Ukraine has an IT future as many startup projects are emerging and reaching international recognition. Foreign companies are gradually opening their offices and Research and Development centers in Ukraine. In addition, more and more investors are contributing to Ukrainian startups. Sergey Kartashov, the Senior Partner at the Roosh technology company, tells about the status of the investment climate in Ukraine.
To grow means to experiment
According to Sergey Kartashov, nowadays, investors are ready for great changes and experiments. Remarkable projects like Reface, Grammarly, and Preply continue to appear in Ukraine. They empower new startups to emerge that lead to new investments in the country. Kartashov notices that the market is open for new experiments: creating new teams, investing in new projects, trying and testing. These are the willingness of investors, experts, and venture capital funds.
When it comes to the technology company Roosh, the expert underlines the same eagerness of the company at large. It has created its own ecosystem of AI and ML, called AI House. In addition, the Pawa venture studio has become a platform for experiments.
Solving education gap
Sergey Kartashov highlights another aspect that has an impact on the investment culture. It is about educational background. Since IT started its rapid growth in recent years, a severe drawback in IT personnel showed up. Despite many specialists and educational institutions, about 30 percent of vacancies on the market still remained unfilled in 2020.
Because of the high demand for IT and the inability of the country to cope with it, a set of private educational initiatives are emerging now founded by IT businessmen and leading IT companies. It is they who are primarily interested in gaining more IT specialists. But, of course, the initiatives differ from traditional education in terms of two facts. First, they concentrate on the practical aspect. Second, instead of programming, they teach related disciplines that help students establish a startup.
Sergey Kartashov believes that the investment culture in Ukraine is getting better and requires some time and some natural processes to be done. On the one hand, every day, new startups pop up. And there is enough money on the market to be invested. But, on the other hand, only a few investors are ready to invest yet. And the reason is not always hidden in bad ideas. Managerial skills of the team can underlie the main problem of it. The expert points out that the founders simply lack the strength or skills to move the project ahead.
Following the investment culture of neighbors
To get a complete picture, one should account for an important condition: a margin for error for a startupper. This culture is common in the US, according to which any startupper can get funding for a number of startups they want. As Sergey Kartashov explains, Americans find it profitable to invest in as many ideas as possible. They believe among millions of experiments, there will come up a new Amazon, Apple, or another giant. And it will become a driving force in enhancing entire industries. The Senior Partner comments that this culture in Ukraine is just emerging.
In addition, some negative factors directly impact the investment climate in Ukraine. One of them is concerned with external investors’ fear of investing in Ukrainian startups. It is caused by the lack of understanding of the local legislation and the negative reputation of a corrupt state. The second factor is related to the lack of a comfortable tax system for the IT industry.
Thus, Ukrainian authorities are working on solving these issues by creating Diia City, Kartashov notices. The expert believes in the excellent IT future of Ukraine.