As the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its second week, the world has responded with a remarkably unified front against the war. That includes the 🇫🇷French Tech ecosystem, which has launched a number of efforts to support Ukrainian entrepreneurs as well as to offer aid to the estimated 1 million refugees who are fleeing the war zone.
- Housing: Station F is offering Ukrainian entrepreneurs who have taken refuge in France free accommodation for their families at Flatmates, the residence dedicated to Station F entrepreneurs. Any Ukrainian employee of a Station F startup is also eligible.
- Work Visas: Scaleway CEO Yann Lechelle is pushing for special, long-term work visas to allow Ukrainian refugees to quickly find jobs in the French Tech sector and help their families settle quickly in France.
- Refugee Matching: The co-founders of Paris-based HRTech startup Jobgether launched EU4UA, a platform to match refugees with people who can offer shelter. The co-founders include Brussels-based Juan Bourgois, Arnaud Devigne, Columbia-based Alexis Rodríguez, and Madrid-based Alexandre Hernandez.
- Refugees: A coalition of La French Tech mission, France Digitale, and The Galion Project has launched a crowdfunding effort on Leetchi to raise money for supplies for Ukrainian refugees.
- La French Tech Kyiv: Dominique Piotet is President of La French Tech Kyiv and CEO de UNIT.City, Ukraine’s biggest startup campus. In an interview this week, he gave an overview of how the tech community is responding (in French).
- Economic Aid: France’s Economics Ministry has launched a website and contact system for questions regarding the potential fallout of economic sanctions on French companies. And the French State Department has created a system for companies to make direct donations to raise money for Ukrainian refugees as well as to support the government’s humanitarian aid efforts.
- Cybersecurity: France’s Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d’information is providing real-time updates on cyberattacks possibly related to the war and advice for companies on how to protect themselves.
Thanks for your support, French Tech community!
Read more via The French Tech Journal
Support Ukraine!
- Come Back Alive is one of the largest charitable foundations that supports Ukrainian soldiers, founded by the IT specialist Vitaliy Deynega. The organization collected more than 210 million UAH (more than $7M) in 2014. According to Na chasi, the Patreon page Come Back Alive is in the top ten projects by the number of financial donations.
- Army SOS, which develops drones;
- Everybody Can, an organization that supports internally displaced people;
- Help on the Ministry of Defense website.
#StrongerTogether
#staywithukraine