Last month the Ukrainian serial entrepreneur and philanthropist Vasyl Khmelnytsky announced the launch of UFuture Investment Group, a Kyiv- (Kiev-) based conglomerate and investment company to develop the most advanced and lucrative industries in Ukraine. The news was reported by local online publication InVenture.
UFuture intends to attract investment and “bring technologies, knowledge, innovative management practices and international experience to Ukraine” across various sectors. These include high tech, renewable energy, biopharmaceutics and advanced agriculture.
Such companies as innovation parks UNIT.City and LvivTech.City, as well as UDP Renewables and Bila Tserkva Industrial Park, are part of the conglomerate.
“We believe that Ukraine is a promising market for business development. Its potential can be unlocked through a partnership between local and international players,” said Khmelnytsky.
Khmelnytsky believes that the initiative “will become an impulse to foster a brand new economy in the country.”
The company has an office in Brussels, Belgium.
Driven by the idea of the Ukrainian Silicon Valley, the entrepreneur has already launched a variety of projects to support innovation in Ukraine. Among them are UNIT Factory, Ukraine’s first coding school using the curriculum of the French School 42, Kyiv (Kiev)-based UNIT.City, Ukraine’s first innovation park launched earlier this year, and Lviv (Lvov)-based innovation park LvivTech.City, currently under construction.
Based at the UNIT.City, UNIT Factory currently educates 800 students for free. The total number of students is expected to reach 3,000 within the next several years.
By 2020, UNIT.City strives to become a one-point entry into Ukraine for investors, businesses and new technology from all over the world.
Among many other projects funded by Khmelnytsky are the annual Kyiv International Economic Forum (KIEF), online platform for orphans and children from disadvantaged families iLearn, the first of its kind inter-corporate IT university in Ukraine BIONIC University, School for Small and Medium Entrepreneurship (SME).
Besides, the entrepreneur supports a variety of projects in the fields of education and economics through his foundation K.Fund.
