Ukrainian women creating new solutions in Estonia and across Europe

The BSI_4Women incubation programme gave five ambitious female-led teams the opportunity to develop their business ideas – ranging from natural sweets to an innovative media platform and eco-friendly handicrafts. The programme focused primarily on women refugees, offering support for starting a business and integrating into a new community.

Who took part in the programme?

The teams selected for the BSI_4Women incubation programme came up with diverse, socially valuable ideas:

• Fruitiki – An Estonian company producing healthy dried fruit snacks. The only team in the programme that already had a registered company; their products are available at fruitiki.ee.
• Media platform for Ukrainian women abroad – A digital media platform aimed at supporting and connecting Ukrainian women living overseas. The project’s founder, Dariia, also successfully represented Estonia at an international pitching event.
• Holistic beauty salon with a natural product line – A concept offering a comprehensive approach to beauty and wellness, currently focusing on creating natural beauty products.
• Beeswax-based products – A team developing eco-friendly, handmade products using beeswax as the main raw material.
• One team chose not to disclose their idea yet, as it is still in a strategic development stage.

International recognition in Poland

At the end of May, programme participant Dariia had the opportunity to represent Estonia at the Carpathian Startup Fest 2025 in Poland. Presenting the media platform concept in support of Ukrainian women, she delivered one of the event’s strongest pitches – thanks in part to a two-day pitching workshop recently held at Tehnopol.

The event provided a valuable opportunity to meet other women developing business ideas in seven different European countries. It was a source of great inspiration and sparked the first ideas for international collaboration.

Programme content and impact

The incubation programme ran from October to April and included eight practical workshops at the Tehnopol Startup Incubator, along with several online learning modules and individual mentoring sessions. In the preliminary round, 16 additional women participated in a two-day intensive pre-incubation training.

While not all participants had yet established companies, one of the programme’s main goals was to support these first steps – from idea to enterprise. For many, it was their first time presenting a business idea publicly, receiving expert feedback, and feeling the support of a community.

The BSI_4Women project in a wider context

The BSI_4Women project helps female refugees from Ukraine and elsewhere to start their own businesses and integrate into new communities. Its aim is to create a supportive and open environment for women entrepreneurs and innovators, providing practical tools, training, guidelines, and recommendations for organising incubation programmes in the future.

The project involves seven partners from seven Baltic Sea region countries and is funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region programme. With a budget of over €2 million, it will run until 2026.

Read more about the programme here!