopped most ecosystems cold. What YEP is now offering is a structured bridge: from that hard-earned traction in Ukraine to a direct line into the world’s most competitive and most rewarding startup market. For the right founders — those who are already past idea stage and genuinely ready to sell in English — this is a rare, institutionally backed shot at the US market with a safety net of nine VC funds waiting at the other end.

More at yepashstartup.com · EBRD Star Venture · Also covered by Tech.eu

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