Ukrainian tech sector in wartime (October-November 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 1.10-30.11.2022 and dig deeper into:

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

Analytics: Ukrainian tech ecosystem

CEE Startups report by Dealroom.co in partnership with Google for Startups EU, Atomico & Credo Ventures: Ukrainian startups are showing incredible resilience in spite of the war and recession, with enterprise value growing 3.3x since 2020. Two new unicorns in the region are from Ukraine: airSlate and Unstoppable Domains. 2022 is set to match the record breaking 2021 volume of early-stage VC funding in CEE, currently at €1.8B – read

Map of startups with priority verticals for investment by Ukranian Startup Fund, TA Ventures , Ministry of Digital Transformation: Cybersecurity & Military tech, Energy and sustainability, FinTech, FoodTech/AgroTech, Logistics Tech, etc. – read

5-year change in Ukrainian IT sector by BRDO: In 2022, Ukraine exported more IT services than ores, metals, engineering products or oils. Over 5 years, exports of computer services more than tripled, reaching projected USD 7.6 billion in 2022 – read

National IT industry has maintained positive growth dynamics: During the nine months of 2022, the volume of computer services increased by 13% and amounted to almost USD 5.5 billion, according to the National Bank of Ukraine. At the same time, the amount of taxes and fees paid by the IT industry during this period amounted to UAH 48 billion – read

IT exports growth by to the monitoring service Opendatabot: For eight months of 2022, IT exports have grown by 16% year over year – read

CEE software development M&A report for 1H 2022 by AVentures Capital: Ukrainian IT sector continues double digit growth despite the invasion by Russia and half dozen of M&A deals already closed in 2022. The war however provoked a major talent shift in the region and push for strategic delivery diversification. With 40+ deals already announced in 1H 2022, a bit less vs. the same period last year, the trend for consolidation in the Software Development industry endures with most deals in companies with delivery in Romania, Poland, and Ukraine – read

Q3 cybersecurity report on the operation of the Vulnerability Detection and Cyber Incident Response System of the Cyber Rapid Response Team of the SSSCIP State Cyber Defense Center: Over 24 billion information security events were processed using the vulnerability detection and cyberincident response system in Q3 2022. The number of registered and processed cyberincidents has increased from 64 to 115 compared to the previous quarter – read

Overview of the Ukrainian Web3 ecosystem by Hypra: Over 80 Web3 startups were launched in Ukraine and they have totally raised over $1 billion over the past 4 years – read 

Survey of Ukrainian IT Services providers by SquadGurus: Since the start of the war, 51.5% of firms are now located in the Lviv region, 27.3% in Kyiv, and Kharkiv has dropped to only 9.1%. 13.4% of firms are reporting an increase in business. While more than 60% are planning to stay, nearly 40% were not committed to staying (with 6% definitely planning on moving) – read

The portrait of Ukrainian IT specialist 2022 by DOU: The median age of an IT specialist, as a year ago, is 29 years (in 2020 year – 28 years old). 87% of surveyed have a higher education (one or more), another 5% are studying at a university. The most students are Game Developers (15%), Data Science (11%) and Security (9%), as well as developers (6%) – read

Ukrainian tech market: candidate’s profile by Djinni: 41K of tech specialists online. The top 3 specializations are JavaScript, QA and Java; 52% of candidates have 2+ years of experience in a given field and at least an intermediate level of English; Median net salary for senior tech specialists is $5K a month + 5% flat tax (for Ukrainians) – read and IT Job Market by Djinni Data

New VC Funds Investing in Europe – 3Q 2022 by VestBee: Polish-American VC ffVC has announced the inception of a new $50M fund – Blue & Yellow – that will exclusively invest in Ukrainian founders and startups. Horizon Capital, a US-based firm, has raised the first $125M closing of its $250M fund. The firm will focus on Ukrainian and Moldovan startups – read

KYIV RYSING report by Kyiv Consulting: Ukrainian IT sector showed a solid CAGR of 28.8% during 2017- 2021 and was one of the major centres for the IT industry in Central and Eastern Europe, with large export volumes to the USA and Western Europe. Russia’s war against Ukraine disrupted the IT sector, but not to such an extent compared to other industries. Ukrainian IT companies opened their offices outside Ukraine to secure their project pipelines – read

Future of Emerging Europe Sustainability Report 2022 by Emerging Europe: Despite the war, Ukraine is among the brightest examples of digitalisation, resilience, and tech for good practices – read

Open Eyes charity report by SoftServe: $1,072,590 raised since February 2022, 24,000+ medical items, 15,673 items of personal protection were provided to the defenders, 5,800 items of IT equipment (computers, modems, Starlinks) to governmental, public, and military organizations – read

Wartime scaling up: new offices in Ukraine and globally

Miratech Opened R&D In Canada and Office In India – read

Sigma Software Group opened office in Budapest, Hungary, and office in Burgas, Bulgaria – read

Ukrainian Ajax Systems, the largest manufacturer of professional security systems in Europe, is entering the Uruguay market – read

GlobalLogic open two development centers in Mexico – read

Mate academy launched the representative office in Warsaw, Poland – read

Brightgrove opened development center in Bucharest, Romania – read 

Gismart opened office in Warsaw – read

Techstack opened the first delivery center in Wrocław, Poland – read

Nova Poshta has opened two more branches in Poland: in Gdańsk and Wrocław – read

SoftServe opened new office in Ternopil, Ukraine, equipped by generators and starlinks – read

Lviv-based TechMagic, a JavaScript development company, and Serverless Inc., has opened office in Kyiv – read

Ukrainian woman tech community WTECH launched in Warsaw, Washington, and Lisbon, additionally to representative offices in London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam

Venture capital and investments 

Cybersecurity startup with Ukrainian founders Eclypsium raised $25 MLN. The round is led by Ten Eleven Ventures with participation from Open Innovation Fund and J Venture Partners – read

Horizon Capital, a private-equity firm launched a new fund, Horizon Capital Growth Fund IV (HCGF IV), raising $125M (approximately €129M) in its first close – read

GR Capital, a pan-European VC with full-time offices in Berlin and Kyiv, announced the €30 million first close of its second VC fund, GR Capital Fund II. A final close, targeting €100 million, is not expected until Q2 2023 – read

American Plug and Play, an innovation platform in Silicon Valley that helps turn a promising startup into a large successful company like Google, PayPal and Dropbox, is ready to support Ukrainian startups – read

Flashpoint, an international technology investment firm that manages six funds with a total value of more than $450M, intends to raise a new Ukrainian Tech Fund totaling about $75M, focused only on Ukraine – read

Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) launched a $1.5m fund called Angel One to invest in fintech, SaaS, edtech and AI startups at the pre-seed and seed stages – read

Ukrainian startup Wombats Corp has raised $250,000 from the Atlassian fund – read

Ukrainian Intellias completes the acquisition of Digitally Inspired, a fast growing UK based peer, focusing on the retail and eСommerce industry – read

Avenga, a global engineering and consulting platform, has acquired Argentina-based IncluIT – read

The Swiss media group Ringier AG has acquired Homsters, a startup founded by Ukrainian and Polish entrepreneurs – read

The Web3-oriented hypra VC bought out NetSolid Investments‘ 25% stake in the world’s biggest blockchain dev shop Boosty Labs. The purchase amount is not specified – read

WRAP, a web app for filmmakers that simplifies and automates video production workflow, has become the Startup Competition winner at IT Arena 2022 in Lviv and got $20 000 prize pool – read

Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest has launched a $25 billion investment fund for reconstructing Ukrainian infrastructure destroyed or damaged by Russian forces. He and his wife have already committed $500 million to the fund, encouraging other investors and entrepreneurs to join the initiative – read

Warsaw-based bValue, an early-stage venture capital firm launched bValue Growth, its third fund, with a target of €100M. Polish VC has already raised €72M from institutions, family offices, and private individuals – read

Established by Ukrainian Vadim Rogovskiy and Belarusian Ihar Mahaniok, Geek Ventures venture capital fund participated in a $3.1 funding for the US startup SportsVisio – read

A list of 10 VC firms that invest in CEE region by Flyer One Ventures – read

A list of 10 startups with Ukrainian founders which raised funds in 2022 – read

New support initiative: the pilot of the International Founders Open Office Hours (IFOOH) to connect great immigrant founders from all over the world with top UK VCs by Blue Lake VC, King’s College London, and The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – read

Tech Ecosystem news 

Achievements 

TIME named Ukrainian Esper Bionics One Of The Best Inventions Of 2022. Esper Bionics is an award-winning engineering company that builds human enhancement devices. The company is headquartered in New York – read 

Kyiv & Kyiv Digital app is the winner of the Smart City Expo World Congress 2022 in the category City Award – read

eBay has awarded Ukrainian state enterprise, the biggest post operator in the country, Ukrposhta “Rising Star” award for its successful launch of an online store and meeting delivery timing globally – read

Ukrainian wellness startup with 100M installs worldwide BetterMe won the The Europas Tech Startup Awards in the category healthtech – read

Ukrainian Headway, a bite-sized learning app that helps people grow, is among the TOP 5 via the USA Google Play in the education category. The app has over 14M downloads worldwide – read

Ukrainian startup POLY DIAGNOSTICS became one of the 15 winners out of 300 applications worldwide at Arch Summit in Luxembourg – read

Ukrainian Depositphotos won the Red Dot Design Award in the category “Brands & Communication Design” for the “Creative Trends 2022: Merging the future and the past” project – read

Odesa-based RadASO, the first Ukrainian mobile marketing agency, part of the Netpeak Group, was shortlisted for App Growth Award 2022 in the ASO AGENCY category – read

Ukrainian Victoria Repa, founder of BetterMe, is the Best Female Entrepreneur in Europe, the Middle East & Africa, bronze winner by The Stevie® Awards 2022 – read

Ukrainian scientists Mariia Svyrydenko from KovalenkoLab awarded the Best Poster prize from the Organizing Committee at NanoGe International Conference in Switzerland  – read

Ukrainian professional esports athlete Alexandr Kostylev, also known under his gaming nickname s1mple, has been named the global gaming champion of the decade by the world’s largest esport organization ELS. Ukraine-based esports team Natus Vincere’s CS:GO superstar s1mple has been awarded the player of the decade (2012-2022) by ESL at the IEM Rio Major – read

Young Ukrainian scientists won the prizes at the International Innovation Show (INOVA) by WIIPA World Intellectual Property Organization – WIPO in Croatia. 25 Ukrainian inventors joined the competition online and 25 had a chance to visit the event personally and represent Ukrainian tech solutions for global audience – read

Ukrainian team won 2 golden medals and bronze at The European Girls’ Olympiad in Informatics (EGOI), an international competition for young women interested in Computer Science – read

Young Ukrainian scientists, the team Op[ti]mum & Roboclub Vugledar, won the first prize at the Robotex International 2022 – read

Winners of the NASA Space Apps Challenge Dnipro 2022 – read

Three Ukrainian CleanTech Startups At The ClimateLaunchpad Europe Regional Final: MaxAh, S.Lab, MeGoElectric – read

National Defence Hackathon 2022 in Kyiv, the largest military tech event with the participation of NATO and foreign cybersecurity experts focused on cybersecurity, UAV, psyops operations, legal frames, gathered 41 teams (300 participants), 200 specialists via panel discussions, 17 selected projects at the exhibition of technical solutions. The winners – read

Winners Of The Hack For Peace — Cross-European Hackathon by Sigma Software, TechNation and House of Europe  – read

The VR project designed to help promote President Zelensky’s plan to accelerate Ukraine’s tech sector recovery, via a holographic broadcast by Talesmith has been shortlisted for a Broadcast Tech for Creative Use of VR and AR – read

Master Of Code Global with offices in Kyiv and Cherkasy gets the top 15 chatbot developers in the world in October, according to Clutch, and the top 7 in the world according to Techreviewer – read

Government 

Foreign IT specialists will be able to conduct business remotely in Ukraine: From April 1, 2023, Ukraine will introduce e-residency for all those willing to fill the country’s budget. The new e-resident can works and pay 5% tax on income within the limit ($190,000) of the 3rd group FOP – read

On November 4, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine finally adopted the longed-for Law on the reservation of conscripts during mobilization and martial law with a reduction in the period of preparation for its second reading – read

The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine will advise Germany on the government and public sector’s modernization and digitalization – read

Switzerland allocates more than CHF 15 million for the digitization of Ukraine to launch even more new services in Diia – read

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy participated in the “Digital Transformation” panel within the G20 summit: “My good advice to you is to take Ukrainian defense experience in order to guarantee the safety of your people” – read

Ukraine identifies four industries that will become the engine for the economy’s recovery: military tech (high-tech weapons); metallurgy, mining and engineering; agriculture and the food industry; IT – read

State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine continues active cooperation with the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence – read

Ukraine enhances cooperation with the EU Network and Information Security Agency – read

Other industry news 

Ingenious mobile app helps down first Russian missile in Ukraine: For the first time russian missile was shot down with the assistance of the Ukrainian mobile application ePPO (e-air defense), available to all users who are required to register through the Diia app, the national portal of digital government services – read

8 IT companies were featured by Forbes Ukraine magazine at the “30 resilient private companies of Ukraine” rating that included 30 Ukrainian companies from various industries that are most resilient to the challenges of a full-scale war: Ajax. Intellias, GlobalLogic, SoftServe, DataArt, Luxoft, Ciklum, Epam – read

Ukrainian IT Cluster Transcarpathia was established 6 months ago after the invasion by russia and relocation of the Ukrainian tech companies to the West. Today over 30K tech specialists are based in the region. 100 ІТ-companies and 390 individual entrepreneurs became the residents of the cluster – read

BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, and the IT Ukraine Association have signed an MoU to deepen collaboration between the UK and Ukrainian IT sectors, and champion new partnerships and growth opportunities – read

Members of the Ukrainian Delta team shared battlefield insights and lessons learned from incubating their innovative situational awareness tool at TIDESprint by NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) and CWIX events – read

Ukrainian ANTONOV Airlines in cooperation with Bolloré Transport & Logistics Space has transported civil telecommunication satellite on board one of its AN-124-100-150 aircraft from Toulouse, France, to NASA Shuttle Landing Facility in Titusville, USA, to be launched by the US aerospace company SpaceX – read

The global premiere of the documentary about Ukrainian tech during wartime “Made With Bravery” took place at Web Summit within the Ukrainian Pavilion – read

Ukrainian tech company MacPaw will provide monthly $30k institutional support to the Come Back Alive, one of the most effective nonprofits in Ukraine that helps our defenders and specializes in technical solutions – read

Grammarly launched on GitHub UA-GEC: Grammatical Error Correction and Fluency Corpus for the Ukrainian Language – read

Ukrainian Corezoid and Samsung announced the beginning of cooperation – read

Military units and divisions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have accelerated the implementation of innovative IT products to improve their mobility and efficiency – read

NYT featured Ukrainian startup Remo, a creative solution to hotels’ growing need for flexible work spaces that guests can use during short- or long-term stays – read

La French Tech Kyiv team became one of the 129 winning projects of the La French Tech Community Fund 2022-2023 and will implement the “Tech-Over Ukraine” project, contributing to the reconstruction of Ukraine – read

Google Ukraine with partners launched Ukrainian space on Google Arts & Culture. “Ukraine is Here” is an online platform that allows you to access images of works of art stored in museums around the world – read

Boeing and ThinkYoung opened the coding school for Ukrainian teenagers in Gdansk, Poland – read

Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched AWS’s IT Skills 4U – a new, free workforce-development program to help Ukrainians pursue cloud computing careers – read

UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) and Uber have partnered to help deliver emergency shelter and essential relief supplies to families across Ukraine who have been displaced from their homes or impacted by the fighting and are now facing the approaching cold – read

TechUkraine: interview, reportages, blogs

• Yaroslav Azhnyuk, a President and a Chairman of the Board at PetCube: “Always think big” – read
• Lars Seier Christensen, Seier Capital International: “Resilience of Ukrainians under hard conditions has continued to impress me” – read
• Canadian Producers Filmed Documentary About Ukrainian Tech In Wartime – read
• Web Summit 2022: Brave Ukraine At The Main Global Tech Stage – read
• Valencia Digital Summit 2022: Ukrainian Voices On The European Stage – read
• TechCrunch Disrupt 2022: Ukrainian Tech Delegation In The USA – read
• European Metaverse Summit & Awards 2022: Global Trends And Ukraine – read
• IT Arena 2022: Ukraine 3.0: Brave. Resilient. Digital – read
• “A Winning Ukraine”: Kyiv International Economic Forum-2022 – read
• Kickstart 2022: Ukrainian SolarGaps Partners With The City of Zurich – read
• Talent, Brave, Resilient, Tenacious, Intelligent – Our Founders Are Steely Creatures! – read

Ministry of Digital Transformation – wartime projects & initiatives 

• World’s first Fleet of Naval Drones: Over 200,000,000 UAH was collected in just 3 days. The people of Lithuania raised funds for 3 naval drones thanks to the initiative of the TV presenter and journalist of the Laisvės TV channel, Andrius Tapinas.

• IT Army of Ukraine: Over 208,000 people have joined a group called IT Army on the social media platform Telegram.
• World’s first Army of Drones: jointly with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and UNITED24. In October bought 11 powerful PUMA-LE unmanned aircraft systems for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (over UAH 540 million/US$14.7 million). Actor Mark Hamill (Star Wars trilogy), is serving as fundraising ambassador for Ukraine’s “Army of Drones” project. Previously, 985 drones have already reinforced the Armed Forces of Ukraine (UAH 948 million). Among the purchased UAVs, are: UkrJet (2), Skyeton (3), Fly Eye (20), WARMATE (40), SKIF (80), DJI Matrice RTK 300 (178), DJI Mavic 3 (254), Autel evo 2 (300). 
• Digital diplomacy front: communication with Big Tech companies (Elon Mask & Starlink, Palantir, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Binance, 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 reports on the movement of the enemy’s military troops and hardware; 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; launching Diia.pl in Poland; English docs.
• MetaHistory Museum of War: An NFT-museum of the war of putin’s russia against Ukraine; already raised over $979,933 (815.93) – read

Featured Articles via global media

• Time: THE BEST INVENTIONS OF 2022 A Bionic Future Esper Hand – read
• Le Point: The incredible courage of Ukrainian techno-resistants – read
  
• Bloomberg: ‘Star Wars’ Actor Hamill’s Campaign Sends 500 Drones to Ukraine – read
• Emerging Europe: Ukraine’s digital transformation is bringing it closer to the EU- read
  
• NYT: For Western Weapons, the Ukraine War Is a Beta Test – read
• BBC: Inside a US military cyber team’s defence of Ukraine – read
• Foreign Affairs: Big Tech Goes to War – read
• Bloomberg: Ukraine Seeks IT Investment at Web Summit as War Rages Back Home – read
• Sifted: Outrage after a startup with Russian founders wins Slush pitch competition – read
• TechCrunch: Slush revokes $1M pitch prize from Russian founders after industry outcry – read
• EuroNews: Microsoft pledges further €100 million to support Ukraine in ‘technological war’ – read
• Euronews: The first 3D-printed school in a warzone is being printed in Ukraine – read
• Reuters: How Grammarly Is Leading the Future of Effective Workplace Communication – read
  
• Forbes: How One Ukraine-Based Startup Aims To Stay Plugged Into The Continent’s Markets – read
• StartupReporte: Ukrainian startups at Web Summit 2022 – read
• TNW: Ukraine’s top IT event lays foundations for a post-war tech hub – read
• TNW: This startup is giving renters solar power – read
• The San Francisco Standart: Ukraine Tech Delegation Finds Its Way to SF During the War – read
• The Recursive: From Drones to AI and Cybersecurity: A Glimpse Into the Future of War Tech – read
  
• Rest Of World: Coding in a war zone. Ukraine’s tech industry adapts to a new normal – read
• Il Sole 24 Ore: Tech Has Become Kyiv’s Weapon Of Choice. Growing Despite The War – read

Featured stories in Ukrainian tech media

• Ukraine.ua: Ukrainian Inventions That Changed The World – read
• DOU: Cybervolunteering during wartime by Yegor Aushev – read
• SpekaMedia: Interview with Viktoria Tigipko, TA Ventures – part 1, part 2
• LigaTech: How Ukrainian telecom operators and internet providers recover the systems after russian terrorist attacks – read
• Forbes Ukraine: The list of 200+ entrepreneurs who joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion – read
• Dev.ua: War, R&D in Ukraine, new products in California – Delfast – read
• The Kyiv Independent: Europe’s largest tech conference withdraws invitation to pro-Kremlin speakers after backlash – read
• AIN: Cryptocurrency for volunteers. How Ukrainians fundraised over $179 MLN and who are the largest donors – read

Podcasts and videocasts

• Daniel Korski’ movie for GovTech Summit: “Innovation in Ukraine: Building resilience through digital strength” – watch
• Podcast by Mike Buryk with Carbominer CEO Nick Oseyko – listen
• Podcast by Mike Buryk with Ivan Petrenko, Managing Partner at Angel One – listen
• DOU Podcast: how Ukrainian IT operating in wartime – listen
• VECTOR Media and Genesis Academy: the podcast and videocast “How did you do it?” about how to create and develop products, teams and ideas – read
• Blockquote by Andrii Degeler: Oleksandr Kosovan – MacPaw, Alex Serdiuk – Respeecher, Dmitry Dubrovskyi – Uklon, Yaroslav Azhnyuk – Petcube, SpendWithUkraine
• Kunsht podcast – military tech season (cyber, drones, crypto, digital country etc), also on YouTube
• ‘Cultural Tribunal’ podcast by The Ukrainians: Ukrainian inventor and scientist, Serhii Korolov – listen
• UNITED24 Media: global success stories of Ukrainian tech team Ajax Systems and BetterMe – watch

Via TechUkraine, Sifted, NYT, TNW, Emerging Europe, Bloomberg, Le Point, TechCrunch, Il Sole 24 Ore, TIME, Foreign Affairs, Forbes, BBC, Euronews, Recursive, DOU, dev.ua, SPEKA, AIN, UBN, Vector, Speka, The Kyiv Independent, etc

Read the first wartime edition (February-March) here

Read the second wartime edition (April) here

Read the third wartime third edition (May) here

Read the forth wartime fourth edition (June) here

Read the fifth wartime fourth edition (July) here

Read the sixth wartime fourth edition (August-September) here

Support Kyiv-based TechUkraine team here.

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