Ukrainian venture fund F1V has written off ten percent of its startups but continues to invest.

The level of startup write-offs in the Flyer One Ventures (F1V) portfolio is 10%, said the fund’s co-founder, Oleksiy Yermolenko. He added that since 2018, F1V has invested nearly $45M in over 90 startups.

Among these companies is Elision, which developed a platform for distributing and monetizing podcasts, along with a few others that were not disclosed. “This is not enough, we need to work on increasing this indicator,” Yermolenko stated. Yermolenko noted that the write-off rate in top international funds is higher. “They deliberately invest in riskier startups: Either it will be a company with an exit of 10x or more, or it will not succeed at all,” he explained.

Yermolenko mentioned that usually, one startup in a portfolio can return the entire fund. “Two or three more – more than 5x. The rest – either bring in 2-3x, or are completely written off,” he said. F1V has companies that have grown by 900% since their investment, Yermolenko noted. “The number of startups written off is not critical if the portfolio includes startups that can return the fund,” emphasized the F1V co-founder.