Draft:Diligent Capital Partners

Diligent Capital Partners

Type	Private company
Industry	Private equity Private credit
Founded	2016
Founders	Dan Yakub, Dan Pasko, Mark Iwashko
Headquarters	Yaroslaviv Val 15, Kyiv , Ukraine
Key people	Mark Iwashko (co-managing partner) Dan Pasko (co-managing partner) Dan Yakub (senior partner and COO) Gilles Mettetal (chairman of the investment committee)
Products	Growth equity, minority investments, private debt, mezzanine finance
AUM	Publicly undisclosed
Website	diligent.capital

Diligent Capital Partners (DCP) is a Ukrainian private equity firm based in Kyiv. Independent profiles and press coverage describe the firm as founded in 2016 by Dan Yakub, Dan Pasko and Mark Iwashko. It invests primarily in agribusiness, technology and export-oriented companies in Ukraine and the wider Black Sea region, and says it also backs Ukrainian entrepreneurs operating abroad.

History

Third-party sources generally date the firm's creation to 2016. Biographies on the firm's own website suggest earlier roots: Mark Iwashko is described as having left Horizon Capital in 2013 to establish Diligent Capital, while Dan Yakub describes himself as a co-founder from 2015. Secondary sources generally cite 2016 as the founding year.

The firm's office has been publicly listed at Yaroslaviv Val 15 in central Kyiv. Corporate and legal disclosures point to a Luxembourg-linked fund structure: Baker McKenzie has said it advised DCP on the formation of a Luxembourg private equity fund vehicle for the Allseeds transaction, and LEI records identify DCP Direct Investments Fund I and Diligent Capital GP as Luxembourg entities registered at 2 Place de Strasbourg, Luxembourg. DCP's track-record page later described DCP Direct Investments Funds I and II SCS as managed by Diligent Capital GP Sarl.

Investment strategy and structure

Independent sources describe DCP as a mid-market private equity firm pursuing a minority-investment strategy. Private Equity International summarised its focus as sectors expected to drive both the near-term recovery and the long-term growth of the Ukrainian economy, including agribusiness, technology and export-oriented businesses. The firm describes its platform as mobilising both private and public capital, and its public-facing materials since 2025 have referenced both equity and debt strategies.

No single, independently corroborated firmwide figure for assets under management is available in public sources. DCP says its team has deployed more than €400 million of equity capital across more than 30 transactions in Ukraine. Its track-record page lists DCP Direct Investments Funds I and II SCS at $100 million and the Food4Impact Mezzanine Fund at $150 million, while launch coverage of Food4Impact consistently described that vehicle as a €150 million fund.

Portfolio and transactions

DCP's best-documented transactions include agribusiness investments alongside the Dutch development bank FMO, repeated investment rounds in Preply, and a 2025 fintech deal in Tonik, a Philippine neobank founded by a Ukrainian entrepreneur. News outlets have reported that DCP was among the earliest investors in Preply, which later became one of the few Ukrainian start-ups valued at over one billion US dollars.

Selected publicly reported investments

Company	Sector	Year	DCP role	Publicly reported size or stake	Sources
Allseeds	Port infrastructure / agribusiness	2018	Joint minority investment with FMO	DCP and FMO jointly acquired 16% of Allseeds; FMO disclosed $16.2 million financing, while DCP's track-record page listed a $15 million deal size
YEDNIST' Group / Edinstvo Group	Feed, premixes and agribusiness	2021	Minority investment with FMO	$20 million consortium investment for a minority stake; DCP's track-record page listed a $15 million deal size
Preply	Education technology	2018–2026	Early investor and follow-on participant	DCP was among the disclosed investors in Preply's 2018 round; it later said it had invested more than $18 million in total, while its track-record page listed a $16 million deal size and a 2026 LIGA.net interview cited €20 million
Tonik	Financial technology / digital banking	2025	Lead investor in pre-Series C consortium	Overall round of $12 million; DCP's track-record page listed a $7 million deal size associated with Tonik

In December 2024, FMO disclosed a proposed $25 million investment with DCP in Trans-Oil, a vertically integrated agribusiness group operating across Moldova, Ukraine, Romania and Serbia, intended to expand processing capacity and support grain sourcing from Ukrainian and Moldovan farmers.

Food4Impact

In October 2025, DCP and the Dutch impact-finance advisory firm 2ndAries announced the launch of Food4Impact (also styled F4i), a fund intended to restore financing to Ukraine's agribusiness and food value chain during the Russo-Ukrainian War. Launch coverage consistently described the vehicle as having a target size of €150 million.

UVCA reported that Food4Impact was backed by a €75 million guarantee from the European Commission's Ukraine Investment Framework, with funding directed to Ukrainian food and agriculture companies as private debt and flexible growth capital. Interfax-Ukraine reported that the fund would provide loans and would operate through the Dutch company Cardano Development. DCP's own track-record page later described Food4Impact as a mezzanine fund managed jointly with 2ndAries.

The Kyiv Post reported in October 2025 that the fund's proceeds would be targeted towards Ukrainian agribusinesses exporting to the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. In a November 2025 interview with The Kyiv Independent, Dan Yakub said the fund was focused mainly on medium-sized companies across the agrifood value chain, that at least 20% of the capital was intended for "green" projects, and that the target ticket size was generally in the €10–15 million range; he added that the fund expected to start deploying capital by the end of the first quarter of 2026. UVCA said the vehicle was designed to support production, jobs and export capacity, particularly for companies serving markets in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.

Governance and key people

DCP's public materials describe the firm as led by co-managing partners Mark Iwashko and Dan Pasko, with Dan Yakub as senior partner and chief operating officer. Iwashko previously worked at the Western NIS Enterprise Fund and later co-founded Horizon Capital; Pasko is described as a former entrepreneur and private-equity professional who worked at Horizon Capital after graduating from Harvard Business School; Yakub's biography cites prior work in finance at Citigroup Global Markets and UBS Investment Bank.

The chairman of DCP's investment committee is Gilles Mettetal, formerly a senior agribusiness executive at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Oleg Sirenko, who joined DCP in 2019, was promoted to partner in January 2025. DCP has also publicly identified Mykola Klymchuk as director of corporate governance and portfolio management, Cristina Harea as country manager for Moldova and Romania, and Rob Monyak as managing director of the Food4Impact fund.

Role in wartime and reconstruction finance

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, DCP has framed much of its activity around wartime resilience and recovery financing. Independent reporting has described the firm as among a smaller group of Ukraine-focused private-capital managers still attempting to originate new deals during the war, particularly in agribusiness and technology.

FMO's 2022 disclosure on Allseeds documents one wartime use of DCP-linked capital: emergency financing to move inventories and safeguard operations from the effects of the conflict. Food4Impact was more explicitly positioned as a reconstruction-era finance tool, intended to replace credit that had retreated from the Ukrainian agrifood market and to channel capital to medium-sized companies considered too risky for conventional lenders during the war.

Third-party assessments

Coverage has generally treated DCP as a specialist Ukraine-focused manager rather than a large regional private-equity house. FMO said in 2018 and 2020 that its work with DCP was intended not only to finance agribusiness companies but also to support DCP's development as a fund manager and, more broadly, Ukraine's local private-equity market. Private Equity International has characterised the firm as focused on industries expected to underpin the recovery and long-run development of the Ukrainian economy.

Coverage in 2025 and 2026 focused particularly on DCP's role in financing Ukrainian-founded firms under wartime conditions, especially Preply and Food4Impact.

Timeline

• 2016 – DCP described in secondary sources as founded
• 2018 – DCP Direct Investments Fund I listed as closing in October 2018; DCP and FMO jointly acquire a minority stake in Allseeds
• 2021 – DCP and FMO invest in YEDNIST' Group / Edinstvo Group
• 2022 – DCP participates in Preply's Series C round; FMO provides conflict-related support to Allseeds through DCP Direct Investments Fund I
• 2024 – FMO discloses a proposed DCP-linked investment in Trans-Oil
• 2025 – DCP and 2ndAries launch Food4Impact; a DCP-led consortium invests in Tonik
• 2026 – DCP participates in Preply's unicorn funding round