The IT sector in Ukraine has been affected since Russia invaded Ukraine. Many startups and ongoing tech companies couldn’t continue their performance in the Ukrainian market. They need versatile assistance from other tech companies and investors not to lose specialists and raise the IT level of Ukraine. The founder of the company Roosh, Sergey Tokarev, introduced a new initiative the Ukrainian Tech Circle and explained its purpose.
What is the purpose of the Ukrainian Tech Circle?
The present situation in Ukraine is critical. Therefore, international companies and venture funds joined forces to help the Ukrainian IT segment. With this in mind, Sergey Tokarev, Den Dmitrenko, a managing partner in the tech company Roosh, and Nina Levchuk, a head of Startup and VC at Google in Central Europe, initiated a project called the Ukrainian Tech Circle.
Ukrainian Tech Circle is a global network of angel investors, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and tech professionals committed to helping Ukrainian tech projects and startups. The goal of the initiative is to solve the challenges in Ukrainian IT caused by the war: provide consultation and attract investment and new customers for techies to strive and reach their potential.
According to Sergey Tokarev, some tech projects could hardly adapt to the new reality, while others lost their financial resources and up to 100% of their revenue. Among the lucky companies are Diia, Ajax Systems, but about 99% of projects need funding now.
“The Ukrainian tech landscape has a lot of potentials; we have talented IT engineers and some brilliant ideas being developed here. Our focus in Roosh was always to support and provide opportunities for local talents and support Ukraine’s development into becoming Europe’s AI hub. Our goal hasn’t changed, but the war has, of course, created unprecedented challenges,” said Tokarev.
The Tech Circle incorporates many companies, including Roosh and venture fund Roosh Ventures. Roosh is a Ukrainian tech company focusing on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Its portfolio contains projects like the Reface app, venture firm Roosh Ventures, Pawa venture studio, ZibraAI deep-tech startup, and educational projects AI HOUSE and SET University.
BBQ Capital, Spaceсadet Ventures, Samaipata, ff Venture Capital, Caixa Capital Risc, Chamaeleon, and such companies as Neurons Lab, Alma, TheGuarantors, Libeo, Silicon Allee, Powder, Chamaeleon, Google for Startups are among others who joined the project to support Ukrainian techies.
How to join the Ukrainian Tech Circle
The Ukrainian Tech Circle initiative accepts applications from all Ukrainian tech businesses and startups in dire need of aid. Apart from them, other venture capitalists, investors, and tech businesspeople also can join the project if they are willing to share their funding, experience, etc.
Sergey Tokarev said since the application form was published open-source, they received about 50 applications. The initiator believes that the project Ukrainian Tech Circle can save hundreds of startups and tech companies. It can bring fruitful outcomes for Ukraine and the entire world in the future.
