Welcome to Kyiv: Kyiv has entered the top 35 most developed urban startup ecosystems. Explore and tap into one of the fastest-growing markets in Central Europe, Kyiv!
About this city
Kyiv is enjoying good startup momentum, which should be highly appreciated considering the economic and regional situation.
Since 2018, Kyiv has jumped no less than 29 positions to favourable conditions for the successful launch of startups and improvement of their quality.
According to StartupBlink Ecosystem report 2019, Kyiv ranked 34th among the other 1000 locations as one of the largest startup cities, outstripping the startup ecosystems of Helsinki, Munich, and Dublin.
Kyiv is more popular than ever as an attractive location for foreign entrepreneurs, tech giants’ R&Ds (e.g. Snapchat, Ring, Boeing, Huawei, Upwork), VCs, accelerators and young talent from across CEE and all over the world. Use the Kyiv ecosystem to get in touch with serial entrepreneurs, IT professionals, startup alumni, innovators, accelerators and any kind of innovative stakeholders.
Tap into Kyiv Tech ecosystem!
News
Here selected links to dive into the Kyiv startup ecosystem: AIN, MC Today, NA Chasi, KYIV post, Business Ukraine, DOU,Vector media. Codeguida
Useful Information
GRP: $ 16.98 bln
GRP (per capita): $ 5.86 thousand
Average monthly salary (nominal): $ 418.66
Direct foreign investments per capita (equity capital): $ 8,092.6
Direct foreign investments (equity capital): $ 23.265 bln
Read more about Direct foreign investments per capita as of 2018 (page 72)
Read more about Import/Export as of 2018 (pages 75-76).
Coworking spaces and Hubs
Being a developing capital, Kyiv welcomes not only tourists but many businessmen and startups. There are hubs with up-to-date facilities and equipment, 24-hour service and constant collaboration of up-and-coming pacesetters.
Kyiv offers a massive variety of coworking spaces with comparable prices. Although there are many coworking spaces with the biggest community of founders and startups like iHUB Kyiv, Lift 99 Kyiv Hub, Hub 4.0, Platforma, Creative Quarter, Creative States, Regus, Kooperative.
Kyiv is a home for 1st innovational district of Ukraine – UNIT.City
In case you search for tech labs with tech supplies or equipment, check HackLab, FabLab Fabricator, America House Kyiv Makerspace, IzoLab, DIY Lab ARTKB
Communities
Kyiv offers plenty of professional communities which are led by people and for people who want to boost the Ukrainian ecosystem within various directions. Here is the list of the biggest ones:
UTEW Tech Tribe, Bitcoin Foundation, Data Science UA, MC Chat, SaaS Nation Community, Test UA startups, WTECH Ukraine, Startup Grind Kyiv, Founders League, AI Booster, Recruiter’s Tech Camp, Startup.Network, Startup Club by iHUB, Founders2Founders by Lift 99, IT Network, International Architects Club, Odyssey Space Network, The Owners , Industry 4.0 in Ukraine, The Big Meet, Zlit, Ukraine IT Community, Sales Label, ITractor.
The fastest way to catch up with locals via networking communities:
Silicon Drinkabout Kyiv, Fryday ™: Kyiv.
Check more IT Developers Communities here:
Developers.Org.Ua, Kyiv JS/Beer JS, Elixir Club, Ruby Meditation, Women Who Code Kyiv, RockstarNight Dev Club, Facebook Developer Circle Kyiv, Google Developers Groups (GDG).
More Tech community activities check at Meetup.com.
Incubators and Accelerators
Kyiv offers a bunch of acceleration and incubation programs for startups. You will find some B2B accelerators, a civic tech accelerator and corporate accelerators.
Here is a list of the biggest accelerators in Kyiv: eo Business Incubators, YEP!, 1991 open data incubator, Radar Tech, Concepter, Sector X, Growth Up, Demium Startups, Kyiv Smart City Hub, EY Startup Accelerator, IoT Hub, Agro Hub, Sikorsky challenge, Intecrator, Blue Lake Accelerator
Tech events
Kyiv events scene is quite impressive. You need to have excellent skills to manage to visit every good event around the city. Check the list of most significant events happening in Kyiv.
iForum (yearly in spring)
ITEM (yearly, spring-summer)
Blockchain Conference
AI Conference Kyiv (annual, different frequency)
Data Science UA Conference (twice a year: spring and autumn)
SAAS Nation (yearly in November)
Software Development Forum (yearly in autumn)
Kyiv International Economic Forum (annually in October-November)
Kyiv Investment Forum (annually in autumn)
Kyiv Smart City Forum (yearly in October-November)
Growth Marketing Stage (twice a year: spring and autumn)
Global Hack Weekend (annually in November)
Kyiv Project Management Day (yearly in spring or autumn)
Techstars Startup Week/Weekend (yearly in spring or autumn)
IT Weekend Ukraine (annually in September)
Unit Investment Summit (yearly in autumn)
Unit Fintech Forum (yearly in spring)
Kyiv Outsourcing Forum (once or twice a year in spring or autumn)
FWConference
Social Media Week (annually in summer)
OFFF Design (yearly in autumn)
More Tech community activities check at Meetup.com, Techevents, Eventbrite, Ticketforevent, 2event, Tickerry, Study Dive, KyivMaps, AIN, DOU.
Coworking spaces and Hubs
Being a developing capital, Kyiv welcomes not only tourists but many businessmen and startups. There are hubs with up-to-date facilities and equipment, 24-hour service and constant collaboration of up-and-coming pacesetters.
Kyiv offers a massive variety of coworking spaces with comparable prices. Although there are many coworking spaces with the biggest community of founders and startups like iHUB Kyiv, Lift 99 Kyiv Hub, Chasopys Unit, Hub 4.0, Platforma, Creative Quarter, Creative States, Regus, 1991 Civic Tech Center
Kyiv is a home for 1st innovational district of Ukraine – UNIT.City
In case you search for tech labs with tech supplies or equipment, check HackLab, FabLab Fabricator, America House Kyiv Makerspace, IzoLab, DIY Lab ARTKB
Communities
Kyiv offers plenty of professional communities which are led by people and for people who want to boost the Ukrainian ecosystem within various directions. Here is the list of the biggest ones:
UTEW Tech Tribe, Bitcoin Foundation, Data Science UA, MC Chat, SaaS Nation Community, Test UA startups, WTECH Ukraine, Startup Grind Kyiv, Founders League, AI Booster, Recruiter’s Tech Camp, Startup.Network, Startup Club by iHUB, Founders2Founders by Lift 99, IT Network, International Architects Club, Odyssey Space Network, The Owners , Industry 4.0 in Ukraine, The Big Meet, Zlit, Ukraine IT Community, Sales Label, ITractor.
The fastest way to catch up with locals via networking communities:
Silicon Drinkabout Kyiv, Fryday ™: Kyiv.
Check more IT Developers Communities here:
Developers.Org.Ua, Kyiv JS/Beer JS, Elixir Club, Ruby Meditation, Women Who Code Kyiv, RockstarNight Dev Club, Facebook Developer Circle Kyiv, Google Developers Groups (GDG).
More Tech community activities check at Meetup.com.
Incubators and Accelerators
Kyiv offers a bunch of acceleration and incubation programs for startups. You will find some B2B accelerators, a civic tech accelerator and corporate accelerators.
Here is a list of the biggest accelerators in Kyiv: eo Business Incubators, YEP!, 1991 open data incubator, Radar Tech, Concepter, Sector X, Growth Up, Demium Startups, Kyiv Smart City Hub, EY Startup Accelerator, IoT Hub, Agro Hub, Sikorsky challenge, Intecrator.
Tech events
Kyiv events scene is quite impressive. You need to have excellent skills to manage to visit every good event around the city. Check the list of most significant events happening in Kyiv.
iForum (yearly in spring)
ITEM (yearly, spring-summer)
Blockchain Conference
AI Conference Kyiv (annual, different frequency)
Data Science UA Conference (twice a year: spring and autumn)
SAAS Nation (yearly in November)
Software Development Forum (yearly in autumn)
Kyiv International Economic Forum (annually in October-November)
Kyiv Investment Forum (annually in autumn)
Kyiv Smart City Forum (yearly in October-November)
Growth Marketing Stage (twice a year: spring and autumn)
Global Hack Weekend (annually in November)
Kyiv Project Management Day (yearly in spring or autumn)
Techstars Startup Week/Weekend (yearly in spring or autumn)
IT Weekend Ukraine (annually in September)
Unit Investment Summit (yearly in autumn)
Unit Fintech Forum (yearly in spring)
Kyiv Outsourcing Forum (once or twice a year in spring or autumn)
FWConference
Social Media Week (annually in summer)
OFFF Design (yearly in autumn)
More Tech community activities check at Meetup.com, Techevents, Eventbrite, Ticketforevent, 2event, Tickerry, Study Dive, KyivMaps, AIN, DOU.
Settling as a founder
To open a company in Kyiv, you will open an LLC in Ukraine as a subsidiary of your foreign parent company, which will then hire IT professionals either as salaried employees based on labour agreement or based on a freelance agreement (in most cases, there will be a mix of such arrangements). This option can be useful for long term projects in Ukraine when you are planning to establish an office and hire a large number of IT professionals.
Watch about Doing IT business in Ukraine here.
Taxes
Under Ukrainian legislation, Ukrainian residents pay taxes in Ukraine on their worldwide income, whereas non-residents are subject to taxation only in respect of their Ukrainian-source income. For a full overview of the Ukrainian Tax System check Tax Guide 2019.
Kyiv has always been the most attractive place for investments in Ukraine.
According to the Who is Who on The Ukrainian Investment Market, 33 active funds are operating in Ukraine. 5 of those are incubators and accelerators, 1 corporate fund, 19 venture capital funds, 8 private equity funds.
Also, you can see Foreign Investors in Ukrainian Startups as of August 2018. Here are investment funds which deal with startups:
There are Ukrainian investment funds which deal with startups:
- Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (UVCA)
- Ukrainian Startup Fund
- QPDIGITAL
- The Untitled Ventures
- UAngel Community of Ukrainian business angels
- AVentures Capital
- TA Ventures
- U.Ventures
- Western NIS Enterprise Fund
- Digital Future
- Wanna Biz
- D2N8
- Dragon Capital
- Horizon Capital
- Chernovetskyi Investment Group
- SMRK VC Fund
- Imperious Group
- TMT investments
- Almaz Capital
- Acrobator Ventures
Check how to become an investor in Ukraine.
Read more about the reasons to cooperate with Kyiv city.
Kyiv city is a home for a large number of IT professionals which are considered one of the most talented in Europe. Here is a list of the most important educational centres based in Kyiv.
Kyiv job boards:
Also, Kyiv welcomes foreigners to apply for jobs, here are some lifehacks.
Other popular methods of finding suitable IT professionals is through LinkedIn, local IT Clusters and communities, regular IT events, and personal recommendations from people in the industry.
Education
Here is a list of the most important educational centres based in Kyiv.
Kyiv Public Universities:
- Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University
- Kyiv Polytechnic University
- Kyiv Mohyla Academy
- National Aviation University
Private IT schools:
Kyiv supporting organizations
KYIV IT Cluster and Kyiv Smart City are the city-level organizations which play an essential role in representing Tech ecosystem of the city to outside organizations.
Country-level supporting organizations
State Finance Institution for Innovation
Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
The American Chamber of Commerce
European Business Association (EBA) IT Committee
Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (UVCA)