Investment concept by Dragon Capital, Amber Infrastructure wins selection for European Commission's Ukraine Reconstruction Fund
Ukrainian investment company Dragon Capital and the UK-based Amber Infrastructure have won the investment concept selection stage for the European Flagship Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, the decision to establish which with initial capital of EUR 220 million was announced at the Ukraine Recovery Conference URC2025 in Rome in July 2025, Germany's development bank KfW reported.
"KfW, the EIB (European Investment Bank), and four other European development finance institutions will now conduct thorough due diligence of the concept with the aim of launching the European Flagship Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine in the summer of 2026," the statement on KfW's website said.
According to the information, the European Flagship Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine is planned to be launched at the Ukraine Recovery Conference URC2026 in Poland this summer, and it will begin its investment activities immediately thereafter.
Within the fund's structure, KfW and other public investors will contribute up to EUR 220 million in capital to cover first-loss risk.
"Based on this, the fund aims to attract additional capital from private investors. The target for 2026 is EUR 800 million. If the security situation improves, the volume is expected to grow to more than EUR 1 billion by 2027/2028," KfW noted.
As reported, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the decision to establish such a fund on July 10, 2025. The initiative was supported by France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and the European Investment Bank. The fund's main investors at the initial stage will be its initiators – the European Commission (via the Ukraine Investment Framework) – as well as leading development banks: the EIB, KfW, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), Proparco, and Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK). A competition was then announced to select a management company with an investment concept for the fund.
The German bank recalled that this joint fund is intended to mobilize more than EUR 1 billion in capital from public development banks and private investors for Ukraine's reconstruction and for direct investment in private projects in strategic sectors of the Ukrainian economy. Among other things, this includes the reconstruction of energy infrastructure, expansion of wind and solar energy to replace outdated coal-fired power plants, industrial production facilities, and digital infrastructure such as data centers.
"With the new European Flagship Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, KfW is sending a signal to private investors," the release quoted KfW Executive Board member for international financing Christiane Laibach as saying. She emphasized that the fund reduces risk for private investors even during the war, thereby offering an attractive investment opportunity, because even today investments in infrastructure are justified.
Laibach recalled that the World Bank estimates the cost of Ukraine's recovery at $524 billion, and that such a large sum can only be mobilized with the participation of private investors.
It is expected that, as an anchor investor, the fund will provide equity capital to project companies and enterprises, enabling them to attract additional equity and debt capital, the volume of which could reach EUR 6–7 billion.
At URC2025 in Rome, the first project Amber Dragon Ukraine Infrastructure Fund I was also announced. The fund has a total size of EUR 350 million and is jointly managed by Dragon Capital and Amber Fund Management Limited, which is part of Boyd Watterson Global Asset Management Group LLC.
Subsequently, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced an investment of EUR 60 million in Amber Dragon Ukraine Infrastructure Fund I, the EIB committed EUR 50 million, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group committed EUR 40 million.
"We are approaching the announcement of the first closing of the infrastructure fund that we are launching jointly with our British partner under the name Amber Infrastructure. We will be co-managers of the fund, which will focus exclusively on infrastructure," said Yevhen Baranov, managing director and head of infrastructure at Dragon Capital, at the Ukraine for Investment forum organized by Economic Pravda in early December 2025.
At URC2025 in Rome, Baranov said that over the past year Dragon Capital and Amber have built a robust pipeline of projects that could absorb even more capital than the fund plans to raise. The fund's presentation at URC2025 noted that its strategy foresees investments in controlling stakes or co-investments with like-minded partners, with an average ticket size ranging from EUR 20 million to EUR 50 million.
Dragon Capital is one of the largest investment groups in Ukraine in the field of investments and financial services, providing a full range of investment banking and brokerage services, private equity, and asset management for institutional, corporate, and private clients. The company was founded in Kyiv in 2000. According to founder and CEO Tomas Fiala, the group's investment portfolio includes nearly 50 different companies or real estate projects. Between 2015 and 2021, the company invested about $700 million in Ukraine, excluding reinvestments, and plans to invest $100 million in 2025.