Startups - Ukraine Digital News

The Current Wave: New breed of Ukrainian tech entrepreneurs seek success in global markets, Part 5

From Kyiv, to Warsaw, to London, Ukrainian startups continue growing and raising funds

February 28, 2023 February 28, 2023

In yet another sign of resilience amid the war, at least five funding deals involving Ukrainian or Ukrainian-founded startups were reported in the course of February. Finmap landed €1 million in a round led by Polish-American venture fund Smok Ventures, a Warsaw, Poland-based fund. Launched in 2018 by Ukrainian entrepreneurs Ivan Kaunov and Oleksandr Solovei, Finmap is …

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How Ukrainian startups survive “amid bombs, blackouts and evacuations” (podcast)

February 20, 2023 February 21, 2023

Recently Sifted, a major tech news outlet in Europe, met the founders of “some of the continent’s most resilient startups.” These Ukrainians are the heroes of a special podcast that appeared last week on the Sifted website. The program shows how these entrepreneurs, their teams and investors, sometimes “trapped in basements with Russian troops on …

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Kyiv-based startup raises $2 million to help blockchain transaction originators keep their profit

February 16, 2023 March 6, 2023

Ukrainian DeFi startup Kolibrio has announced its first round of funding, having raised $2 million from a consortium of Web3 investors. Jump Crypto led the round, with participation from Delta Fund and Everstake Capital alongside unnamed individual investors. The company is developing a solution to help blockchain transaction originators “get ownership of the order flow they …

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CES 2022: Twelve Ukrainian startups showcase their inventions for the home, cafés, hospitals

January 12, 2023 January 17, 2023

Last week a dozen Ukrainian startups were featured at CES, the premier consumer electronics gathering in Las Vegas. “I think it takes a lot of courage for our Ukrainian friends to be here. They have proven how they are protecting themselves against Russia; but they’re also very entrepreneurial,” AFP quoted as saying Gary Shapiro, President of …

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A year in review: How Ukrainian tech resisted the war in 2022

January 4, 2023 January 5, 2023

Amid the destructions caused by the war, the Ukrainian tech industry demonstrated remarkable resilience. Most IT companies and startups managed to survive by moving their staff to a safer location inside the country or, more rarely, abroad. Many initiatives emerged to offer them assistance in both humanitarian and business terms. Meanwhile, on the digital front, …

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Survey: 12% of Ukrainian startups shut down, 30% moved abroad at least partially during the war

December 28, 2022 December 28, 2022

Much has been said about the “resilience” of the Ukrainian tech sector amid the war (example), but what do entrepreneurs themselves say about the challenges they have faced since Feb. 2022? Teaming up with the Ukrainian Startup Fund, the Polish-Ukrainian Startup Bridge conducted a survey about these “challenges that no entrepreneur can predict and which …

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A crypto exchange with Ukrainian and Russian co-founders raises $5 million from US and Ukrainian funds

December 23, 2022 March 6, 2023

Tallinn-headquartered crypto exchange Utorg raised $5 million in a round led by US fund Dragon Fly with participation from Hypra and TA Ventures, two funds with Ukrainian roots. Completed in September but publicly announced only recently, the deal valued the startup at $50 million, Forbes Ukraine heard from an unnamed source. Founded in October 2020, …

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Ukrainian green tech startup wins €2.5 million grant to “revolutionize the paper industry”

December 22, 2022 February 27, 2023

Releaf Paper, a Ukrainian startup that transforms fallen leaves into paper products, will receive €2.5 million in grant money from EU Commission-backed EIC Accelerator. The startup “beat out more than 6,500 competing companies,” said its co-founder Valentyn Frechka, a 21-year old biotechnologist, in an exchange with Tech.eu. Not only does Releaf Paper avoid cutting trees to produce …

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Google for Start-Ups announces latest batch of Ukraine Support Fund recipients

December 5, 2022 December 14, 2022

In March, Google announced a five million US dollars Google for Start-ups Ukraine Support Fund to allocate equity-free cash awards to back Ukrainian-founded tech companies so they can continue to strengthen their community and build a foundation for post-war economic recovery. Additionally, it provided Ukrainian start-ups with mentoring, networking and technical support, and a workspace within the …

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Slush revokes €1 million prize from Russian founded-startup after international outcry

November 22, 2022 November 22, 2022

Yesterday Immigram, a UK-based but Russian-founded tech immigration platform, opted out from the Slush competition, just a couple of days after winning the first prize. Almost simultaneously, Slush formally revoked the win “in light of new information on the extent of [Immigram’s] operations in Russia.” The attribution of the Slush prize to a Russian-founded startup had shocked a number of …

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Russian-founded tech migration platform wins €1 million at Slush, spurring controversy over solidarity with Ukraine

November 19, 2022 November 22, 2022

Immigram, a UK-based tech immigration platform, has won the first prize at Slush, Helsinki’s yearly top tech event. The Russian-founded startup will receive €1 million in investment coming from top global investors including Accel, General Catalyst, Lightspeed, NEA and Northzone. According to CrunchBase data, Immigram had raised half a million just six months ago, earning trust …

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Ukrainian-founded Web3 startups raised $1 billion in four years

November 16, 2022 November 20, 2022

While Ukraine ranks third worldwide in the 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index, Web3 startups with roots in this country raised nearly $1 billion in investments over the past four years. This and other interesting facts and numbers are contained in a report just published by Hypra, a Lisbon-based Web3 fund with a Ukrainian team. According to this …

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