Kerbot Drone startup in the Student Startup Fund acceleration program!

In April-June, the Kerbot Drone startup, which this year won the STARTUP with Zaporizhia Polytechnic Business Ideas Competition, joined the Student Startup Fund Spring ’26 acceleration program, aimed at supporting innovative ideas of Ukrainian students and postgraduates for the development of new startups. The program was initiated by the UNIT.City innovation park with the assistance of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Startup Fund, as well as with the support of Win-Win EDIH Ukraine, EUNITED Digital Hub, Universe Group and SET University.

Kerbot Drone is software for training, designing and analyzing UAVs. The author of the idea and the main developer is Oleg Savchenko (BK–615m), a student of the Faculty of Information Security and Electronic Communications. The team also included Ivan Bushman (BK–612), Pavlo Reznychenko (BK–615m) and a graduate student, head of the department of scientific work of students Snezhana Vychuzhanina. The scientific consultant of the team was Associate Professor of the Department of Information Technologies of Electronic Media Natalia Mironova.

For three months, the participants completed training modules, communicated with experts, and performed practical work on the product with the support of the team mentor Olga Petrunina, a consultant on the formation of state orders for the most important scientific and technical (experimental) developments and scientific and technical products. The team was also given the opportunity to receive interim funding for the implementation of the MVP.

The final event of the program was Demo Day, which took place offline in Kyiv at the UNIT.City base. The welcoming speech was delivered by the Director General of the Department of Innovation and Relations of Science with the Real Sector of the Economy of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Oksana Berezhna, Project Manager of the Ukrainian Startup Fund, Anna Motrych, Director of Ecosystem Development of UNIT.City Pavlo Mykhailiuk, and Coordinator of the Student Startup Fund Program, Project Lead of UNIT.City Tymofiy Bazhan. During the event, the teams presented their startups to the jury, received feedback from representatives of the innovation ecosystem, and competed for support for the further development of their projects.

The Zaporizhia Polytechnic National University, in particular the youth startup movement and the Kerbot Drone team, were presented at the Demo Day by Snezhana Vychuzhanina. 

After the finals, work with the teams will continue. Program participants will be able to continue developing their projects, stay in touch with mentors and partners, and work on the next steps to launch or scale their solutions.

Zaporizhzhya Polytechnic is pleased to be part of a powerful national innovation ecosystem and contribute to the formation of an environment in Ukraine where students study, create their own innovative products, and launch real startups! Together to new achievements!