Ukrainian Fintech’s Place in the Global Market

Ukraine’s emerging fintech sector shows a lot of promise and can serve as a model for the rest of the world. After all, Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation (created in 2019) was even a topic of discussion during President Zelensky’s recent visit to America when he met with Apple CEO Tim Cook.

The Rise of Ukrainian Fintech Sector

The Ukrainian Association of Fintech and Innovative Companies reported more than 130 active fintech startups in Ukraine. 28% of them have female founders or women operating in an executive-level position. 

When it comes to funding, Ukrainian fintech startups mostly rely on their private funds (60%). About 70% of startups succeed in passing the break-even point. Nearly half of fintech startups were founded alone in the past three years, pointing to a positive trend. 47.5% of them work exclusively in the Ukrainian market, but 84.4% of startups plan to enter the global market.

According to the National Bank of Ukraine’s development strategy, the Ukrainian fintech sector should be integrated into global finance, sustainable, competitive, and dynamic to become a driving force in the country’s economy by 2025. 

It can be achieved through numerous ways, including effective regulation and transparency, promoting digital technologies, lending support, and enhancing the public’s financial literacy.

Global Fintech Trends

The global fintech market is expected to reach $310 billion in revenue by 2022. Leading the way in profits are fintech companies throughout Asia and the Pacific. For example, Indonesia’s Gojek is valued at $12 billion, while China’s Ant Group is valued at a whopping $131 billion. Yet North American fintech companies dominate in number, with an estimated 8,775 startups (compared to 4,765 in Asia and the Pacific or a combined 7,385 in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa). 

One of the biggest challenges facing Ukrainian fintech startups is to expand into foreign markets successfully in the coming years. It doesn’t matter where a startup is located in the world–its founders need to think globally. 

How do fintech startups keep up in a rapidly growing market, significantly when their ambitions sometimes exceed their budgetary constraints? Working with remote development teams in countries like Ukraine, where fintech startups can hire highly-educated and experienced software engineers at a better price, equips them with the resources they need to succeed. 

A Success Story of a Fintech Startup Outsourcing to Ukraine

Fintech startups worldwide choose to work with companies like Daxx, a software development company with 22 years on the market. 

One success story of Ukrainian fintech outsourcing worth mentioning is the level of cooperation between Daxx and Vive, a Netherlands-based startup.

The founders of Vive wanted to build a platform for people without any firsthand knowledge of investment strategies to become financially healthy. Users simply have to input their financial goals, and careful planning via the platform helps them achieve them.

Yet, the founders faced a major tech talent shortage in their country because big companies in the Netherlands tend to attract top developers with competitive salaries that smaller companies can’t match. 

This posed a challenge for Vive’s team–until they connected with Daxx. Rogier Roukens, the CTO of Vive, remarked that he was deeply impressed by Ukrainian developers’ high level of education and experience. Not only that, they were passionate about the project itself.

Even though the teams were located in different countries, the line of communication was always kept open. Virtual conferences were conducted regularly, and Roukens visited Ukraine once before the start of the coronavirus pandemic. At some point, he plans to fly the team to the Netherlands for a visit.

Testimonies like the one from Vive point to a trend where Ukrainian software engineers are the key to success for fintech companies and startups worldwide.

Kate Tsurkan, Daxx

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