Leading Ukrainian tech blog AIN.UA has just announced its yearly ranking of the most influential individuals in the local Internet scene. The final list was determined by a committee of experts, comprised of 33 representatives of various sectors of the online community.
In order to compile the rating, the experts were asked to name the five individuals who most strongly influenced, both positively and negatively, the development of the Ukrainian Internet sector in 2014 (businessmen, public figures, etc.).
It is not the first time that Sysoyev emerges as the top Ukrainian Internet businessman. This attention towards him is not surprising, as AVentures Capital has been one of the most active investors on the Ukrainian venture market, both in the past and this year (Coppertino, Augmented Pixels, StarWind, and others).
The AIN experts submitted votes in favor of Sysoyev “for not giving up, going forward and, helping ALL who are connected with the Internet”, ”for his involvement in initiatives, which facilitate the IT industry in Ukraine”, and “for rigidly believing in Ukrainian startups.”
Sysoyev also regularly offers quality analysis on the Ukrainian venture market – “The Deal Book of Ukraine,” co-published by Ukraine Digital News, not being the least.
For the first time in the history of AIN’s ranking, Alexander Olshansky did not top the list, yielding first place to Sysoyev. However, he remains one of the most influential people on the tech scene, working in this sector since 1999. This year, Olshansky provided help to the Ukrainian armed forces by creating “Military Incubator”, an incubator to assist startups exclusively operating in military and intelligence-related fields.
Despite the crisis, Olshansky did not cancel iForum, which remains the main industry event in eastern Europe. But, perhaps, the most significant initiative from Olshanskiy in 2014 has been his candidacy in the elections to the Verkhovna Rada in 2014. Unfortunately, Olshanskiy did not find success at the elections and failed to enter the parliament. However, he has declared that he is already more than ready to run in the next elections.
This past summer, Shymkiv, former general manager of Microsoft Ukraine, was appointed to the post within the presidential administration tasked with reforms. He previously took an active role in the Maidan revolution.
Kolodyuk is an investor and entrepreneur in the same person. His company, Divan.tv, started operating globally last year. At that time, the company claimed 125,000 registered users in Ukraine and maintained an average ARPU of $5-6. This summer, the Ukrainian Venture Capital Association (UVCA) was created on the initiative of Kolodyuk.
- Anna Degtereva, CEO of startup incubator Happy Farm – From the walls of Happy Farm, which Degtereva has led since the moment of its creation, a number of successful startups have emerged, including UGift, Advice Wallet, and Datawiz.io.
- Vladyslav Chechotkin, founder and CEO of e-commerce site ROZETKA.UA – Chechotkin, co-founder and head of the largest online store in Ukraine, enters the ranking for the third consecutive year. His company remains the most popular e-commerce platform in the Ukrainian market, which even the crisis did not change.
- Denis Dovgopoliy, managing partner of BVU Group – One of the individuals, without whom the the Ukrainian startup sector would not exist. Outside of the GrowthUP incubator, Dovgopoliy takes part in a number of initiatives and events, brings high-profile of experts and mentors to Ukraine, and helps to organize the international startup community.
- Ilia Kenigshtein, partner and managing director of venture fund Hybrid Capital – Ilia willingly shares his experiences from Israeli entrepreneurship, is responsible for a working group on innovation in the “resuscitative package of reforms”, and actively lobbies on the issue of 3G in Ukraine. He also launched MappedInUA, an interactive map of the Ukrainian tech scene.
- Andriy Logvin, co-founder of e-commerce site modnaKasta and a member of the Kyiv (Kiev) city council – Logvin became a member of the Kyiv city council this year as a representative of the party “Self-help”, led by Andrey Sadoviy, mayor of Lviv (Lvov). As Logvin explained, “I have built a happy family and a cool company and now I want to live in a happy city and country.” As a member of the Kyiv city council, Logvin intends to help realize several important initiatives relating to the IT sector in Ukraine. The first aims to stop the outflow of IT professionals from Kyiv and the second is designed to introduce online services in the department. Logvin actively lobbied for the introduction of 3G in our country within the the “Resuscitative package of reforms”.
- Jaanika Merilo, member of the supervisory board of industry association UVCA – Prior to arriving in Ukraine, Merilo spent 17 years in the field of investment technology at various stages. In Ukraine, Merilo became the initiator and managing partner of UAngel, as well as a co-founder of UVCA. She is also a member of the board of directors of the BrainBasket foundation.
- Roman Skrypin, Ukrainian journalist who co-founded Hromadske.tv – When this YouTube-based journalistic platform had only just launched, many expressed skepticism about it. However, future events demonstrated that online streaming can sometimes become the sole and most reliable source of information. “Public” is included among the most trusted sites among Ukrainian internet users.
