Head of the USF Pavlo Kartashov: “The war hardened Ukrainian startups and forced them to build resilience, which can become their competitive advantage on the global market” (Interview for Mind.ua)
For five months of full-scale war, the technology sector survived, and even more – the war hardened Ukrainian startups and forced them to build resilience.
Pavlo Kartashov, the head of the Ukrainian Startup Fund, told about this in an interview with Mind.ua.
“Startups had to become adaptive, they were forced to work in conditions of almost absolute uncertainty and crisis. At the same time, the circumstances forced the entire tech sector to build resilience. The ability to work in crisis conditions can become the biggest competitive advantage of Ukrainian startups in the global market. And this is one of the many reasons that make Ukraine a successful center for future “unicorns,” – Pavlo Kartashov stated.
According to the director of the Fund, before the war Ukrainian startups were the driving force of the IT community of the country. However, today they are forced to seek help to continue their operation. In the annual ranking of startup ecosystems Global Startup Ecosystem 2022, due to the consequences of the war, Ukraine has dropped by 16 positions compared to 2021, when it ranked 34th. At the same time, USF is confident that after the victory, the ratings will rise significantly.
“Modern warfare is happening on the battlefield and in cyberspace – it requires the production of modern weapons and cyber technologies. There are such startups in Ukraine. Even before the war, startups came to us, for example, producing augmented reality systems for tanks, drones capable of carrying heavy loads that take off like a helicopter but fly like an airplane. Ukraine, among other things, uses innovative methods of warfare. The latest technologies also bring our victory closer. I am convinced that the new Ukrainian economy can be based on startups in the future. After all, Ukraine will need smart solutions for successful and rapid post-war recovery”, – Pavlo Kartashov stressed.
Under martial law, the Ukrainian Startup Fund, among other things, focuses on supporting innovative projects that meet the priority needs of the state. In particular, a new program of grant support for dual-purpose projects to increase the country’s defense capability and speed up the post-war reconstruction. During the first month of the new dual program, the Fund has already received about 100 applications from startups for grants, of which 43% – in the field of infrastructure reconstruction, 25% – in the field of defense. The remaining applications are from education, cybersecurity and healthcare areas. All applications are currently being evaluated for eligibility to receive a grant of up to $35,000 for the development of their own project.
The USF Director also named the priority areas of investment in Ukraine. Today, these are, in particular, services for remote work control, platforms for virtual events and online hospitals – everything related to digitalization.
“One of the success factors is that the product should be at the intersection of IT and other sectors. You can also bet on food companies, military, space, agricultural technologies, fintech, healthcare (HealthcareTech) and education (EduTech). As for other areas, I think investors will be interested in startups that do not need a lot of capital: whose business plans do not involve something like building factories or buildings. Probably, the focus will shift to the asset light model”, – Pavlo Kartashov noted.
Full text of the interview is available at Mind.ua
