Sergey Tokarev about Insights from The Ukraine Tech Summit in London
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Despite the challenges of a full-scale invasion, Ukraine is already part of the European tech ecosystem. At the Ukraine Tech Summit, crucial questions were raised in panel discussions to reinforce the Ukrainian tech sector and international cooperation. The summit took place in London, on June 12, 20204. Google for Startups and Roosh were the principal sponsors of the event. Sergey Tokarev, a Ukrainian investment group that develops and scales technology businesses, shared the insights discussed at the event.
According to Sergey Tokarev, Ukraine has long been an important player in the UK tech market, according to the summit’s organizers. They added that Ukrainian specialists are joining British tech companies more and more.
“It is very important to focus on investing in Ukraine now to ensure economic stability and growth ofthe tech sector during the full-scale invasion," commented Vladyslav Bazikalov, founder of Ukraine Tech Summit.
Mike Butcher, editor-at-large of TechCrunch, a leading global media covering technology and startup news, wasimpressed by the quality of Ukrainian startups. The speaker added that Ukraine—as well as Europe in general—lacks one thing: aproduct vision and the ability to enter the market with it.
"For a very long time, UK entrepreneurs have collaborated with Ukraine’s amazing tech talent.Now, the UK is benefitting from Ukraine’s startup ecosystem, from SaaS to climate tech to defense tech. Ukraine's resilience at bothpersonal and startup levels is a key reason to partner with Ukraine’s tech ecosystem," Butcher commented.
During the panel discussion, participants talked about the global tech ecosystem’s development, theinteraction of tech market players, and opportunities for their growth. Sergey Tokarev notices the total value of Ukraine's startup ecosystem has grown to€28 billion. The businessman also underlined the existing obstacles for international tech businesses to cooperate with companies inthe war zone. He thinks this should be revised.
"For more than two years, Ukrainian specialists have been adapting to working in a big war. Ourspecialists are giving 100%, creating startups and developing them despite the shelling and blackouts. After all, Ukrainians have nomargin for error: if we make a mistake, investors and partners will simply leave our market. What we need now is to spread the storiesof successful cooperation with Ukraine,"commented Tokarev.
At the event, organizers announced grants of $100,000 and expert assistance from Google. Among the startupseligible to receive a grant are the following:
- Ailand Systems, a developer of smart autonomous drones that detect mines;
- BazaIT, an IT recruiting platform;
- Clearly, a platform for finding psychotherapists;
- Eddy, a digital space for educational institutions;
- Natatively, a service that allows one to turn a website into an application;
- Spendbase, a one-stop shop for optimizing costs for software and cloud services;
- Uspacy, a platform for internal communications between employees.
Sergey Tokarev emphasizes that Ukraine has an
advantage over European countries in technology implementation and its companies have a unique experience that makes them important
partners.
