Ukrainian clinic Superhumans receives ＄16.3M from Howard Buffett

Medical clinic Superhumans, a project of TIS seaport co-owner and SD Capital founder Andriy Stavnitser, has received a donation of $16.3 million from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the fund of the eldest son of billionaire Warren Buffett. The founder of the project announced this on Facebook.

What is the project about?

Superhumans is a medical clinic launched in August 2022 in the Lviv Region. It specializes in prosthetics, bionic prostheses that allow arm manipulation through muscle activity, as well as reconstruction and PTSD treatment for war victims. In addition to limb prosthetics, the clinic deals with skin transplantation, the creation of exoskeletons, and rehabilitation. The center is designed for 2800 patients every year.

It operates in a rented building on the base of Yuriy Lypa’s Lviv Regional Hospital for War Veterans and Repressed People. The clinic provides free services to military and civilian victims of war. The supervisory board of the clinic includes Olena Zelenska and Minister of Health Viktor Liashko.

In order to finance the clinic there were many high-profile campaigns. You can read more about Superhumans, as well as its estimate, in the presentation.

According to Stavnitser, one of the goals of the clinic is to provide injured people with modern prostheses and reduce the need for Ukrainians injured at war to seek such services abroad.

What will the funds be used for?

Almost immediately after the launch, the team started a fundraising campaign. During months of search, according to Stavnitser, they met with several hundred foundations and businessmen around the world.

“At every second meeting there was the question “aren’t you afraid to build in Ukraine during the war?” Howard fully understands this: he shares our conviction that new high-quality medical services for war victims should be available in Ukraine as soon as possible,”

the entrepreneur writes.

According to the entrepreneur, the Superhumans fundraising campaign was different by the fact that it is not a classic charity fund, and that the project was registered in the USA, Great Britain, Ukraine, and Poland.

Of the $16.3 million received, $15.3 million will be directed to the renovation and equipment of the premises of the Lviv hospital. Another million dollars will be spent on the purchase of prostheses for the clinic’s first civilian and military patients. These first patients will be military personnel Andriy Gidzun and Vitaliy Ivashchuk, who lost their hands as a result of landmine-explosive injuries. They will be supplied with Hero Arms bionic upper limb prostheses from British Open Bionics.

In general, the full-fledged launch and the first three years of operation of the Superhumans center, according to the project team, will require funding of $54 million.