Resilient Tech Moves Ukraine Forward

“Ukrainian society decides what the future should look  like, what rights you want to have, and what rights of other  people you want to protect. I’ve never seen anything like this  in other conflict zones,” says American entrepreneur, co founder of Green Flag Ventures, Justin Ziff. He came to  Ukraine for the IT Arena, the largest technology event in  Eastern Europe.

Despite the war, last year it was held in Lviv, near the Polish  border. There are no intense battles in this city, though  Russia attacks it with rockets, too (even right before this  newspaper comes out). Justin Ziff, who served full rotations  in Iraq and Afghanistan, is surprised that Ukraine has a  completely different approach: not only to win at any cost but  to build a successful democratic and economically stable  country. His venture company from Los Angeles intends to invest in 20 early-stage Ukrainian tech companies over the  next 3-5 years.

The technology sector is one of the key sectors in Ukraine’s  economy, accounting for 41.5% of the total volume of service  exports. But the war has brought many changes to the work  of IT companies. They had to evacuate employees, support  soldiers and volunteers, send some to fight, keep the  enterprises, which primarily means - to fulfill partners’ orders  on time.

“The beginning of the war was a very difficult and tense  period for Ukrainians. We transferred 5,000 of our specialists  to the west of Ukraine and abroad. Nevertheless, we didn’t  miss any deadlines and didn’t break promises to clients. Our  Ukrainian teams demonstrated incredible strength and  willingness to work in extraordinary conditions - in shelters,  during trips, and so on. And our colleagues and clients  abroad showed incredible support and desire to help,” says  Anastasiya Frolova, SoftServe’s Country manager in  Ukraine.

This is one of the largest Ukrainian companies working on  over 900 active projects for clients in North America, the EU,  and Asia. SoftServe’s clients include IBM, Cisco, Panasonic,  Cloudera, Henry Schein, Spillman Technologies, and others.  The company is a partner of Google Cloud Platform,  Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, NVIDIA, and other  major technology companies.

Over the past year, the number of IT specialists in Ukraine  has increased. These are the Lviv IT cluster’s data, which  conducted market research in partnership with the Ministry of Digital Transformation and with the support of USAID The  number of specialists in Ukraine has increased by over 7%  (300 thousand people), abroad - by 20% (65 thousand). American entrepreneur Deborah Fairlamb, who advised the  Ukrainian government, says that Ukrainians are a very  entrepreneurial nation. According to her, “investing in IT is  now much less risky than most people outside Ukraine might  think. There is enormous energy here.” 

“I’ve been here for eight years and have my opinion. 2014  was the year when growth in this country began to  accelerate hyper-fast. When Ukrainians could travel to  Europe without visas, I saw how they came back and  brought new ideas,” says Deborah Fairlamb. 

In 2014, Ukraine received a visa-free regime with the EU,  and in the same year, Russia started a war against Ukraine,  annexing Crimea and seizing part of Donbas.

“Those who are not on the frontline now feel a strong moral,  cultural, social, and personal obligation to do something in  areas where there is no fighting. Much of this energy spills  over into the economic sphere,” says Deborah. The IT cluster’s data confirm this: 36% of surveyed CEOs of  technology companies stated that they intend to open new  offices next year, with 28% abroad, most in Poland. 

Research by the IT cluster shows that the earnings of every  tenth professional in the IT market have fallen, but 94% of IT  industry employees allocate part of their budget to charity:  on average, they donate a tenth of their income, which is  approximately $264. Some IT specialists are also fighting.  Most surveyed companies keep specialists who joined the Armed Forces. Also, every IT company supports charitable  initiatives. For example, SoftServe provides quick support to  the frontline, supports the Superhumans rehabilitation center  (funded with the support of Ukrainian and American  entrepreneurs, like Andriy Stavnitser and Howard Buffet or  companies like Virgin Galactic). The IT cluster purchases  equipment for air defense of the region, opens medical  centers for adults and children affected by the war. 

“The Ukrainian tech industry continues working hard, and we  will also be ready to proactively participate in Ukraine’s  recovery, as soon as it is possible,”

says Anastasiya Frolova  from SoftServe.

Over two years of the big war, their  company has allocated $25 million to support Ukraine in  various initiatives, both military and civilian.