2021 was a booming year for the Ukrainian tech demonstrating a lot of “the first in the history” such as:
- the first national decacorns and record IPO
- the first Ukrainian pavilion on Web Summit
- entries to the country of global companies and softlanding the R&D centers
- Kick-off of Ukrainian venture funds, universities and initiatives
- Expanding and conquering new markets by Ukrainian companies
According to the Ukraine IT Report 2021 by IТ Ukraine Association, last year:
- the Ukrainian IT industry grew by 36% from USD 5 billion to USD 6.8 billion in exports
- Over the past 6 years, fiscal revenues from the IT industry have more than tripled
- the number of specialists increased from 244 thousand to 285 thousand
Here’s a roundup of the top stories in the sector from last year.
Global companies entered Ukraine in 2021
Several international giants entered Ukraine, opened R&D or representative office: Apple, Amazon, Glovo, BlaBlaCar, Lyft, Revolut, Thales, Solarisbank, CognitOps, Nets A/S, Velory, Bringg, AIBY, TangoMe, Roku, JCB (Japan Credit Bureau), Seafai
Key investments (188 deals with investors worth $533.5 million in 2020)
- Grammarly became decacorn – $200M+ funding round, estimated at $ 13BLN,
- People.ai joins the unicorn club – $100 million funding, $1.1 billion post-money valuation,
- GitLab is taking over Nasdaq with a valuation of $15 billion,
- Revolut – $800 million (Vlad Yatsenko became the first Ukrainian tech billionaire),
- Firefly Aerospace – $75 million,
- airSlate (ex-PDFiller) – $50 million,
- Preply – $35 MLN,
- Revenue Grid (ex-Invisible.io) – $20 million,
- Influ2 – $8 MLN,
- 3DLOOK – $6.5MLN,
Solana – a valuation of 55 BLN, 4,300-fold increase in the price of the blockchain’s tokens.
TOP investors and newbies on the VC market
Active players: USF (funded more than 250 startups worth almost USD 7 million), Flyer One Ventures (ex-Genesis), Adventures Lab, TA Ventures, AVentures Capital, ICU, Digital Future, u.ventures, QPDigital, SMRK, Startup Wise Guys, TMT Investments, Brise Capital, etc.
Newbies: SID Venture Partners, Roosh Ventures, Geek Ventures, US MAC & StrategEast & Catapult ($50 MLN VC); Demium (€50 MLN in 2021, CEE Fund – €40 MLN in February 2022); Pawa; Baltic Sandbox, N1 investment fund.
Trade and international development
International: SoftServe in Dubai (Middle East go-to-market strategy), ELEKS in Japan & Switzerland, Bird by LUN in London, ROZETKA in Uzbekystan and Moldova, biotech A.D.A.M. in the US, Liki24 in Poland, Romania, and Hungary; Uklon in Moldova.
Local: Ajax Systems’s R&D in Lviv, SoftServe in Vinnytsya, Odesa, Uzhgorod, Khmelnytskyi, EPAM in Ivano-Frankivsk, Odesa, Mykolayiv, Kherson
Ranking, Awards, Achievements
Global Startup Ecosystem Index Report 2021 by StartupBlink: Ukraine is 34th, Kyiv – 48th , Lviv has jumped an impressive 99 spots to 255th globally.
Global Innovation Index 2021: Ukraine ranks 49th among the 132 economies.
Highlights:
- The first-ever Ukraine’s Pavilion at Web Summit
- The first-ever UK-Ukraine Fintech Summit
- Reface was awarded as the Fastest Growing App 2021
- BetterMe named as the best application according to App Growth Awards 2021
- Ukrainian cyber sport team the Natus Vincere NAVI is the world champion 2021 (got eighth titles within 2021)
- Ukrainian Petcube products have 4 spots in the top 5 by USA TODAY’s Reviewed in the category “The best smart pet cameras of 2021”
- Ukrainian e-bikes Delfast is among 10 rocketing European startups boosting the home delivery sector and the fastest e-bike by Insider & Forbes
- Ukrainian EdTech company Headway became the world leader by downloads in the book summary niche
- Cardiomo was awarded as the Best Biometrics Innovation in Healthcare by Juniper Research
Government and The Ministry of Digital Transformation initiatives
Ukraine is now the world’s first country where a digital passport has the same power internally, as a paper or plastic one, making its digital and physical passports interchangeable.
Diia platform services launched in 2021: Vaccination certificates, e-pidtrymka, e-Malyatko, driver’s license, business registration, digital education, building permits, etc
Thanks, Alexander Viktorov, Investment Banking in Concorde Capital, for support!
Everything is TECHable with Ukraine!
Stay tuned!
