After Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine back in February 2022, the Ukrainian economy faced harsh times. The IT sector which is considered the most perspective became also quite fragile – hundreds of Ukrainian tech projects were frozen, lost finances, and had to deal with all the possible challenges when operating in a country at war. This is when the idea of helping such projects appeared and the initiative the Ukrainian Tech Circle was born. Sergey Tokarev, the founder of Roosh and one of the project’s initiators, explains the idea behind the initiative.
The initiative united technology companies, angel investors, entrepreneurs, and international venture funds that wanted to help the IT sector in Ukraine. The idea is to help tech startups in attracting new customers and additional investment. The project is also designed to provide consultations with tech experts so that startup founders can find mentor help as well.
The initiative was launched by three entrepreneurs: Sergey Tokarev, an investor and the Roosh founder, Nina Levchuk, a head of Startup and VC at Google in Central Europe, and Den Dmitrenko, a managing partner in the tech company Roosh.
As Sergey Tokarev explains, there are a lot of Ukrainian tech startups that lost in February up to 100% of their revenue and almost all their financial sources. Only large companies like Reface, Ajax Systems, and Diia could survive.
“The Ukrainian tech landscape has a lot of potential. Here, we have talented IT engineers and brilliant ideas developed. In Roosh, we always focus on supporting and assisting local talents. And our goal is still relevant, though the war has added unprecedented challenges,” says Sergey Tokarev.
Ukrainian Tech Circle focuses on solving these challenges. It helps tech startups in Ukraine to find support by getting consulting assistance, contract sources, and opportunities to get funds.
By now, the team of Ukrainian Tech Circle has quite a lot of companies willing to help startups. These are Roosh Ventures, Neurons Lab, AI HOUSE, BBQ Capital, Spaceсadet Ventures, Samaipata, ff Venture Capital, the Reface app, SET University, Pawa venture studio, Libeo, Silicon Allee, ZibraAI deep-tech startup, and Google for Startups.
Any Ukrainian tech startup or company can apply for the initiative, both as a mentor and mentee. The application form can be found on the website.
At the moment, the initiative has got more than 50 applications.
“The number will grow, as well as partners with mentors. For example, after the initiative’s launch, early-stage VC firm Chamaeleon joined our circle,” said Sergey Tokarev.
