Create 2.0: How We Won the Grant and What It Means for Our Customers

For a Ukrainian manufacturer, a government grant is more than money: it’s an independent evaluation, with experts reviewing your business plan, quality, and prospects. In 2026, Supreme Rest became a winner of the second round of the Create grant program. Here’s what the program is, how we made it through selection, and why everyone who buys bedding direct from the manufacturer benefits.

The Create Grant Program: Government Support for Women-Led Manufacturing

CREATE! is a government grant for Ukrainian businesses, launched in 2024 specifically for women entrepreneurs. Its goal is to help small and mid-sized manufacturers scale up even during wartime: upgrade equipment, expand capacity, enter new markets, and create jobs.

The program focuses on processing industries, from food production to light industry, as well as cultural industries with a manufacturing component. Grants go up to $15,000, and the funds can be used to purchase, deliver, and install production equipment and to train the team.

The eligibility requirements are fairly strict. Only sole proprietors (FOPs) or women who own more than 50% of a company could apply, and the manufacturing operation had to have been running for at least a year. Every application had to include a business development plan on the official template.

Who’s Behind the Grant: The Ministry of Economy, KSE Foundation, and Partners

The program was initiated by the Ministry of Economy and the Ukrainian-Moldovan American Enterprise Fund (UMAEF). It’s run by the Kyiv School of Economics charitable foundation, KSE Foundation, with support from the Ministry of Culture. The partners are the Aurora retail chain and Oschadbank.

According to Forbes Ukraine, more than $2 million has been invested in the program over two years, and 127 women entrepreneurs have received grants. The second round, Create 2.0, was especially competitive:

• about 1,000 applications from manufacturing businesses across the country;
• only 62 winners from 22 regions, roughly one in every 16 applications;
• a total round budget of more than $1 million;
• 47 winners work in industrial manufacturing and 15 in manufacturing with a cultural component.

Most winners are in food and light industry, which includes sewing textiles. Half of the second-round businesses operate outside regional capitals, which is real support for small businesses across Ukraine, not just in big cities.

How Supreme Rest Made It Through Selection: An Embroidery Collection as the Big Idea

Supreme Rest has been in operation since 2024, so by the time we applied, the brand already met the one-year requirement. But experience alone wouldn’t have been enough to win among a thousand applicants. We needed an idea that showed how the grant would change the business.

That idea was a bedding collection with embroidery inspired by traditional Ukrainian ornaments. We launched it specifically for this program. Our goal isn’t just to add a new product, but to promote Ukrainian culture abroad through something people use every day. Bedding with embroidered ornaments is a way to bring a piece of Ukraine into bedrooms in Europe and the U.S., where the brand plans to expand soon.

The idea combined both tracks of the program: industrial manufacturing and the cultural component. That’s how we became a Create grant winner among the projects the committee considered most promising.

Where the Grant Went: New Sewing Machines and Embroidery Equipment

As a manufacturer’s grant should, the funds went into production. The main purchases:

• additional sewing machines, which increased the workshop’s production capacity;
• a five-thread overlock machine, which combines two operations into one;
• an embroidery machine, which made the embroidered collection possible.

We’re not the only ones who invested in equipment. According to Forbes Ukraine, the second-round winners bought 571 units of new equipment in total, and more than 70% of participants put the funds toward expanding capacity and modernization.

Why Winning Create 2.0 Matters for Supreme Rest Customers

Winning the competition is more than a line on a list of achievements. For customers, it means real, tangible changes:

• Faster production. The new equipment lets us sew more sets every day, so we fulfill orders, including custom sizing to fit your bed, more quickly.
• A new collection. Embroidered bedding inspired by Ukrainian ornaments, which we didn’t have before.
• Consistent quality. Modern machines give even seams, and every piece still goes through a hand inspection.
• Independent validation. The brand’s business plan and prospects were evaluated by experts from the government program and KSE Foundation.

The experience of other winners shows that these investments work. According to a survey of second-round participants, their sales grew by an average of 45%, and together they created 53 new jobs. In this case, government support for entrepreneurs is an investment in Ukrainian manufacturing that comes back to the customer as a quality product.

Conclusion: Government Support as a Step Toward New Markets and Collections

The Create 2.0 grant gave Supreme Rest new machines, a new collection, and the ability to sew more without losing quality. It also gave us confidence that we’re on the right path: handmade Ukrainian textiles are of interest not only at home, but abroad. Our next step is entering the European and U.S. markets, and the embroidered collection will be one of the first things we show the world. Learn more about our story and values on the About Us page.

We’re sincerely grateful to the Ministry of Economy, UMAEF, KSE Foundation, and all the partners for making programs like this possible. At a time when running a business in Ukraine is especially hard, they give small manufacturers a chance to grow and give women entrepreneurs the belief that their work matters to the country. If you also run your own production and dream of expanding it, you can find more about the terms and upcoming rounds on the CREATE! page at KSE Foundation. Your story might be the next success story.