The American–Ukrainian Reconstruction Investment Fund (AURIF) has completed its first round of investment project selection and recommended 22 of the 59 submitted applications to move forward to the next stage. This was announced by Ukraine’s Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture, Oleksii Sobolev.
According to the Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture Oleksii Sobolev, 59 applications were submitted within three weeks of the fund’s investment portal being launched, 37 of which came from Ukrainian companies. The project sourcing committee has already completed its initial review and identified a shortlist of initiatives to proceed to the next stage.
Twenty-two projects have already been recommended for further consideration. The next step will be the selection of the first projects for in-depth due diligence. We expect the first financing decisions to be made at the end of March during a meeting of the governing board, Sobolev said
The selected projects cover energy, critical minerals, transport, information and communication technologies, and advanced technologies. Earlier, the minister stated that the fund’s target for 2026 is to sign its first three investment agreements.
AURIF primarily considers projects in the fields of critical minerals (upstream and midstream), energy (including generation, transmission, and hydrocarbon extraction), transport and logistics, ICT, and innovative technologies. In its initial years of operation, the fund plans to prioritize equity and quasi-equity investment instruments.
The American–Ukrainian Reconstruction Investment Fund was established under an intergovernmental agreement between Ukraine and the United States signed in late spring 2025. The fund’s initial capital amounts to $150m, formed on a parity basis: $75m from the United States via the DFC and $75m from Ukraine. These funds are intended to support the preparation of the first investments, with implementation scheduled to begin in 2026.
Under the agreement, Ukraine also committed to transfer 50% of revenues from new and so-called “dormant” licenses and subsoil royalty payments to the fund. The document has informally become known as the “subsoil agreement” or the “minerals agreement.”
As previously reported, the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine conducted several successful auctions in December for the sale of special permits for oil and gas fields, generating total proceeds of UAH 1.4039bn, half of which is to be allocated to AURIF.
The fund’s governance structure includes a governing board and four specialized committees — investment, audit, administrative, and project sourcing. In mid-November, the international consulting group Alvarez & Marsal was appointed as the fund’s investment advisor, and on December 18 the fund officially announced its readiness to begin operational activities and consider its first investments in 2026.
