Ukrainian tech sector in wartime

On 24 February, Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. After 8+ years of occupation of parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions and attempted annexation of Crimea (aggression that had already killed thousands of Ukrainians), Putin’s regime crossed an unthinkable line, moving the Russian army into brutal large-scale warfare, an invasion the likes of which hasn’t been seen in Europe since World War Two.

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 24.02-1.04.2022:

• Analytics: Ukrainian tech ecosystem during war
• Ministry of Digital Transformation: wartime projects & initiatives
• Wartime scaling up: new offices in Ukraine and globally
• Venture capital and investments in wartime
• Tech Ecosystem news during aggression 
• Featured Articles via global media 
• Podcasts

Analytics: Ukrainian tech ecosystem during war 

DOU: Ukrainian IT in the first month of the war: from March 23 to 26. Highlights: over 60% left their homes; more than 80% of the surveyed professionals are already working full time; 91% of tech specialists are actively helping the country by transferring money to the army and volunteers; 77% of IT specialists’s incomes have not changed significantly – read

Lviv ІТ Cluster: IT Research Monitoring results – Ukraine’s tech at war. As of the first week of March, 98.5% of companies said they hadn’t stopped operations, while 7.8% of respondents said that business activity had even increased – read

IT Ukraine Association: How the IT industry is contributing to Ukraine’s victory. Ukraine’s economy is now defended by more than 85% of IT professionals. Since the very beginning of the war, almost 2% of IT professionals mainly with military experience have joined the Armed Forces – read

Startup Voice by Ukrainian Startup Fund: survey results of startup ecosystem of Ukraine. regarding the location of startup teams: 71% — in Ukraine, 28% — partly abroad, 1% — abroad. The vast majority of surveyed startups (99% of respondents) said they needed financial support – read

Djiinni: How the war impacted the tech job market in Ukraine. Amazingly, there were no significant layoffs. According to a survey at DOU, 85-90% of employees are “back at work.” The key marketplaces metrics, like jobs posted or contacts made, are raising 20-30% per week – read

The number of IT specialists in western regions of Ukraine has tripled, Stepan Veselovskyi, CEO of Lviv ІТ Cluster – read

The War in Ukraine: Pulse of Cyber Defense by The State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection of Ukraine – read

Ministry of Digital Transformation – wartime projects & initiatives 

• IT Army of Ukraine: Over 300,000 people have joined a group called IT Army on the social media platform Telegram
• Digital diplomacy front: communication with Big Tech companies (Elon Mask & Starlink, 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; report on the movement of the enemy’s military troops and hardware; 24/7 access to TV and radio; the possibility of imagining yourself as a Bayraktar operator.
• International Legion of Internet Army: a government-led unit for spreading facts about the ongoing conflict against the Kremlin’s propaganda
• MetaHistory Museum of War: An NFT-museum of the war of putin’s russia against Ukraine; already raised over $600 000 – read
• TruthFund.com a fund to fight disinformation about the war in Ukraine – read
• Send putin to Jupiter – over 2 million donations

Wartime scaling up: new offices in Ukraine and globally

London-based fintech company Wirex is opening R&D centers in Ukrainian Lviv and Polish Wroclaw and actively hiring Ukrainian IT professionals who had to leave their homes and move to the western regions of Ukraine and Europe – read

EPAM opened office in Uzhgorod, Zakarpattya region, Ukraine – read

Ukrainian ELEKS launches a new office in Kraków, Poland. In spring 2022, ELEKS is expanding its presence in Croatia with opening new offices in Split and Zagreb – read

Swedish-Ukrainian IT company Sigma Software Group announced opening offices in Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, Hungary, and Portugal – read

Amazon launches humanitarian aid hub in Slovakia to help Ukrainian refugees – read

Netflix plans to open a Netflix CEE office in Warsaw later this year that will function as a hub for the Central and Eastern Europe region – read

Venture capital and investments in wartime 

Ukrainian SID Venture Partners invested in 4 startups: NEAR Protocol, Elai.io, Mindist, SPOKK – read and also in Orderly Protocol.

Ukrainian Investment Management Company in IT field InSoft Partners invested in Lviv-based Inoxoft and Linkup Studio with offices in Lviv and Ternopil – read

LUN acquired the property portal rieltor.ua – read

Ukrainian investors Igor Pertsiya (ex TAventure) and Dmytro Volkonskyi (ex TRIONIKA) launched the VC hypra and already raised $25 MLN. Joint venture fund building and investing in web3 projects with focus on Ukraine and Ukrainian startups – read

Machinа investment firm with European and US investors launches in Ukraine. It will invest in Ukrainian small and middle-sized businesses in Ukraine – read

Google for Startups has launched a Ukraine Support Fund worth five million US dollars to allocate equity-free cash awards throughout 2022 – read

Tech Ecosystem news during aggression 

The Head of Zakarpattya region announced the launch of the IT cluster in the region. Since the beginning of the war, up to 35,000 IT professionals have already moved to Zakarpattya – read

8 Apps of war from Ukrainian developers – read

New initiatives for Ukrainian business in wartime: UA Founders, Do Business with Ukrainians, EASE Work, B2BeeMatch – read

How Ukrainian tech community answers to the wartime challenges: KOLO, Monobank, KSE – read

Diia City: Already 153 IT companies joined Ukraine’s ‘special tax regime’ Diia City, a special legal and tax system for IT businesses – read

On 16 of March, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy inked the Law of Ukraine “On Virtual Assets”. It creates conditions for the launch of a legal market for virtual assets in Ukraine. The new market will be regulated by the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market – read

TechUkraine & partners launched the Ukrainian Community of Tech Emerging Europe Advocates – read

Support by countries & Platforms with vacancies on TechUkraine – read

The first Ukrainian decacorn Grammarly is featured on the TIME’s list of the 100 Most Influential Companies in 2022. Cofounded by Ukrainian London-based Revolut is also in the list – read

Ukraine in SXSW: Despite the full-scale russian invasion in Ukraine and 23th day of war, Ukraine’s innovation potential was presented to the world within the International Conference South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin (Texas, USA) – read

Featured Articles via global media

• WIRED: Crypto Goes to War in Ukraine – read
• DW: Inside Ukraine’s cyber guerrilla army- read
• The Wall Street Journal: Ukraine Tech Startups Pivot From Software Code to Rescue Plans – read
• The Time: ‘It’s Our Home Turf.’ The Man On Ukraine’s Digital Frontline – read
• Silicon Canals: Here’s how the resilient Ukrainian tech community stands tall amid the crisis – read
• Emerging Europe: Ukraine’s spacetech community unites in defense of the country – read
• TechCrunch: Ukraine’s Mykhailo Fedorov talks about corporate sanctions and running a government during wartime – read
• The Economist: This Ukrainian hacker is spreading chaos in Russia – read
• International Tech giants supporting the resistance and resilience of the Ukrainian ecosystem – read
• People across the globe against Russian aggression in Ukraine – read

Podcasts

Mayak Innovatsiy: Ukrainian Pitch in War Time by Dominique Piotet, CEO of UNIT.City, & Tatiana Morozova Skydan, Executive Producer & Co-Host, founder Podcast Bar

• Yegor Aushev, Cyber Unit Technologies – listen
• Anton Volovyk, Reface – listen
• Sacha Michaud, Glovo – listen
• Iryna Supruniuk, TechUkraine – listen

Others 

• Podcast by Ukrainian Weekly & Mike Buryk with Deputy Minister Alex Bornyakov, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine – listen
• DW Deutsche Welle Shift about the Ukraine’s Tech industry with Nataly Veremeeva, TechUkraine – watch
• Podcast by Startup Poland with Iryna Supruniuk, TechUkraine – listen

Via TechUkraine, NYT, Emerging Europe, WIRED, TechCrunch, Fornes, Bloomberg, Sifted, Silicon Canal, TNW, TIME, WSJ, DW, DOU, dev.ua, SPEKA, AIN, UBN, The Kyiv Independent, etc

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