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 Zeefe. 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 missiles, too.

Justin Zeefe, 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.