This year’s Consumer Electronics Show will welcome a delegation of Ukrainian tech innovators. CES is a leading global technology conference, which serves as a pivotal platform for countries to showcase their technological innovation on an international stage. The event not only offers a space for networking and collaboration but also serves as a gateway for Ukrainian companies to forge partnerships, attract investments, and position themselves as key players in the global tech landscape.
Continuing the series of materials about Ukrainian startups that will represent our country at CES 2024, we are pleased to present you Ukrainian Techstars in Human Capital Management and Logistics: Meet the Shiny Club and Meredot.
Shiny Club
ShinyClub is a desktop gadget combined with an artificial intelligence service to improve the productivity of remote teams. Currently, Shiny Club has two founders, Igor and Viktor. Igor is in charge of software and promotion, and Viktor is in charge of the hardware part. They already had experience in manufacturing gadgets. Before that, they made a portable light for photographers, turned it into a business, and raised $100K in orders on Kickstarter.
“Nowadays, AI devices appear like mushrooms. But we learned from our last project to do most of the production in Ukraine. It’s a bit more expensive than in China, but we can control every stage of the process, so the quality is higher. In addition, the speed of production of the first batches is significantly accelerated. So we are betting on the speed of iteration and believe that at this stage we will be able to succeed due to this. We chose this niche because we work remotely a lot ourselves and need to manage our team. And as we see, remote work has become the norm even in hard-core startups. So this niche correlates well with the problems we have ourselves and with our experience in gadget production. I think we have found the so-called “Founder market fit” here,” — commented Igor, CEO and co-founder at Shiny Club.
“The American market is, of course, our main goal. It is difficult and interesting at the same time, because working there you work with the latest technologies and achievements. But both in the last project and in this one, we have most of our clients from the US, so I hope that we will be able to use this experience and understanding of this market,” — Igor added.
Meredot
Meredot is a Ukrainian startup that creates wireless charging stations for micro mobility vehicles. Initially, they focused on electric scooters, but in 2022 they made a pivot and expanded their focus to electric shopping carts, scooters, wheelchairs, food delivery robots, and other similar equipment.
“I’ve been an inventor since childhood, holding a soldering iron in my hands since the age of 10. Before starting my startup, I and my team developed innovative products for Schneider Electric in the smart home sector. Once, I envisioned the future in 30-50 years and asked myself: how will people charge their gadgets and transport? I wouldn’t want to live in a future where we still use wires for charging electrical devices. The future is about innovation, where people engage in what they love without wasting time on trivialities. Therefore, I started small, developing technology for wireless energy transfer over distances. Of course, I wasn’t the first, as there’s a company in the U.S., Witricity, with $160 million in investments, but we managed to catch up and even surpass some of their solutions. We are now focused on the micro-mobility market and became the first company to launch a product in this segment. But this is just the beginning, we have a four-point strategy, and the last of them is dynamic wireless charging – electric cars will be able to charge while moving,” — comments Roman Bysko, CEO at Meredot.
An excellent technology, a skilled team, and strong partners, such as Techstars, Alabama Power, USF, and the European Commission, stand behind them. As a startup, they have the ability to develop rapidly and avoid the time-consuming bureaucracy and protocol approval that large corporations face. While larger entities make decisions, they are already bringing their product to the market. Meredot doesn’t fear change; Meredot creates it.
“The American market welcomed us warmly. America is a nation of innovation, and it currently has the largest market for electromobility. We have already closed several deals and signed partnership agreements with major corporations, and we hope to start our expansion in the U.S. by 2024,” — Roman added.
We wish Ukrainian innovators great success, new customers and strengthening of Ukraine’s reputation as a tech country at the Consumer Electronic Show 2024!
The trade mission is organized by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine together with the Ukrainian Startup Fund and UVCA – Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. The Ukrainian delegation will participate in the event with the support of the USAID Competitive Economy Program. The mission information support is provided by TechUkraine.
