Last month California-based startup Thync launched an R&D center in Dnipro, a large industrial city in the south-central part of Ukraine (formerly know as Dnipropetrovsk), to develop mobile products, reported Ukrainian tech blog AIN.UA.
Thync’s electronic wearable device stimulates nerves with low-level electrical pulses to change a person’s state of mind. The device works by neurostimulation techniques such as TENS and tDCS, according to the company.
Born out of the belief that neuroscience can impact daily life, Thync has a team of neurobiologists, neuroscientists and consumer electronic specialists from institutions including the MIT, Stanford, Harvard.
In early 2016, Thync was saved from bankruptcy by a funding round led by Noosphere Ventures, a California-based venture fund with Ukrainian connections, with participation from its existing investors, according to AIN.UA.
The number of engineers working in the Ukrainian office has not been disclosed.
A software powerhouse for the global market
As revealed by a recent report by Ukraine Digital News, Ukraine is home to over 100 R&D subsidiaries of global companies from a variety of industries, including telecoms, software, gaming and e-commerce.
The United States remains Ukraine’s largest partner for joint R&D activities (around 45% of the companies involved), followed by EU countries and Israel.
Kyiv (Kiev) is the most popular location in Ukraine for opening an R&D center, concentrating over half of all such bases in the country. Dnipro is another key location for international R&D activity along with Lviv (Lvov), Odessa, Kharkiv (Kharkov) and Vinnytsia.
