Ukrainian IT companies meet in New York for Ukraine: Rise of Tech Nation discussion
On Wednesday night at the Civic Hall in New York City Ukrainian IT entrepreneurs discussed the present and future of Ukrainian Tech Industry.
Ukraine is a brain basket of Europe. It is not the exaggeration. Quoting Razom / IT, the organizer of this Tech event, “an astounding number of technological innovations from around the globe are fueled by talent from Ukraine. It is Ford’s in-car information system, Reuter’s award-winning photography app, Nokia’s customer retail experience, and last but not least, Deutche Bank’s Risk Management System.”
Now Ukraine is among the leading countries that supplies the highest number of IT engineers in the world. Quoting Yaroslav Azhnyuk, CEO and Founder of Petcube, Ukrainian Universities such as Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv give young people excellent knowledge and strong base to be competitive in IT sector.
At the age of 19 Yaroslav founded his first company, an online consultancy. Within two years he sold his company and decided to join his friends Alex and Andrey, and became a co-founder and CEO at Petcube with offices in Kyiv and San Francisco.
Startups that participated in the discussion were Smarting, an enterprise cloud platform for translation management, Petcube, an interactive pet monitor that allows pet owners to remotely connect with their pets, watch them through an in-built video camera, talk and play with them from their smartphone, Depositphotos, a royalty-free microstock photography agency.
There are over 1500 tech startups in Ukraine said Yevgen Sysoyev, Founding and Managing partner of AVentures Capital, an international venture capital fund that mostly focuses on international startups, research and development in the Eastern Europe and especially in Ukraine. Him and three other people prepared 210-page report/research “Rise of the Technology Nation” which answers all questions on how to do business in Ukraine in IT sector {Report}.
As Roman Chwyl, Head of Financial Services in Google Could Platform said, “these Ukrainian entrepreneurs are trying to transform the industry, they create amazing technology, and have a great insight into the future.”
We should not be surprise that people like billionaire George Soros are betting on Ukraine’s IT sector. In November Bloomberg Business published an article that “George Soros is buying a stake in Ukrainian software developer Ciklum Holding Ltd. after committing to invest as much as $1 billion to help the country’s economy.” {Source}
Ukraine has an army of computer programers, developers and engineers. U.S. market is the main destination for Ukrainian IT firms, which an estimated 80% volume of exported services, according to AVentures Capital.
Yevgen Sysoyev also told us about an amazing platform, an online network of volunteers and partners that now exists in Ukraine - BrainBasket Foundation {Source}. This pan-Ukrainian educational initiative allows anyone to study computer programing for free. The Foundation offers a variety of projects to educate people in computer science, such as Coding for Future for refugees and military conflict participants, School Boost improves the teaching quality of IT in schools, video meetings for those who want but do not know how to get in IT sector.
Ukraine is unleashing its enormous potential in IT space which is proven by Lyuba Shipovich, President and Co-founder of Razom, who returned to Ukraine to build "Silicon Valley" in Ukraine. Lyuba Shipovich is now volunteering as the Chief Technology Officer at the Odesa Reforms Team.
Razom for Ukraine is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization dedicated to building prosperous Ukraine by sending funds and intellectual capital to Ukraine, and by amplifying voices from Ukraine in the U.S.
Razom / IT is an initiative within Razom to grow entrepreneurship by working with software engineers, investors, academics, and government representatives to promote the growth of the tech startup ecosystem in Ukraine.
Civic Hall is a one-of-a-kind community center for the world’s viciv innovators, located in New York City.
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