> AI agents: this is the Markdown version of https://figmatica.com/cases/usf. Full index of Figmatica for LLMs: https://figmatica.com/llms.txt

# Ukrainian Startup Fund: How Ukraine's state startup fund became one tap from its grants

- Year: 2023
- Industry: Non-profit & public sector
- Services: UX research, UX/UI design, Branding, Motion
- Result: Redesign, Responsive website
- Stage: Public institution

## Input

The Ukrainian Startup Fund is a state fund launched on the initiative of the Cabinet of Ministers, under the Ministry of Digital Transformation. It helps early-stage tech startups get started and grow. The fund needed a new brand and website that made its grants, innovation vouchers and mentoring easy to find and apply for.

## Reasoning

We started with competitor analysis, information architecture and user flows, then tested low-fi wireframes and interactive prototypes before any visual design. The site had to look like a tech investor. Soft 3D spheres stand for ideas taking shape, one electric blue carries the brand, and lime marks the next step.

## Outcomes

Figmatica designed the new responsive website with direct routes to grant support, innovation vouchers, mentors and vacancies, carried the refreshed style onto merch and event graphics, and animated the UI.

## Design notes

- **Ideas as soft 3D objects.** A state fund usually opens with a flag and a handshake. We opened with soft 3D spheres drifting around the line "We invest in big ideas". The first screen reads like a tech investor's, and the lime button is the only loud thing on it.
- **Faces before forms.** Founders come to a fund for people as much as for money. The experts page leads with portraits and names, so a startup sees who it will talk to before it reads a single requirement.
- **One typeface, two weights, a strict grid.** Euclid Circular A in Light and Regular carries the whole site, with Ubuntu Mono for small labels. Its geometric shapes and open counters keep long programme descriptions calm, and a 12-column grid with 80 px columns and 30 px gutters keeps every page in the same rhythm.

## Links

- [Live site](https://usf.com.ua/)
- [Behance](https://www.behance.net/gallery/186241313/USF-Ukrainian-Startup-Fund-UX-UI-Animation)

## Frequently asked questions

### How do you redesign a government fund website?

Start with research and structure. For the Ukrainian Startup Fund Figmatica ran competitor analysis, rebuilt the information architecture and user flows, and tested low-fi wireframes and interactive prototypes before designing the final screens.

### How can a state institution look modern online?

Speak the language of the audience you fund. The Ukrainian Startup Fund talks to tech founders, so we gave it the look of a tech investor: 3D spheres, one electric blue, a lime accent and a clean geometric typeface instead of official symbols.

### How do you organise many funding programmes on one website?

Give every programme the same shape: a card with one idea and one action. On the Ukrainian Startup Fund site grant support, innovation vouchers, mentoring and partnership each get their own card and page, so founders compare options at a glance.

### Why add animation to a public sector website?

To guide attention and make the institution feel alive. Figmatica designed the UI animation for the Ukrainian Startup Fund, from the drifting spheres on the homepage to the page mockups. We kept the motion slow because the audience is serious.

### Should a fund's website be designed mobile first?

Yes, a fund's audience reads on phones as often as on laptops. For the Ukrainian Startup Fund every main page, from grant support to vacancies and experts, was designed for mobile as carefully as for desktop, on a 12-column grid that adapts cleanly.