Ukrainian tech sector in wartime (April Edition)

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 1.04-1.05.2022:

• 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 

Key insights of 2021-2022 in VC & PE Deal book by AVentures Capital. Highlights: Record high VC and PE volume exceeding US$ 830m in Ukrainian tech companies marking more than 45% YoY growth. Historic high volume of early-stage (Seed and Series A) deals exceeding US$ 240m. Strong M&A activity with at least 28 exits of product and IT service companies – read

Emerging Europe: FUTURE OF IT 2022 Report. Highlights: with a large and highly educated population, Ukraine has a strong start-up ecosystem that has birthed five unicorns already: GitLab, Grammarly, Genesis, People.ai and Firefly Aerospace – read

Microsoft special report: An overview of Russia’s cyberattack activity in Ukraine. Hacking and military operations by russian worked in tandem, focusing on the same targets – read 

DOU: Key challenges of Ukrainian tech companies in wartime. Highlights: 84% IT specialists works full-time; up to 10-15% of clients terminated contracts; among the risks for clients – cybersecurity, mobilization of IT professionals – read

DOU: The migrations map of Ukrainian IT specialists during the war. Highlights: 46% of ІТ-professionals relocated to more safety regions in Ukraine since the beginning of war. The most popular region is Lviv – 11% of all respondents or 23% of people who relocate in Ukraine. Ivano-Frankivsk – 6%, Zakarpattya – 9% – read

IT Ukraine Association launches a new research together with IT clusters “Ukrainian IT Industry: reboot in wartime” – read

Djiinni: How the war impacted the tech job market in Ukraine (Market update, Apr 25th). Candidates online: 43,676 (+795), Jobs online: 14,934 (+264)  – 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 280,000 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; e-vorog chat bot reports on the movement of the enemy’s military troops and hardware (over 270 000 users); application for compensation for property damage caused by Russia’s all-out war; 24/7 access to TV and radio; e-bayraktar game – the possibility of imagining yourself as a Bayraktar operator.
• Aid For Ukraine: The funds are used for the support of humanitarian aid programs and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The community has already raised more than $60 million
• 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

The Starlink Ukraine entity, a representative of SpaceX, has just registered in Ukraine – read

Ukrainian manufacturer of security systems with smart home capabilities Ajax Systems launched in Canada – read

Ukrainian tech giant SoftServe opens office in Romania – read

Innovecs scales up in Eastern Europe, LATAM and Georgia – read

AllSTARSIT has opened its global LATAM HQ and Customer Support Center in Bogota, Colombia – read

Grid Dynamics Holdings announced the opening of a new European hub with an office in Zug, Switzerland and new engineering office in Yerevan, Armenia – read

Kharkiv-based Quantum registered the company’s office in Warsaw and opened a team space in Gdansk. The company already has representative offices in Ukraine and Israel, and the next step was to open an office in Eastern Europe – read

Swedish-Ukrainian Sigma Software launched development offices in Lutsk and Chernivtsi. Also, the company announced the opening centers in Mukachevo, Zakarpattya region, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil – read

EPAM Systems opened a new office in Khmelnytskyi for dozens of team members from Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Chernigiv – read

Luxoft Ukraine opened 5 temporary offices in Ukraine: Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytskyi, Lviv, Reni in Odesa region – read

Venture capital and investments in wartime 

Horizon Capital acquired a minority stake in Miratech – read

Ukrainian GoSolo raised $1 MLN by co-founders of Grammarly Max Lytvyn and Alex Shevchenko, with participation of SFC Capital, Menlo Ventures, and few top managers of Stripe – read

Ukrainian SID Venture Partners invested in 2 startups: in The Credit Thing (ex-Koto by Monobank founders) and The Breakfast – read

CEO Unicorn Nest Denis Dovgopoliy, CEO CfE Ivan Petrenko in cooperation with Lviv Business School of UCU (LvBS) and UCuniversity launched the 7wings fund for Ukrainian startups of $1,5-2 MLN. 7wings is a CfE-based startup support fund that provides $50,000 in non-equity grants to Ukrainian startups, most of whose team members remain in Ukraine, and the startup itself has suffered from Russia’s unwarranted aggression against Ukraine – read

Geek Ventures is launching the “Save Ukrainian Startups” – a marketplace of help for the startups with Ukrainian founders (in Ukraine or abroad now) – read

Ukrainian entrepreneurs Andrew Kryvorchuk (ex CEO of Adventures Lab) and Leon Podobedov launched hi5 Ventures with $15 mln investment fund. VC will invest in startups of SaaS, Mobile, EduTech, AI/ML, Security, eSports and AdTech. Checks: $250 000 – up to $1 mln – read

Ukrainian VC Flyer One Ventures launches an initiative “20 Startups with Ukrainian Founders to Invest in!” to promote Ukrainian tech startups on the international arena – read

Network VC (US) launched the Network VC Syndicate Fund Series Ukraine with and program “Support Ukrainian Startups” – read

Machinа investment firm with European and US investors launches in Ukraine. It will finance Ukrainian small and middle-sized businesses (fintech, edtech, agrotech, cybersecurity, foodtech, future of ecommerce, etc) – read

Ukrainian Roosh Ventures partook in TheGuarantors series C round that raised $50 million – read

Tech Ecosystem news during aggression 

UKRAINER: How Ukrainian IT helps hasten victory – read

Ukrainian edtech company Preply is among the Top 100 Marketplaces in 2022 from a16z and Future, a ranking of the largest consumer-facing marketplace startups and private companies – read

Mykhailo Fedorov & Zoya Lytvyn among the Young Global Leaders 2022 by The World Economic Forum – read

Diia City: More than 200 IT companies joined Ukraine’s ‘special tax regime’ Diia City, a special legal and tax system for IT businesses. Among newbies, Preply, EVO, Readdle – read

Tesla Powerwall tech arrived to Ukraine and will power up two ambulant clinics in destroyed Irpin and Borodyanka – read

O0 Design launched “Spend With Ukraine” project – the best Ukrainian products and services globally – read

How Kharkiv IT Cluster works during the war: 500 IT companies, over 170 MLN UAH taxes/monthly, over 100 MLN UAH raised for Army and humanitarian aid  – read

Amid the wartime, founder of UNIT.City announced the construction of innovation park LvivTech.City – read

Zakarpattya IT cluster/IT Cluster Transcarpathia – how to join the initiative – read

Ukrainian tech entrepreneur Andriy Zinchuk, founder of venture capital firm ZAS Ventures, launched the coworking Ventures Space in Lutsk, Volyn region – read

Ukrainian tech team of Russian-Ukrainian War veterans UA DYNAMICS created the concept of a reusable airstrike drone PUNISHER to conduct special reconnaissance and implement tactics of raids on important military facilities with enhanced protection in the deep rear of the enemy – read

Ukrainian professor Vasyl Davydko sends equipment through Amazon via the War-Stop project to civilians who fight for Ukraine – read

Ukrainian startups Jiffsy and Gearheart have developed a Shopify app and a website widget with official Ukrainian resources to support Ukraine – read

Ukrainians launched “Boycott Russian IT” project to stop operation with Offshore IT projects which could sponsor the war in Ukraine – read

Ukrainian & Portuguese Leaders Innovating Future Technologies UPLIFT announced the open call for early-stage startups & scale-ups to join acceleration and soft landing program – read

Projector Institute is cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Diia.Business launched Ukrainian creative & tech Foundation with the aim to empower 5 000 Ukrainian women refugees to start creative & tech careers – read

IT Arena Launches New Live Talks to Support Ukraine’s Tech Industry – sign up

A manufacturer of air monitoring services, Culver Aviation, which is part of the TECHIIA holding, has opened the first enrollment to UAV operator training courses – read

SET University launched a cybersecurity educational project – a platform of the most useful resources on the cyber topic – read

Ukrainian Reface launched Memomet app – a weapon for peaceful and free people in the new reality – read

TechUkraine is an official media partner for TNWConference 2022 – read

Dev.ua: ІT StandForUkraine unites over 1000 IT specialists, marketers, digital transformation and AI professionals, and leading by Veronica Tamayo Flores – read

Featured Articles via global media

• Emerging Europe: Five ways to support Ukraine’s tech sector – read
• Business Insider: How a 29-year-old startup founder is running her business from bomb shelters in Ukraine – read
• TechCrunch: 3 things you can do right now to support Ukraine’s IT sector – read
• Forbes: For Ukraine’s Tech Startups, Fighting The War Means Memes, Information Campaigns–And Keeping Their Businesses Going – read
• Yahoo Finance: ‘Believe in us:’ Ukrainian tech executives make appeal amid fears of brain drain – read
• WIRED: Ukraine’s Digital Battle With Russia Isn’t Going as Expected- read
• CoinDesk: Inside a Fund Raising Millions in Crypto for Besieged Ukraine – read
• Evening Standard: ‘We are paying taxes and helping our defenders’: How Ukraine’s tech companies are working through war – read
• INK: A New Campaign to Help Ukraine Startups, With a Silicon Valley-Style Launch – read
• Time: ‘We Became Like a Big Startup.’ How Kyiv Adapted the City’s Tech to Save Lives – read
• Time: How Ukraine Is Crowdsourcing Digital Evidence of War Crimes – read
• Fortune: Ukrainians launch website to crowdfund war planes – read
• TNW: People donating to Ukrainians through Airbnb shows the sharing economy’s not all bad – read
• TechCrunch: Co-founders of Ukrainian startup Delfast discuss navigating through a crisis – 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

• Lesha Shaldenko, CEO at Wantent – listen

• Vlad Savchenko from EASE- listen

Others 

• Podcast by Ukrainian Weekly & Mike Buryk with Oleksandr Kosovan, CEO of MacPaw and cofounder of the SMRK venture capital fund – listen
• Interview by Silicon Luxembourg about the Ukraine’s Tech industry with Nataly Veremeeva, TechUkraine – read

Via TechUkraine, NYT, Emerging Europe, WIRED, TechCrunch, Forbes, Bloomberg, Sifted, VICE, Business Insider, TNW, TIME, WSJ, DW, Silicon Luxembourg, Verdict, DOU, dev.ua, SPEKA, AIN, UBN, Vector, The Kyiv Independent, etc

Read the the first wartime edition here

You can donate to TechUkraine here.

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