Last week Ukrainian ride-hailing major Uklon launched an international franchise offer. The company is also open to joint-venture agreements. Among the first target countries are the Baltic States, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, according to Ukrainian tech blog AIN.
In a Facebook post Uklon co-founder Serhiy Smus unveiled how the war affected the company: “When we were planning to launch the franchise, we had no idea what 2022 would expect. So, of course, with the beginning of the war, this business goals went to the background [as we switched to] supporting the army, supporting volunteers, helping Ukrainians with evacuation to other cities and saving our team.”
Thus, Uklon says it delivered 270,000 food portions, 7.8 tons of food, 11,000 litres of water and more than 10,000 litres of fuel. It organised the transfer of hundreds of volunteers, pharmacists, doctors and surgeons every week between the beginning of the war on Feb. 24 and mid-April.
Meanwhile, however, the company struggled to maintain its development plans: “Against everything, a business has to work, find new opportunities. This is the only way we can help our state,” believes Smus.
Launched in 2010, Uklon has developed a large ride-hailing business in Ukraine, covering 28 cities. The service has been suspended in two of them, Kherson and Mariupol, since they were invaded by the Russian army.
“In 12 years, [our] product has become part of the urban life of many Ukrainians, and we are ready to share the success of our product and become representatives of Ukraine in the international business arena,” said Smus.
Read here AIN Capital’s interview with Uklon’s co-founder and CEO Dmytro Dubrovskyi (July 2022)
