Ukraine has earned the reputation of a Tech (IT) Country, this attribute is acquired due to different aspects of the IT market in Ukraine. Despite the ongoing war, Ukraine maintains its achievements in this area. Let’s take a closer look into the reasons for this and the potential it offers.
Ukraine’s IT Journey: From Digital Beginnings to Global Recognition
In 1990, Ukraine took its first steps into the digital world when the very first person accessed the internet. Only five years after the country declared its independence, the first Ukrainian domain was registered, marking the beginning of a new digital era. The early 90s saw the birth of Ukraine’s IT industry, laying the foundation for what would become one of the country’s most dynamic sectors. By the mid-2000s, Ukraine’s IT sector had begun to gain international recognition. It has become a great place to outsource business and software development services. Studying software development in Ukraine, the 2019–2020 IT market report shows that in 2019, Ukraine became the top 20th outsourcing destination, ranking higher than Poland, Latvia, and Hungary.
Interestingly, since the full-scale war began, Ukraine has risen from 14th to 12th place in the IT competitiveness index among 23 countries in Central, Eastern, and South Europe. Persuading an ambitious goal to make Ukraine the world’s most advanced IT nation by 2030, Ukrainian IT companies have increased the promotion of their business and become more confident in the quality of their products and services. At the same time, human resources have shortened by 16% due to mobilization and migration. Thus, the start-up sector has decreased severely since the full-scale war began.
The Earliest Mastodons of Successful Ukrainian IT
We’ve looked into the past of some prominent Ukrainian IT giants, their foundations, and where they stand today:
- ELEKS
The history of this company began more than 30 years ago, in 1991, during a pivotal time for Ukraine. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Ukraine emerged as an independent country and faced the pressing need to separate its electricity grid. The Skrypnyk family saw an opportunity to innovate software development in Lviv. Oleksiy Skrypnyk-junior, working in 1990 at “Lvivenergo,” a renowned Ukrainian company in the energy services market, observed that the company was using outdated software. This insight led him to set a goal of developing modern, up-to-date program software, culminating in the creation of the unique DARAK power system — a product that still exists today and is a part of the ELEKS. In 1999, the company entered the outsourcing market, and now it is included in the list of the top 100 outsourcing IT companies in the world.
- Infopulse
Same 1991, the same situation outside — the political climate is tough yet optimistic. Two friends who attended the same university and traveled together came up with the idea to start their own IT company. Oleksiy Sigov and Andriy Anisimov soon after the company’s establishment got a customer from France. Thus, one business trip contributed to the growth of the tremendous company that executes projects for Germany, Nederland, Scandinavia, the USA, Belgium etc.
- N-iX
N-iX began in Lviv as a small IT company launched by Andriy Pavliv and his partners Dmytro Kosarev and Verner Richard. The firm’s name was NovelliX a combination of Novell and Linux. The firm attracted the attention of Novell, which acquired their product in 2003. Quickly grew to be a major player in Ukraine’s IT outsourcing industry. Today, N-iX is known for providing IT consulting, software development, and cloud solutions to global enterprises. The company has expanded its services to include cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. N-iX’s clients include major companies like Google, Gogo, and Citrix. Over the years, the company has grown into a global player with offices in multiple countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.
- SoftServe
Again, about thirty years ago, in 1993, the company based in Lviv consisted only of three Ph.D. student founders. Everything started with the renting of one table in the research center of Lviv Polytechnic University. Three years later, the company already rented an office in the city and had 15 employees. Now, apart from Ukraine, the company has offices in Europe, the USA and the United Kingdom.
- NIX Solutions
The history of NIX Solutions begins with a classical “garage” project: in 1994, a magical number of three software specialists were developing an electronic database of commercial offers for the Ukrainian market. In three years, the company started selling IT services all over the world. Among the clients, it is worth mentioning LuckyNet, Doryanet, EZS and Barravoe which were popular in the 1990s. Originally founded in Kharkiv in 2002, NIX offers its outsourcing services on the Elance platform (Upwork now) and earns a $50 check. Now, the company is a leading provider of Upwork in Europe and is embracing the third position in the world.
The Start-Ups We All Know
There are about 50 interesting Ukrainian IT start-ups that emerged in the 21st century and earned worldwide recognition. How about taking a glimpse at the 5 most famous of them:
- Grammarly
The simple idea is to simplify the writing process in English and overcome the imperfection of grammar knowledge formed the basis of the Grammarly start-up. In 2009, three Ukrainian developers, Max Lytvyn, Alex Schevchenko, and Dmytro Lider, established an online English grammar checker based on an AI system. In 2015, Grammarly already had one million active users. Now, the headquarters are located in San Francisco, Kyiv, New York and Vancouver.
- ai
As the sales process moves online, it is expected that interactions between buyers and suppliers will be removed from the digital space appropriately. In 2016, Oleg Rogynskyy founded a People.ai start-up. It collects data on sales activity from email, calendars, phone calls, virtual conference platforms, etc., and supplies it to sales managers as recommendations
- Reface
It is an entertaining application that allows users to replace their faces and make some photos, videos or GIFs. In 2020, this application was used by Ilon Mask, Justin Bieber and Britney Spiers. Reface even reached a point of №1 download app in the USA.
- world
Svitlana Malonova, after having spent years advising technology companies on legal issues, then founded an app that developed controllers for virtual reality. After some time, the application was retrained to restore health after injuries. The app works with insurance and rehabilitation facilities and provides them with a tool to conduct therapy with their clients digitally.
Ukraine’s IT sector has come a long way since its early days in the 1990s, evolving into a global force in technology, innovation, and software development. Despite the challenges of war and migration, the country has managed to remain resilient and competitive, with Ukrainian IT companies expanding internationally and gaining recognition for their high-quality services. In the spectrum of attention remain interesting and successful projects that contribute to the development of the economy and international recognition and inspire to overcome any barriers and develop their ideas.