What has happened in the Ukrainian tech market in December 2021?
Available at: TechUkraine
R&D and new offices in Ukraine
ELEKS, Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. and Nomura Research Institute kick off joint venture to accelerate DX in Japan – read
Ciklum, a Danish IT company with offices in Ukraine, has opened a development center in India. The technological hub became the second in Asia – read
Rocket, a Ukrainian online food ordering and delivery service, has launched its work in Hungary (Budapest) and Spain (Granada, Pamplona, La Coruña) in addition to the Netherlands, Greece, Cyprus, France, Portugal, Spain, and Hungary and a total of 44 cities – read
Kyiv apartment rental app Bird launched in London, UK. The new app in London will go under the name Birb with similar features— the application collects listings from the two largest real estate platforms in GB capital – read
Ukrainian security system developer and manufacturer Ajax Systems, is opening its fourth R&D office, this time in Lviv. Ajax Systems has two plants in Kyiv and three R&D offices in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Vinnytsia – read
Next year, the IT company SoftServe, plans to open offices in Vinnytsia, Odesa, Uzhgorod, Khmelnytskyi and hire another 3,000 – 4,000 employees. SoftServe intends to have 16,000 employees by 2022 – read
Venture capital and startups:
Swiss-Ukrainian Blocksport.io raises $6 million. Investors included Chinese digital asset manager FBG Capital, the Dubai-based venture fund NewTribe VC, Mexican crypto platform MEXC, and Australian investors LVT Capital, among others – read
Ukrainian startup 3DLOOK has raised an additional $3.5 million in Round A, with the company estimate of $100 mln – read
Ukrainian startup Awesomic, a platform that matches design task with the best designers, raised $2 MLN Seed round from Flyer One Ventures, SID Venture Partners, Pretiosum, 10x Value Partners, James Park (Fitbit), Ragnar Sass (Pipedrive), Bas Godska, Mikko Silventola, Max Ischenko, Alexander Khuda & Andrew Surzhynskyi, and others – read
Ukrainian product IT company Vymex, the project management system developer, raised $1 MLN from 20 private investors, including founder of EnjoyTheWood Igor Fostenko – read
Ukrainian startup Carsifi – Wireless Android Auto adapter raised $1 mln in orders before it was officially launched: raised $652,400 in orders, including $175,000 on the U.S. crowdfunding platform Indiegogo – read
Ukrainian ArtTech startup V-Art raised $350 000 in pre-seed round from SID Venture Partners and Adrian Slyvotskyi – read
Moodmate, an American startup with founders from Belarus, has closed the first round of investments in the amount of $200,000 led by Ukrainian venture fund Digital Future with participation Mikita Mikado, Co-founder and CEO of PandaDoc – read
Ukrainian startup that transcribes video calls and generates reports Noty.ai raised $200,000 round led by GEEK Ventures, an investment firm recently created by angel investor Ihar Mahaniok and 3DLOOK founder Vadim Rogovskiy, with participation from Elias Veris (Global Strategy & Operations Lead at Google for Startups) and Yannick Rault (CEO of Sheetgo) – read
The winners of the 34th and 35th Pitch Days by the Ukrainian Startup Fund – 11 startups that received a total amount of $425 000 – read
M&A
Pinterest acquired the Belarus-based video editing app Vochi with the aim of enabling its creator community to bring more quality video content to the platform. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Prior to joining Pinterest, Vochi had raised $4.2 million in funding and was on the path to a Series A. Investors in its most recent round included TA Ventures, Flyer One (ex-Genesis Investments), Angelsdeck, A.Partners, Startup Wise Guys, Kolos VC and angels from companies like Belarus-based Verv and Estonian unicorn Bolt – read
Parimatch Tech has secured two M&A deals to bring mr.fish and PokerMatch under its umbrella as the European sports betting brand looks to expand its entertainment and marketing portfolio – read
The largest Lithuanian game developer and publisher, Nordcurrent, has acquired a Ukrainian Dnipro-based mobile game studio, RinGames. The companies have not disclosed the amount of the deal, but it is known that this is the second Ukrainian studio acquired by Nordcurrent – read
Ecosystem news:
252 000 IT specialists in Ukraine, +50000 or 24% growth during the year, according to the IT labor market report 2021 by DOU – read
In Ukraine launched SID Venture Partners – the first unique Ukrainian high-technology venture capital firm established by IT experts for IT geeks, focusing on investments into early-stage technology startups to fund the future – read
US Market Access Center (US MAC), a tech accelerator located in Silicon Valley (from San Francisco to Menlo Park), in partnership with StrategEast and California-based Catapult VC launched new venture fund on $50 MLN in Ukraine – read
Ihar Mahaniok and Vadim Rogovskiy launched the Geek Ventures – tech venture fund investing in immigrant founders – read
Sergey Tokarev, founding partner of a Kyiv-based tech company Roosh, in partnership with Tymofiy Mylovanov, President Kyiv School of Economics, presented the SET University – science, entrepreneurship, and technology educational institution – read
The overview of the tech ecosystem of Ukrainian capital, Kyiv city guide, is published on Web Summit portal – read
Ukrainian Startup Fund has presented “20 Ukrainian Startups. Success stories” with interviews from startups founders within the USF annual meeting 2021 – read
SoftServe, a leading digital authority and consulting company, voluntarily developed a new Youth Well-Being Index platform – read
Two Ukrainian startups among the winners of the App Growth Awards 2021: BetterMe and Reface – read
Ukrainian Solar Optic and Scooby Doo won at Green4Europe hackathon – read
L’Oréal Ukraine has chosen for further cooperation the startup RE-leaf PAPER, which invented unique technology of producing paper from fallen leaves, within the Pitch Day for Ukrainian green startups and innovation products by Sector X Acceleration Platform from the UNIT.City – read
The longread by Forbes Ukraine about Ukrainian Max Polyakov who builds a SpaceTech company in the USA Firefly Aerospace – read
Yaroslav Azhnyuk, co-founder and CEO of Petcube, has joined FuelFinance as a partner and co-founder – read
Kraїna 225 Shooting Brake Coupe – the concept model created by Max Shkinder, Senior Designer at McLaren Automotive. Kraїna 225 inspired by AN-225 aka MRIYA, that means “DREAM” in Ukrainian, and Kyiv architecture, Ukrainian space industry – read
Antonov demonstrated the next generation of its military transport aircraft, An-178-100R for certification tests. It’s a new generation aircraft that can transport personnel, deliver weapons, and light military equipment by landing and parachute methods, and transport cargo – read
Ukrainian companies conquering the world: Grammarly, Ajax, Firefly, PetCube, Preply, Depositphotos – read
The Kyiv Independent wrote a recap of five stories that shaped the Ukrainian startup scene this year – read
Achievements and fails of 2021 by leaders of Ukrainian tech: Grammarly, MEGOGO, Tech/Uklon, MacPaw, Ajax Systems and many others – read
Ukraine launches its own Spotify account, the world’s most popular music streaming platform, on Dec. 20 – read
Spain business incubator Demium is scaling in Ukraine, already invested in several startups: Beholder, Drug Card, elKYC, Recoshelf, Clean Drops – read
NEW EAST TECH AWARDS is Award powered by EMERGE, one of the biggest international tech conferences in Eastern Europe, and supported by the venture capital fund The Untitled – read
How IT company can join Diia City: a short guide – read
Government news
The Verkhovna Rada at second reading adopted bill No.5376 on amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine regarding stimulating the development of the digital economy in Ukraine, which regulates the tax conditions of the Diia City special legal mode – read
New tax law regime adopted for IT companies – Diia City will come into force at the end of January 2022, according to the Minister of Digital Transformation Mikhail Fedorov – read
The roadmap for IT education reform in Ukraine was presented by Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov at the Conference Synergy. IT Business & IT Education, organized by the IT Ukraine Association – read
The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, in general, in 2020, the creative industries generated 4.2% of the added value of the Ukrainian economy. This is UAH 132.4 billion. This figure exceeds the indicators of 2019 – 3.9% – read
Minister for Communities and Territories Development Oleksii Chernyshov announced the Government plans to build infrastructure to create at least 25 industrial parks. Such a network is capable of providing the country with an additional 50,000 jobs and another 150,000 – 200,000 workplaces in related industries – read
Blog post
TechUkraine initiated the project “Ukrainian Tech Ecosystem Achievements 2021,” where we share the stories of the prominent stakeholders of the sphere – tech giants, startups, clusters, funds, media, accelerators, celebrating the success of the year and discovering what lies ahead in 2022 and beyond – read
Interview with french futurist, entrepreneur, and investor Jean-Christophe Bonis – read
Interview with Sergey Tokarev, Founding Partner at Roosh, IT entrepreneur and investor, cofounder and supporter of SET University, Pawa, AI HOUSE, Roosh Ventures, STEM is FEM – read
CEO of the Europe’s first and biggest science & tech hub Sophia Antipolis visited Kyiv and Kharkiv – read
The results of the second anniversary of the Ukrainian Startup Fund – read
Highlights of the Synergy 2021. IT Business & IT Education by IТ Ukraine Association, the largest in Ukraine specialized educational conference – read
Key elements of the special tax system for Diia City residents by ETERNA LAW – read
How to start working in Ukraine: case-study for a foreign IT company – read
Which Ukrainian Pitches attract investments? – read
Warner Bros. Pictures and Reface have launched a promotional partnership using Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning technology to swap fans’ faces with characters in scenes from the upcoming blockbuster film The Matrix Resurrections – read
Depositphotos, an international content platform, released their annual creative trends forecast. “Creative Trends 2022: Merging the future and the past” examines how creative communication has changed and what brands and content creators can expect in the coming year – read
Podcast “Mayak Innovatsiy” by UNIT.City, with prominent leaders in Ukrainian tech industry: Vadim Rogovskiy, Founder at 3DLOOK, Yaroslav Azhnyuk, Founder at Petcube, Jan Peter de Jong, Country Manager at Microsoft Ukraine – listen
Viktor Sdobnikov, Cofounder and CTO at Apostera, talked about the innovations and trends for Kunsht podcast “Another intelligence” hosted by Andriy Brodetskyi, Olga Afanasyeva, Sergey Kuprienko – read
Reports:
Investors Book 2021 by UVCA – read
TOP tech employers in Ukraine by DOU – read
IT labor market report 2021 by DOU – read
Salaries in Ukrainian IT sector in Autumn 2021 by AIN – read
State of European Tech by Atomico – read
2022 Technology Predictions by GP Bullhound – read
Open Data Maturity 2021 – read
Via TechUkraine, Forbes, DOU, dev.ua, SPEKA, AIN, UBN, The Kyiv Independent
