Startupecosystem

Ukraine has a thriving startup ecosystem and is a country of innovative entrepreneurs who generate creative ideas! Ukraine is in the top 30 globally and Kyiv has become a European hub according to Startup Ecosystem Rankings 2020 by StartupBlink which ranks the startup ecosystems of 100 countries and 1000 cities. Many famous startups were actually born here.

How to stay connected with your pet anytime and monitor it all day long? How to turn any (wall, door, fence – whatever!) flat surface into an interactive board? How to tackle the issue of global plastic pollution with the help of a toothbrush?

These seemingly crazy ideas have already become success stories. Just like many others. 

Reface, MacPaw, PetCube, Netpeak, TemplateMonster, Ajax Systems, Grammarly, People.ai, Reface, Reastrem and Preply (you’ll definitely have heard the names of at least some of these well-known startups!) all got their start in Kyiv. Fancy that! Jooble, one of the largest job search sites in the world, was also born in Ukraine. Today, people can use its services in 71 countries.

Kyiv – the largest IT hub in Ukraine – is home to over 1,000 successful startups and product companies. Simultaneously Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Lviv, and Vinnytsia are also developing as major centres of IT activity and startup clusters. One of them is UNIT.City, the biggest innovation park in Central and Eastern Europe, with facilities needed for delivering innovative products. Here you can find startups, IT students, talented entrepreneurs, and creative industries under the same roof.

Investment into the startup sector went up 10 times during the past 5 years – from $39 million in 2014 to $509 million in 2019. More than 146,000 patents and utility models have been registered in Ukraine since 2007.

In 2017-2019 such startups as GitLab, Bitfury and Grammarly have been valued at more than $1 billion each! In 2021, people.ai joined the trio, and now Ukraine has four unicorn companies.

With over 2000 startups, Ukraine has a fast-developing startup ecosystem. The new service 360 Tech Ecosystem Overview, launched by the Ukrainian government, provides all data you might be interested to find out on IT companies, people and investors in Ukraine.  

These numbers speak for themselves.

The opportunities are here for the taking.

Think about IT, consider IT and do IT! 

Curious to know more? Check the list of top Ukrainian startups or listen to a podcast about business in Ukraine. In the Investors Book, you can find comprehensive information on Ukrainian startups and investors.