October 11, 2022

Ukrainian tech sector in wartime (August-September Edition)

Ukraine’s tech sector has had to adapt to the realities of war but continues to operate at almost full capacity despite the extraordinary conditions, demonstrating colossal resilence.

Read TechUkraine’s digest of 1.08-30.09.2022 and dig deeper into:

– Analytics: Ukrainian tech ecosystem during war
– Wartime scaling up: new offices in Ukraine and globally
– Venture capital and investments in wartime
– New VC funds dedicated to Ukraine
– Tech Ecosystem news during aggression
– TechUkraine: interview, reportages, longreads
– Ministry of Digital Transformation: wartime projects & initiatives
– Featured Articles via global and Ukrainian media
– Podcasts & videocasts

Analytics: Ukrainian tech ecosystem during war

“The country at war: The voice of Ukrainian Start-ups” by TechUkraine, Emerging Europe, Tech Emerging Europe Advocates, Global Tech Ambassadors, the Ukrainian Startup Fund, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, and TA Ventures: vast majority Ukrainian startups kept at least a part of their operations or team in Ukraine and 9 out of 10 start-ups confirm they need financial support to continue operations and/or expand – read

“Relocation. The new IT landscape of Ukraine” research by IT Ukraine Association and the Sayenko Kharenko law firm: more than 50% of the surveyed IT companies did not relocate and switched to remote work; 42% of companies partially relocated abroad, including those 5% only that closed part of their offices in Ukraine; none of the surveyed IT companies carried out a complete relocation abroad; some companies (23%) plan to combine relocation abroad and within Ukraine – read

Migration map by DOU (summer edition): In June 2022, 40% of Ukrainians were evacuated (in Ukraine or abroad), and in March, the number was 61%; 27% of specialists relocated to the western part of Ukraine, and 13% – abroad; the most significant outflow of IT specialists from Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolayiv and Mariupol – read

Catalog of the most active investors and players of the startup ecosystem of Ukraine 2022 by Center42 & Happy Monday: 367 people from the startup industry, 110+ people from venture funds, 40+ angel investors in startups – read

Ukrainian venture capital during wartime survey by Forbes Ukraine: less than 4% of more than 250 startups in the portfolios of the most active VC players have significantly reduced turnover, but none closed down – read

VC Funding In CEE Report – 2Q 2022 by Vestbee: Among Top 50 CEE startup funding rounds closed in 2Q 2022 are 2 Ukrainian: Airslate, Ukrainian startup providing no-code business process automation, e-signature, and document management solutions; Preply – Ukrainian online language learning marketplace connecting tutors and students – read

Pulse of Cyber Defense by the State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection of Ukraine, July, 2022: Statistics of cyberattacks, July – 203, H1 2022 – 802, H1 2022 – 548. August 2022 report “6 MONTHS OF WAR” – from February 24 to August 24 – 1,123 cyberattacks.

The export volume of computer services for the first half of 2022 by the National Bank of Ukraine: 3.74 billion dollars, which is 23% more than for the same period of the previous year. The amount of taxes and fees paid by the IT industry in the first half of the year amounted to UAH 32.6 billion – read

2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index by Chainalysis: Ukraine is ranked #3 worldwide via cryptocurrency adoption – read

State of Software and Data report 2022 by StartupBlink: Ukraine and Kyiv is #25 globally based on the data of the Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2022 – read

Wartime scaling up: new offices in Ukraine and globally

Lithuanian CyberCare, a service center for cyber security products managed by the Tesonet group of companies, opened office in Lviv – read

An American IT company with Ukrainian roots P2H opened a new office in Vinnytsia – read

CHI Software open office in Kobe, Japan – read

ELEKS launched its first office in Croatia – read

Yalantis announced the launch of an R&D in Warsaw – read

Grid Dynamics opened office in Warsaw, additionally to Krakow, Wroclaw, and Gdansk in Poland – read

N-iX opened a collaboration hub in Wroclaw, Poland – read

Ukrainian IT product company Creatio opened a new office in Warsaw – read

Ukrainian fintech company NovaPay, which is a part of postal operator Nova Poshta group of companies, has opened a new office in Vilnius – read

Turkish Bayraktar will build the plan of drones in Ukraine and represented the project – read

Ukrainian edtech company DAN.IT launched the first metaverse via ZEEON in Great Britain – read

Ukrainian woman tech community WTECH launched in Paris, additionally to representative offices in London, Lisbon, Berlin, Amsterdam – read

EPAM opened office in Ivano-Frankivsk – read

Venture capital and investments in wartime

Founded by Ukrainians ATLANT 3D Nanosystems raised $ 15M USD by West Hill Capital and others – read

Ukrainian innovation center based in Ivano-Frankivsk Promprylad.Renovation raised UAH 60M by Ukrgasbank – read

Ukrainian Datrics raised investments by NEAR Protocol for developing blockchain and crypto projects. The amount of the deal is not disclosed – read

Founder by Ukrainians restaurant payment app Choice QR has raised €1.5M in a seed round led by Czech VC Presto Ventures with participation from Seedcamp – read

Ukrainian software developer TechMagic has acquired the US company Dynamo Development. As AIN.Capital estimated, the deal could be worth $1 million – read

Ukrainian Jooble invested $1 MLN in education startup JayJay within Jooble Venture Lab – read

Google For Startups funded 16 more Ukrainian startups, teams received up to $100.000 of equity-free financial investment – read

The Ukrainian identity verification service Electronic KYC has raised €250,000 from the Polish early-stage investment firm Czysta3.VC – read

The Ukrainian meta lending protocol Everlend has raised €2.5M in a strategic round of funding – read

Ukrainian fintech startup Fairo raised €2M from its existing investor Raiffeisen Bank International – read

The Ukrainian fund NetSolid has led the funding round for healthtech startup Apme. The details of the deal were not disclosed – read

Ukrainian venture capital fund TA Ventures participated in a $17M round closed by a New York-based biotech startup Gameto, biotech startup using cell engineering to develop therapeutics for diseases of the female reproductive system – read

Ukrainian Roosh Ventures participates in new $4.2M round for Regression Games led by Andreesen Horowitz (a16z), BBQ Capital – read

Ukrainian tech company Roosh, which develops projects in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning, has announced an investment in Neurons Lab – read

New VC funds dedicated to Ukraine

Private equity firm Horizon Capital has announced the launch of Horizon Capital Growth Fund IV (HCGF IV), raising $125 million in its first phase. With the first close, Horizon Capital achieved a record high first closing, reaching 50% of its $250 million target. The fund will support visionary Ukrainian entrepreneurs who lead fast-growing technology and export-oriented companies – read

ff Venture Capital announced the launch of its $30M Blue & Yellow Heritage Fund, the first US venture capital fund exclusively for Ukrainian founders and startups – read

Poland-based Inovo VC, a firm that backs early-stage and post-traction startups, announced the launch of its third fund with a target capitalisation of €100M to support CEE-based tech companies with global potential – read

Istanbul-based VC firm 500 Emerging Europe has raised more than €50M for its third fund, which is targeting a close of €70m, to invest in startups from central and eastern Europe (CEE) — from the Baltics to Turkey, including Ukraine – read

Danish Lars Seier Christensen, founder and owner of the Seier Capital International, allocated an investment pool of €10M for blockchain startups, and first of all looking for the projects from Ukraine – read

The United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC), an agency of the US federal government, is ready to lend money to Ukrainian businesses within the framework of individual projects in amounts ranging from $1M to $1B – read

Tech Ecosystem news during aggression

Ukrainian lhor Klymenko became the best student in the world according to the Global Student Prize, Ihor received the golden prize and $100,000 to develop his invention Quadcopter Mines Detector, a demining robot – read

Three brave Ukrainians among the TIME100 Next, a list that recognizes 100 rising stars from across industries and around the world: Maryna Viazovska, Ukrainian mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 2022, Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Oleksandr Kurbakov, Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine – read

Ukrainian young science team from Kharkiv became the Silver winners at the International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT) în Timișoara, Romania – read

Business Insider featured Ukrainian Alexandra Balkova, Startup Wise Guys, among 41 women partners in the VC ecosystem in 2021-2022 – read

Ukrainian cofounder of Petcube Yaroslav Azhnyuk was awarded the Ukrainian Order of Merit, 3rd grade, by the President of Ukraine’s decree – read

Ukrainian cyber expert, cofounder of CyberUnitTech, Yegor Aushev was awarded by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine for the comprehensive support in the cyberfrontier during wartime – read

Ukraine and the UK signed a digital trade agreement which removes trade barriers and provides appropriate support to Ukrainian businesses that have suffered because of the war – read

Ukraine joined the Digital Europe Programme by the European Commission which gives Ukrainian businesses, organizations, and public administrations access the calls from the Programme, which has an overall budget of €7.5 billion for the 2021-2027 period – read

The National Bank of Ukraine, Cambridge Judge Business School and CyberUnit.Tech launched a unique training program designed to facilitate innovations in Ukraine’s financial sector – read

Eight Ukrainian Startups presented at TechBBQ 2022 in Denmark: S,Lab, GIOS, zeelly, Akurateco, i3 Engineering, SmartZavod, Qella, AirLaw – read

Ukraine will participate in the iconic startup conference TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 in San-Francisco, the USA, on October 18-20 – read

The second year in a rough Ukrainian tech ecosystem will be presented by the national pavilion at the Web Summit in Lisbon, on November 1-4 – read

Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge opened a co-working for Ukrainian startups in Warsaw – read

Amazon has decided to cancel the referral commission for sellers from Ukraine in Europe and Great Britain for one year. From September 6 and for the next 12 months, it will be 0% – read

Uber has partnered with the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture’s National Research and Restoration Center (NRRC) to locate, restore and protect the Ukrainian cultural identity – read

The first 3-days Drone Hackathon was held in Ukraine: jury awarded 6 teams with the best solutions – read

Swedish-Ukrainian IT company Sigma Software Group and Tech Nation UK will host the Cross-European hackathon ‘Hack for Peace’, to build tech solutions to solve war issues – read

8 tech companies with Ukrainian roots were featured at Inc. Magazine 5000 list 2022 – 2 of them are the unicorns – read

Ukrainian Culver Aviation presented a new product, unique both in terms of automation and scalability, at the Commercial UAV Expo 2022 in Las Vegas – read

Ukrainian Let’s Enhance partnered with Google Cloud & NVIDIA – read

Kyiv-based team AllBridge released Allbridge Core which enables the transfer of value between blockchains by offering cross-chain swaps of native stablecoins – read

Ukraine in cooperation with South Korea announced building an innovative technology park in the Kyiv region. Bucha Tehno Garden will become a pilot in the master plan of the Ukrainian national recovery program – read

Lviv School No. 23 will get a new building for its elementary classes which will be built using 3D-printing technologies – read

Ukrainian volunteer Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation collected $20 million of donations to buy three “Bayraktars”. But due to the courtesy of Baykar Technologies, Ukraine gets them for free. So, the team bought access to a satellite of the ICEYE network to prevent attacks by the russian army – read

AI HOUSE launched edtech project “AI for Ukraine”, a series of workshops and lectures held by international artificial intelligence experts to support the development of Ukraine’s tech community during the war – read

The association representing Europe’s and Ukrainian private equity, venture capital, and infrastructure sectors launched BoostEUkraine – an ambitious initiative aiming to bring together, through a pan-EU-UA network, experienced start-up support organisations with the mission to facilitate and support the integration of the most promising Ukrainian DeepTech start-ups in the Single Market – read

Poland and the Ukrainian State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine (SSSCIP) signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) to strengthen collaboration on shared cybersecurity priorities – read

TechUkraine: interview, reportages, longreads

– Daria Shapovalova & Natalia Modenova, DRESSX: “We are sure that in the future, Ukraine has all the potential to become Europe’s biggest tech hub” – read
– Sergiy Korsunsky, Ambassador of Ukraine to Japan: “Today 35 Japan universities opened their doors to Ukrainian students” – read
– Kiril Bondar, Partner & CFO at UNIT.City: “You May Not Predict The Future But Can Create It” – read
– Anatoly Popel, СASES CEO: “Our wish to support people, encourage them to continue working, and not stop their development despite the war” – read
– Interview with Primsell: French-Ukrainian tech team builds global WEB 3.0 startup – read
– Reportage from TechBBQ 2022: The Ukrainian Startups Presented Innovation Ecosystem In Denmark – read
– Dr. Kenneth Geers, Very Good Security, at DEFCON 30: Computer Hacks in the Russia-Ukraine War – read
– Evelina Komarnytska, Head of Grant Programs at Ukrainian Startup Fund: My Role Was To Represent Ukraine And Demonstrate Our Resilience And Strength – read
– Anastasia Marushevska, Coordinator at Ukrainian PR Army: A case of a Medium Blog: The Ukrainian View – read
– SpendWithUkraine: Top 10 Innovative Ukrainian Startups – read
– SpendWithUkraine: Ukrainian Educational Startups – read

Ministry of Digital Transformation – wartime projects & initiatives

– IT Army of Ukraine: Over 22,000 people have joined a group called IT Army on the social media platform Telegram.
– World’s first Army of Drones: jointly with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and UNITED24. 985 drones have already reinforced the Armed Forces of Ukraine (UAH 948 million). Among the purchased UAVs, are: UkrJet (2), Skyeton (3), Fly Eye (20), WARMATE (40), SKIF (80), DJI Matrice RTK 300 (178), DJI Mavic 3 (254), Autel evo 2 (300).
– Digital diplomacy front: communication with Big Tech companies (Elon Mask & Starlink, Palantir, Meta, Amazon, etc)
– Diia app in wartime: not just e-documents and identification of citizens at checkpoints; now it is also the opportunity to donate the army; e-vorog reports on the movement of the enemy’s military troops and hardware; application for compensation for property damage caused by Russia’s all-out war; 24/7 access to TV and radio; e-bayraktar game – the possibility of imagining yourself as a Bayraktar operator; launching Diia.pl in Poland; English docs,
– MetaHistory Museum of War: An NFT-museum of the war of putin’s russia against Ukraine; already raised over $1,046,845 (809.41) – read

Featured Articles via global media

– Sifted: Undeterred by war in Ukraine, VCs keep investing in central and eastern Europe – read
– VentureBeat: How IT leaders in Ukraine continue to innovate despite the war – read
– Foreigh Affairs: How Ukraine Is Remaking War – read
– Fortune: Why Ukraine is going all in on tech to rebuild its economy – read
– Financial Times: Oleg Rogynskyy of People.ai: ‘I had a gut feeling that a war was going to start’ – read
– Technology Magazine: Dima Gazhda from Esper Bionics, prosthesis pioneers – read
– Wired: Ukraine’s Cyberwar Chief Sounds Like He’s Winning – read
– Emerging Europe: Ukraine launches online marketplace Made with Bravery – read
– InCyber: Ukraine: a Cyber War Story – read
– The Recursive: Keeping Up with Ukraine’s IT Front: New Solutions Help the Country Fight Back – read
– Business Insider: A nonprofit is helping Ukrainian women in tech rebuild their lives and careers amid the Russia-Ukraine war: ‘It’s like group therapy’
– WSJ: Ukraine’s Internet Army of ‘NAFO Fellas’ Fights Russian Trolls and Rewards Donors With Dogs – read
– Neue Zürcher Zeitung: Ein Heer von Hackern kämpft gegen Russland: Wie funktioniert die ukrainische IT-Armee? – read

Featured stories in Ukrainian tech media

– DOU: Industry overview and perspectives of the military tech in Ukraine – read
– SpekaMedia: Ukrainian tech ecosystem’s key achievements during 31 years of Independence – read
– LigaTech: How Ukrainian telecom operators rebuild the systems in liberated Kharkiv region – read
– Forbes Ukraine: How Ukrainian IT sector fundraising and support Ukraine during wartime – read
– Dev.ua: Ukrainian drone school for Army of Drones – read
– The Kyiv Independent: US investors raise $30 million to fund Ukrainian startups – read
– AIN: “This is incredible!” — Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin visited Ukraine – read

Podcasts & videocasts

– UNITED24 Media: global success stories of Ukrainian tech team Ajax Systems and BetterMe – watch
– Podcast by Mike Buryk with Karolina Attspodina from WeDoSolar.– listen
– DOU Podcast: how Ukrainian IT operating in wartime – listen
– Blockquote by Andrii Degeler: Oleksandr Kosovan – MacPaw, Alex Serdiuk – Respeecher, Dmitry Dubrovskyi – Uklon, Yaroslav Azhnyuk – Petcube, SpendWithUkraine
– Kunsht podcast – military tech season (cyber, drones, crypto), also on YouTube

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Via TechUkraine, Sifted, NYT, Emerging Europe, WIRED, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Foreign Affairs, Forbes, Fortune, VICE, WSJ, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Technology Magazine, InCyber, NZZ, Recursive, DOU, dev.ua, SPEKA, AIN, UBN, Vector, Speka, The Kyiv Independent, Odesa Journal, etc.