In a conversation with AIN, the company’s CEO Anton Pavlovskyi explained how they managed to earn the investor’s trust during the war, where the funds will be directed, which new products and markets they plan to pursue, and — why the company is preparing for an IPO and actively integrating generative AI into its services. Below we publish Anton’s answers in a rapid-fire format.

How did Headway manage to attract investment from Bullhound Capital?

The investment from Bullhound Capital is more than financing. It’s a strategic partnership with one of the most influential international funds, which is behind success stories like Spotify, Klarna, Unity. 

This is a powerful international investor that entered Ukraine even during the full-scale invasion. For us this is a very indicative signal of trust, since part of our team is in Ukraine, although our main market from the very start has been and remains the US market.

Bullhound Capital invests in companies capable of radically changing markets, and our thesis — to make education accessible and effective through technology — fully aligns with their approach.

Today the fund’s portfolio includes many investments in generative artificial intelligence, quantum systems and other breakthrough areas. We are changing education to meet the needs of the modern person: making it convenient for smartphones, adding gamification, integrating personalization. And it was precisely this combination of technological strength with a mission that has global impact that interested them and led to a partnership with us. 

How will you use the investment?

Our main focus is the development and scaling of existing products and the creation of new ones. With the support of Bullhound Capital and the joining of Pera Romana, founder and managing partner of Bullhound Capital, to our board of directors, we are targeting expansion of global presence, strengthening technological infrastructure and broadening our product portfolio.

We clearly understand how to make existing services even better, and we have a large team working on new features, including those based on generative AI. This concerns both customer-facing dfdfd fdfdfdfdfdfdfd fdfdfdfdfdf  cvv vcvcvfdf df ddf ?solutions that directly interact with customers solutions and internal processes that speed up development and improve product quality.

At the same time we are investing in creating products for different learning formats, since not all users want or are used to gaining knowledge from books — and that is absolutely fine. The investment allows us to enter new markets more actively and to scale proven models. We also plan to continue investing in people and to grow the team.

How did membership in Endeavor affect the company?

As a reminder, Headway joined the global network of entrepreneurs Endeavor, becoming the first company with Ukrainian roots in this community.

Endeavor is not just a prestigious recognition, but access to a world-class community with enormous experience. I learned about it a month after Headway’s start and immediately thought: it would be great if such a community existed in Ukraine. And we became part of it during the full-scale invasion. This opened direct contact with founders who have gone through the toughest stages of business — from negotiating with global investors to going public.

There is a pay-it-forward culture here: those who have already gone through a certain path share their experience and help others accelerate. Thanks to Endeavor we receive advice from people who know how to avoid common mistakes, we see different approaches to solving complex problems and draw inspiration. Already now we feel the real effect of this network — from ideas to concrete insights that influence our business decisions.

What are the plans for further use of generative AI?

For Headway this issue is especially relevant, since the company has long been actively implementing artificial intelligence technologies into its products and processes, and a significant part of the solution portfolio is based on gamification and personalized learning, where Gen AI plays a key role.

Generative AI is the key to hyper-personalization of our products and to creating new usage scenarios that were previously practically impossible. We have a separate team focused solely on AI, but in reality every product team integrates it into their processes one way or another. This includes developing AI-native products and introducing new features into existing services.

AI is used at all levels: from tools for personal productivity to comprehensive optimization of team workflows. For example, in the content team it has tripled the speed of content creation, and we see potential to grow this metric many times over. For us it’s not just a technological trend but one of the fundamental elements of the company’s development strategy.

Read also: Artificial intelligence is already taking over Hollywood. How and where film producers use Gen AI

Why did you change the company name to Headway Inc and how did the process go?

For a long time both the company and our flagship product had the same name — Headway. This sometimes created confusion, especially given that the identity was shared as well. We decided to clearly separate these concepts, developed a new identity, updated the website and formed a renewed brand vision. For us this was not simply a rebrand but a rethinking of who we are and what role we play in the global lifelong learning ?learning throughout life space. For us — it’s evolution and revolution. Evolution of the business — and a revolution in education.

Evolution. We have gone from a single app with short book lectures to an ecosystem of educational products, a global company that is among the top five EdTech companies in the world according to TIME magazine. The name change was a logical step that emphasized the scale of our activities and the multidirectional nature of our strategy.

At the same time it is a revolution in education. We are changing the approach to learning: knowledge is integrated into everyday life through summaries, games, interactive lessons and challenges. Our products combine gamification, AI and adaptive content, and Inc symbolizes the uniting of people and technology around the mission to help people grow. The logo with “HI” is both Headway Inc and the friendly English “Hi,” which embodies openness and ease in acquiring new knowledge.

Tell us about your products and their performance.

Our portfolio currently includes 5 products, each occupying its own niche. 

• Headway — according to the company, this is the No. 1 app in the summaries niche, has more than 50 million downloads, App of the Day in over 30 countries.
• Impulse — No.1 in brain training, has more than 100 million downloads, top in Health & Fitness. 
• Nibble — short interactive lessons in math, art etc., has over 4 million downloads. 
• AddMile — a coaching platform for personal development where we combine human touch, emphasizing the development of so-called power skills, previously known as soft skills.
• Skillsta — interactive lessons based on life situations to improve social skills.

We have also created our own R&D lab that conducts user research, integrates feedback and works deeply with data. The combination of qualitative and quantitative analytics allows us to quickly test hypotheses, improve products and launch new solutions based on the real needs of millions of users.

Do you plan to go public (IPO)?

Yes, we consider an IPO as one of the key steps in our long-term strategy. It is not an end in itself but a tool to strengthen our position on the global market, access capital, reinforce the brand and build stronger partnerships. We are preparing comprehensively — from legal aspects and financial reporting to setting up internal processes that meet the requirements of a public company.

Tentatively we are looking at 2029 as a window of opportunity, although everything will depend on the market situation. Our task now is to be ready in all respects so that at the right moment we can take this step as effectively as possible without losing focus on business development.

What are the plans for raising capital for the IPO?

We are open to new partners and plan to attract strong international investors who share our vision of Revolutionizing Lifelong Learning, i.e. creating new approaches to how people learn throughout life in the modern world. It is important to us that these are funds capable of bringing not only financial resources but also added value in the form of expertise, network and strategic support.

Some rounds may start from $100 million per partner, but we do not aim to force this process. Right now the main focus is business development, launching and refining products, strengthening brands and expanding partnerships so that at the moment of going public the company is as strong as possible from all sides.

How did you manage to reach profitability during the war?

We have always been data-driven and made decisions based on analytics. Limited access to capital forced us to look for even more efficient working models. As I like to repeat, constraints often stimulate innovation, and in our case this became an impetus for deep optimization of processes without any harm to product quality.

We pay great attention to the team. Our annual retention rate is 93%, and many employees have been with us for 5–6 years. We implemented the Headway Recharge initiative — the possibility to take a month off after five years of work, we invest in internships and the development of young talent. This creates an environment where people can reveal their potential and contribute to the company’s development even in the most difficult conditions.

РРВівзвдзцвц

In 2023, 72% of the transactions in Poland were financed by VCs with Polish public LPs (PFR Ventures, NCBR Bridge Alfa, and BGK). It shows how important public funds still are for the Polish startup ecosystem.

General data of Polish VC market in Q1 2024:

• 30 Polish startups received funding;
• €43 million is the value of investments;
• 35 funds were involved;
• over 80% of transactions remained seed rounds, with 5 investments recorded at the A and B rounds;
• the median transaction size rose from PLN 1 million to PLN 3 million;
• 36% of the capital was provided by international funds.

The Polish startup ecosystem in Q1 2024 decreased by 76% YoY in the number of transactions
decreased by 55% YoY in capital invested (for comparison, global VC activity in value has decreased by 5% YoY according to Dealroom).

Activity of Polish funds:

In the first quarter of 2024, Polish VC funds made 10 investments in foreign startups, totaling €16 million. In recent years, the professionalization of Polish investors was observed, enabling access to a global network of contacts and participation in attractive financing rounds for foreign companies.

Two of the most significant transactions included the Saleor Commerce (PLN 32 million) and Vasa Therapeutics (PLN 24 million) rounds, both of which were seed rounds and attracted foreign investment. Furthermore, an additional five companies secured funding ranging from PLN 10 million to PLN 20 million.

Public funding in Poland:

By the end of 2023, the number of active Polish VC funds had decreased by over 80% from its peak in 2022, and most teams/GPs won’t be able to raise a new fund without the support of Polish public LPs.

Additionally, there was a decrease in the share of transactions involving solely Polish teams and an increase in the share of foreign capital, with co-investments rising from 21% to 26%. The substantial (> €60 million) private funds raised recently (OTB, Inovo, bValue) have already started to have an impact on Polish ecosystem.

I anticipate this trend to persist, with Polish teams able to offer larger investment tickets and the launch of new funds under the FENG programme. Over the long term, this is expected to systematically increase the proportion of transactions in which Polish funds play at least a partial role,

Radosław Kuchar, Investment Manager at PFR Ventures, predicts.

• Founded in 2021, Menken develops an AI to automate and improve the monitoring of clinical trials. The startup claims it makes them faster, more accurate, and efficient. By automating monitoring in clinical trials with real-time compliance checks and error detection, its solutions aim to fill a critical gap in the market.

We believe that our success comes from changing the way clinical trial operations are viewed and carried out. By focusing on improving workflows, we aim to make clinical trials more efficient and compliant, —  Anna-Liisa Parts, one of the co-founders, commented.

• Recently, Menken Trials has entered Tenity, a Swiss-backed early-stage investing and accelerating program now operating in Estonia, as part of their growth efforts. The startup added that this partnership will help us expand in Central Europe, reaching more hospitals and biopharmas over the next 12 months.
• The grant was provided by the Tallinn-based EASi ja KredExi ühendasutus, the joint organisation, supporting entrepreneurship and the improvement of living conditions in Estonia, increase its international competitiveness, visibility and attractiveness as a place for business, living and studies. Estonian Business and Innovation Agency projects are co-funded from the European Regional Development Fund.

The fresh grant will help the startup to expand into Eastern Europe and Africa and to support its mission to improve clinical trial processes worldwide.

Moreover, production in Slovakia helps to cope with another problem. Because of the martial law, Raybird cannot export their products, and the final price is limited in markup to 25%. Besides, including development costs in price is impossible.

The factory in Slovakia allows the company to avoid these restrictions. It gives more opportunities in the global market so that countries of the European Union and NATO can buy their UAVs.

The Slovakian factory can build 25 reconnaissance systems per year. Their output will be increased 4 times after closing the round. Skyeton is currently raising $15 million in investments for this expansion.

Apart from the drone factory, Stepura duplicated another of his businesses in Slovakia – the production of modular houses Homers.

What is known about Raybird made by Skyeton

Skyeton has been producing ultralight planes and UAVs for over 17 years. Among the developments of Skyeton, there is the unmanned aircraft system Raybird-3 for long-term intelligence missions of civil and special forces.

• The price of the one system is $1,2 million. It includes three planes, portable ground control stations, an antenna system, a launcher, video and photo cameras, and radars.
• The most expensive camera on the plane costs €300,000. Aside from expensive details, 60-70% of the prime price goes on the development and engineers’ salaries.
• The drone can fly up to 28 hours and cover up to 2,500 kilometers at a height of up to 4,500 meters which makes the drone almost invisible for electronic warfare.
• Only 5 global companies have similar ratios of weight and durability of stay in the air drones yet foreign samples are much more expensive.
• The Defence Forces of Ukraine had ordered over 75 intelligence systems in the period from February of 2022 to May of 2024.

About Oinride

• Oinride develops robotic solutions aimed at revolutionizing underground mining operations. The robots are equipped with sensors, navigation systems, and AI capabilities, allowing to navigate hazardous environments such as underground mines. In addition, these robots can communicate with other systems to enhance coordination and productivity.
• Oinride’s technology is also suitable for various rough terrain environments, including security and defense, nuclear waste management, and other challenging conditions.
• Recently, the company participated in the Startupbootcamp Renewable Energy & Net-Zero 2023 accelerator in Amsterdam. During the accelerator, Oinride has been supported by Fleur Engelberts, Joey Moreau, Aref Ghazvini, Natasha Amaral, Jeroen van der Lugt, Zahira R., and Tessa Landkroon.

Investment details

The fresh €345,000 pre-seed round also includes a €200,000 from Berlin-based EIT RawMaterials, an Innovation Community within the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). This financial boost will enable Oinride to accelerate the development and deployment of its mobile robotics designed to enhance safety and productivity in the mining industry’s harsh environments.

“This is a massive leap forward for us, propelling our mission to innovate and enhance the mining industry with our state-of-the-art mobile robotics solutions. This incredible achievement marks the beginning of an exciting journey ahead,” Oinride’s team commented.

Oinride also plans to launch a pilot project in the USA, expand its team, and refine their products for a broader market launch.

• Founded in 2018 by former Bigbank Group CEO Kaido Saar, Mifundo develops an AI-based cross-border data platform to enable the portability of credit profiles throughout the European Union. The company’s goal is to create a truly unified credit market in the EU, reducing financial inequality and providing better access to financial services for all European citizens.

• The startup also claims that its technology, combining cross-border data from credit bureaus, open banking and other sources helps to reduce the credit risk of foreigners up to 7 times and to increase bank’s business volumes by 15% while offering seamless UX both for banks and consumers. Additionally, in November 2022, Mifundo raised a €1.2 million in a pre-seed funding.

About the fresh financing:

• The grant funing was provided by EIC. In total it will invest 411 million in 68 companies that develop technology of strategic importance to Europe and have disruptive potential on a global scale. These were selected in a highly competitive process from nearly 1,000 candidates.
• Typically, the EIC invests in the deep tech sectors such as quantum computing, space technology, biotech and medicine. However, for the first time in the history, a fintech company has been chosen for the full scale investment.

With the new funding, Mifundo plans to integrate additional countries into its platform, further develop the pan-European data model and expand data service coverage within the EU.

About Onego Bio

• Founded in 2022 as a spinoff from VTT (Technical Research Center of Finland), by Maija Itkonen (CEO) and Christopher Landowski (CTO). Onego Bio develops and commercializes Bioalbumen, an animal-free egg-white. The production process equals a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and a 95% decrease in land use (Nature Food 2021).
• Now, Onego works with major food companies on product formulation in a wide range of products, from baked goods, confectionery, snacks, sauces, pasta, meat alternatives, and more. As a US-Finnish company, Onego is commercializing in North America, where the regulatory landscape allows a faster market entry.

The new funding and immense support from our investors demonstrates their confidence in our vision and the potential of innovations like Bioalbumen® to build a more sustainable system. It also shows that the EU recognizes precision fermentation as a solution to address sustainability issues and enhance food security in Europe and worldwide. However, to remain competitive and fully capture the potential of exceptional European research and innovation, the regulatory approval process must be accelerated, as the EU currently lags behind other regions in this area, — Maija Itkonen, CEO & co-founder of Onego Bio said.

The fresh investment:

Onego Bio was selected for EIC funding from a competitive pool of 969 applicants, of which 347 companies were interviewed by juries of investors and entrepreneurs, with only 68 receiving funding. EIC Accelerator offers startups and SMEs grants of up to €2.5 million combined with equity investments through the EIC Fund ranging from €0.5 to €15 million or more. In addition to financial support, all projects benefit from a wide range of Business Acceleration Services that provide access to expertise, corporates, investors, and ecosystem actors.

The company aims to submit a Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) notice to the FDA this year, with hope of receiving a “no questions” letter from the FDA in 2025. The newly received EIC funding will fuel its go-to-market plan also in the EU, including securing regulatory approval from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). 

AIN asked Ivan Petrenko, the Angel One Fund Managing Partner and CfE Accelerator Executive Director, about the launch of his new fund, its startup preferences, and the average “temperature of the market.”

Let’s begin with the changes the venture, angel investment, and startup world has undergone compared to 2023 or 2022.

We all know each other in the industry. Some love to sound super positive. I prefer to sound realistic so that I can understand where the bottom is and how to get out.

Many say that we, Ukraine, are almost the leading startup development market in Eastern Europe. Hearing this, I have a bitter smile because I don’t see such a trend. This year, however, the situation became smoother thanks to grant programs, such as Google for Startups, IT Consortium, Seeds of Bravery, etc.

In my opinion, it is one of the two essential conditions needed for new startups to arise. Their teams need money. And it is grant funds for the first time. Before the full-scale invasion, USF granted $25-50k per applicant, and it was a significant boost for the industry. In 2022, they stopped doing this, resulting in a quick shrinking of the industry. It was one of the reasons.

Nowadays, new grant programs work in Ukraine, and some old ones are back, too. It’s a perfect chance for startups to give it another try. I think there will be more of them in six months.

I presume everybody is now looking at Defense Tech.

Not everybody. It is our bubble where all eyes are on deftech.

However, it is a very restrained domain most ventures would rather avoid because they are not allowed to invest in it. For example, we at Angel One may not directly invest in Defense Tech.

Is it because of your internal policy?

It’s not entirely about our policy. Legally, we are a US-based fund with several regulatory restrictions, so we cannot invest in Defense Tech. Otherwise, we would lose our investors. So, at the early stage, by establishing a fund, you should discuss [with partners] whether it will invest in the defense domain.

And there is a very thin line — dual use, deftech, and lethal weapons next. Those are three very different things you must be careful with. The same discussions we have in Ukraine. It’s obvious why. So, we often have to work with targeted deftech investments. There is no such bubble abroad. However, many players look at Ukraine carefully and pay more and more attention.

The funds that can invest are very familiar with the required information. Their analysts gather all the data about the current situation in Ukraine. They select projects with great caution because the funds must report to institutional or private investors.

Many things depend on Ukraine. And a lot of things are done. But a long way is still ahead. Anyway, when we invest in Defense Tech, we expect that their team and legal entity are based and registered somewhere in Delaware, as well as their technology, to enjoy protection according to the local legislation.

We do care that a deftech startup keeps thinking about sales not exclusively in Ukraine. The team should plan their international activities in advance. That’s why production or development is often located outside of Ukraine, which means a different market and an adapted business model.

The most recent investment of Angel One Fund in six startups was a syndicate deal with private investors, wasn’t it?

Yes. The same investors we had at Angel One.

So it was the Angel One syndicate member, right?

Mostly yes. Now, we are working on the launch of a Defense Tech fund. Hopefully, it will happen between September and October. We need an official opening to invest in defense startups not only through syndicate deals but also as a fund because there are interested investors who want to join not our syndicate, but the fund directly.

So, are there a bunch of investors committed to a new fund?

Yes, there is a particular sum. We may speak about a $1.5-million commitment. We are working on its institutionalization to run deftech investments as a fund.

Until there is no fund, we keep searching for teams and invest via syndicate deals.

Do you have a plan with your targets for this new fund? Which startups would it be?

We don’t care if it’s a hardware or software project. Software is always more attractive due to its better scalability, safety, and lower need for investment. However, I am not sure about the last one.

It is highly unlikely that it will be pre-seed rounds since fewer and fewer investors desire to enter at this stage, where you cannot check the actual demand and sales of a product. So, mostly, it will be very early seed and maybe late pre-seed rounds with a well-tested working prototype and pre-orders.

OK. Let’s return to the Angel One Fund. It currently has $1.5 million, right?

We have already got $2.5 million.

How many projects do you plan to invest in until the end of the year?

Recently, we confirmed our fifth investment. Hopefully, it should be three more until the end of the year. We wouldn’t reach more for certain, because we have another deftech focus with five more investments this year.

Are you going to close to close the fund in 2025, or not?

No, we will keep raising. So, the fund will keep working. It will be a nonstop process. We decided in favor of a rolling fund that will be constantly filled.

Speaking of your syndicate deals, we had a conversation with Dmytro Vartanian (SID Ventures) recently. Can you tell us about the platform you use to close deals? Do you use any technological platforms?

At the moment, we don’t use any. All prefer SAFE or Convertible Loans. It’s a universal tool with more than enough functions.

With the investments in six startups, you also announced that you will support them. What will it look like?

We are only learning. The fund is new and small. We don’t have any military expertise yet, so we cannot provide it. But we do have good business expertise thanks to our network of private investors, primarily US-based. They have good contacts.

We also can help with sales. If a startup team is interested in entering the US market, we undertake the work with contacts, which we get from our private investors.

Which domains are the market’s top priority?

It is AI, for sure.

I also hear a lot about EdTech.

First, we declared at least 30% of deals in EdTech would be a target. But so far, we haven’t made a single deal. SAS remains one of the simplest and most popular models as always. MedTech and BioTech are growing fast. There are vast investments and technologies quickly grow.

I think EdTech is less popular. It was three to five years ago, especially during the COVID pandemic, but the MedTech, BioTech, and FinTech development is very impressive. And there is, for sure, AI constantly added to different products.  Finally, people have the idea that AI is not a product but a tool. You should learn how to use it to create added value for your product.

Did the startup average ticket and entry terms change for Angel One during the full-scale war? What are the startup rounds you are looking for?

The average ticket didn’t change and remains about $150,000. The terms, more or less, are the same. In any case, we realized we are not a pre-seed fund, as we declared once. After all, we became a seed fund. Our team seeks products with customer feedback and dynamic sales. So, we are cautious by investing in startups without sales.

This requirement is a must now, and our investment committee doesn’t want to speak with teams that don’t generate sales. The only exception here could be some real innovations, such as quantum computers. But not so many startups work with them. OK, there is Haiqu, but our fund arose too late when they already had raised everything they ever wanted. This startup was, for sure, the one we would be very interested in investing in.

So, they must show some traction and a clear sales strategy. It is one of the weaknesses, particularly of Ukrainian teams.

And which of the Angel One Fund investments is the fastest-growing one?

Our first investment, Zeely, is showing the best results so far. They grow very well. I understand that the estimated value is a theoretical indicator because there can be any number until somebody puts a money bag on the table. Nevertheless, they attracted new investments and tripled in size for the past year. It is a very substantial indicator.

Another example is GO TO-U. Their sales are growing each month, maybe not so fast as at Zeely, but they do. They also entered the USA market and made several potentially good deals, including one with Siemens. We expect their mighty growth about the end of this year.

You are also starting a new IdeasLab program. What are the terms? Are there any changes compared to previous times?

There are no specific changes except for the constant improvement of the CfE Accelerator program. The program aims to support student teams in a hybrid format for free. Our main goal was and remains to let students try to launch a product, make their first mistakes, etc.

We decided to create our own learning program for future startupers where the students can get essential skills and apply them in practice by doing everything on their own. IdeasLab’s other goal is to allow students to do everything within three months. It is the only university program in Ukraine providing student teams not only with knowledge but also workspace and grants up to UAH 200.000 at the idea validation stage. Now, we have over 100 mentors, the founders of Ukrainian and foreign startups, who spend their time teaching the students. Among them are the founders of SoftServe, Angel One, LvBS, Netflix, Microsoft, TedxLviv, AiSDR, The Gradient, QubStudio, Kormotex, Tickets.ua, Harmix, Medallion, etc.

We already have $1 million in so-called credits from different companies, such as Grammarly, Salesforce, and Notion. We teach students how to use it. More applications are expected this year than in the past year.

In the second quarter of 2024, a little over €209 million (PLN 896 million) flowed through the Polish VC market. This is the total value of capital that Polish and foreign funds invested in 38 transactions in domestic innovative enterprises.

Thus, in the first half of this year, the value of VC investments in Poland amounted to nearly €250 million PLN 1.07 billion, adding onto the results of Q1 2024.

General numbers

• 38 companies secured financing.
• €209 million was invested.
• 47 funds participated in various investment rounds.
• 12 Series A+ provided 80% of the total investment value.
• ICEYE’s $93 million growth round is the biggest transaction in the Polish market in 2024 yet.
• Kontakt.io $48 million had the second biggest transaction and Smart Lunch $15 million — the third.

12 out of 38 transactions are investments with the participation of PFR Ventures funds. They provided 16% of capital for innovative enterprises. Most of the transactions were carried out with the significant participation of private Polish funds and business angels. 46% of the capital was provided by international funds.

The state of the Polish market

According to the report, Q2 of 2024 has showcased a significant decline in the number of companies that obtained financing. This trend has been continuing since the first quarter and is related to the end of the investment period of EU funds from the Smart Growth Operational Program.

“The increase in the number of A+ rounds translated into a much better result of the Polish VC market in the second quarter compared to the beginning of the year. However, it is worth noting that the number of transactions itself remains relatively low. This means that the market for financing early-stage companies has temporarily slowed down. We are working on implementing measures from FENG that will significantly improve this situation,”

Aleksander Mokrzycki, vice-president of PFR Ventures, commented.

By the end of June 2024, only 51 seed rounds and 18 Series A+ transactions were recorded.

About Valo.ai

• Founded in 2023 in San Francisco by veterans of Salesforce and cybersecurity, Valo.ai is a software development company developing an AI-native tool for Salesforce that uses automation in SaaS services to identify and remedy misconfigurations at their root.
• Valo.ai aims to help CIOs, IT teams, and business owners to optimize their business needs, while maintaining security and monitoring connected applications.

Investment details

• The funding round was led by Inventure, a venture capital with offices in Helsinki and Stockholm that focuses on investments across Nordics and Baltics. Spintop Ventures from Stockholm, and cybersecurity experts Mikko Hypponen and Henri Lindberf also participated in the financing.

“Many SaaS security posture management solutions are broad in scope, but Valo is purpose-built for Salesforce, allowing administrators to adopt a proactive and automated approach. Tasks that typically take weeks for Salesforce administrators can now be accomplished in minutes with Valo,”

Jari Salomaa, CEO and co-founder of Valo, said.

• Although neither the startup nor the investors disclosed the deal’s amount, Inventure’s average ticket size ranges from €1 million to €3 million, while the lowest ticket is at least €300,000. And according to Spintop Ventures, its ticket size ranges from €500,000 to €1,5 million.
• Thanks to the fresh funding, Valo will be able to achieve its goal of significantly enhancing Salesforce administrators’ productivity while mitigating risks.

This is the second investment by Inventure announced this month. In July 2024, Inventure co-led a €4 million seed round for the Swedish startup Steep.

The letter from the bank states that the decision is related to recent changes in the bank’s policy, which prohibits opening and maintaining accounts for citizens of seven countries, which, for some reasons, includes Ukraine.

Mercury will also stop supporting accounts of companies whose founders have passports from Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela. The accounts are scheduled to shut down on August 13, 2024.

Mercury’s comments

In a comment to the post, the bank’s representatives explained that the changes apply to founders of companies living directly in Ukraine, not to Ukrainians doing business in the United States.

They acknowledged the error in their help center, which previously incorrectly stated that they refused to work with all clients with Ukrainian passports. Mercury assured that it will continue to work with Ukrainians doing business in the United States, but is currently unable to serve companies with founders based in Ukraine. The bank apologized for any confusion caused by the error.

“To give more context about the policy change: while Ukraine is not comprehensively sanctioned, several regions of Ukraine are sanctioned. We previously applied a region-based model to support as many customers in Ukraine as possible; however supporting this policy while also upholding our rigorous standards on compliance has become increasingly complex. We will continue to revisit this policy and hope that we can change this in the future,”

the bank explains.

Mercury promised to review this policy in the future and hopes to be able to change it.

This is not the first time that Ukrainian entrepreneurs have faced similar problems with the American financial system, Azhnyuk pointed out.

Earlier this year, Chase Bank refused to transfer money to Ukraine from its clients’ American accounts. In January 2021, before Russia’s full-scale invasion, the financial service Robinhood blocked access to its website for users with Ukrainian IP addresses.

Since the Russian war started, many American websites have also begun blocking traffic from Ukraine, making them accessible only through VPNs.

About Metis Ventures:

• Metis Ventures is a data-driven early-stage investment platform focusing on Central Eastern Europe, the Baltics, and Turkey. The team behind Metis Ventures has been investing in tech companies for over a decade and deployed $2 billion in public and private markets in total.
• Since 2020, the team has been investing together through three early-stage funds: TechOne Ventures, LogoVentures, and TwoZero Ventures. These funds are backed by private investors. In 2024, the team gathered its efforts under Metis Ventures.
• Their portfolio contains more than 55 companies across 27 countries, co-investing with over 100 global investors. They invested in Miros AI, Quin AI, Brand Defense, Kamion, Getmobil, and Cognitive, among others. Within 4 years, the portfolio has realized 4 exits, including BluTV’s acquisition by Warner Bros and Tridi’s acquisition by Xeometry.

Plans of Metis Ventures for the CEE:

Metis Ventures aims to focuses on 5 key AI-enabled areas:

• AI apps driving productivity;
• cybersecurity;
• fintech;
• climatetech;
• digital health.

To lead their CEE entering, Metis Ventures has recruited Mircea Ghita, SeedBlink’s ex-Country Manager in Romania. Ghita has been working in the startup investing field since 2018, and worked at Amsterdam-based VC henQ.

I joined Metis Ventures because I believe that together with this team we can achieve great things. I was drawn to the challenge of expanding and leading our presence in CEE and supporting the best tech entrepreneurs firsthand. My role will be to find top founders to partner with and support while establishing Metis Ventures as the top choice for early-stage rounds in CEE. We invest in entrepreneurs who are fun to work with, are on their way to dominating or creating their markets and who we can genuinely help, — says Mircea Ghita, the newly appointed Principal for CEE at Metis Ventures.

In addition, the fund will target seed and late-seed (early Series A) stages, with initial investments ranging from €500,000 to €3 million. Half of their funds are reserved for follow-on rounds to ensure continued support for portfolio companies.In CEE, the firm is looking to make 8-10 investments in 1 year.

• Adaptive Media was founded in Latvia in 2014 and operates in export markets throughout the world, including the United Arab Emirates, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Mexico. It creates digital content marketing projects and assists consumers world-wide in purchasing products online.
• Tech giants like Google, Microsoft and Amazon are Adaptive Media‘s partners. Adaptive Media had a turnover of over €4 million, with €1 million profit in 2023.

• In September 2023, Merito Partners launched a new €30 million real estate Merito Self Storage Fund to develop pan-Baltic network of self storage facilities. Additionally, in May 2023, Merito Partners acquired a majority stake in AIOO, retailer of mobile device accessories and used smartphones. The amount of the deal was €3 million.

Adaptive Media is local success story– in ten years, expanding from local projects and an office in the attic of the founder’s home, into a global business. Latvian investors’ capital and confidence in the company’s management team, will allow the Adaptive Media to expand more rapidly. This investment is an important addition to Merito Partners portfolio, alongside Box Storage, the largest self storage network in the Baltics, which is actively continuing to fundraise, as well as portfolio of solar parks Latvia and a number of other companies,

says Mikus Janvars, co-founder and Managing Partner of Merito Partners.

Merito Partners, in collaboration with the founders of Adaptive Media, will invest in the further development of the company, including technology and the team strengthening. The sell-side financial advisers were Superia and legal adviser – VILGERTS.

• Founded by Nathan King and Tiya Gordon, itselectric aims to pave the way for sustainable transportation with its approach to EV charging stations in cities by revenue sharing with building partners which install charging stations. Recently, itselectric won a $1.5 million federal grant from the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation as part of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Reduction Act, bringing its pre-seed funding to $3.7 million.

• The fresh round was led by Uber and Failup Ventures, a Finnish-American venture capital fund based in New York and Helsinki. Its typical initial investment is $200,000-$1 million with the capability to follow up with larger tickets. Recently, Failup also led a €1.5 million in a pre-seed funding for the Finnish AI startup ConfidentialMind.

Halogen Ventures, Partnership for New York City, Pulse Fund, Newlab, Gratitude Railroad, Tale Venture Partners, The Equity Alliance, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) Impact Fund, and The Helm, also participated.

itselectric has designed an innovative public charging solution that addresses the infrastructural barriers that cities face in the deployment of electric vehicle curbside charging. Their thoughtfully designed chargers are a highly scalable solution that will rapidly bring curbside charging to the millions of city drivers who park on the street and contribute to the nationwide adoption of electric vehicles,

Topias Soininen, general partner at Failup Ventures, said.

itselectric will use the investment to support its deployments across seven cities in the United States in 2024, including Boston, Los Angeles, Detroit, Jersey City, and San Francisco. It will also help itselectric’s curbside charging infrastructure will also help support Uber’s goal of helping rideshare drivers go electric

• Aspichi was co-founded by Viktor Samoilenko and Maksym Goncharuk, as VR technology company specializing in psychological rehabilitation. Their flagship product, Luminify, offers immersive VR therapy solutions designed to treat various psychological disorders, enhancing the quality of life for patients and residents in care facilities.

• The startup is incorporated in Delaware, but its R&D is in Kyiv. Its founders both have more than 15 years of experience working in international companies around the world. In March 2023, Aspichi secured $500,000 from the SMRK fund.

• Rocky Mountain Care, a US-based provider of post-acute and long-term care services. Recently, the company conducted a study within their recreational activities program to evaluate the effectiveness of Aspichi’s Luminify VR therapy in treating psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD.

Key highlights of the study:

• A considerable reduction in anxiety and depression symptoms among residents who used the Luminify VR therapy as part of their recreational activities.
• The overall well-being of residents improved significantly, with many reporting increased feelings of calm, relaxation, and general happiness.
• The inclusion of Luminify VR therapy as a recreational activity not only provided entertainment but also served as an effective behavioral therapy tool, enhancing the overall recreational program.

We are proud to partner with Rocky Mountain Care to bring cutting-edge VR therapy to those in need. Our mission is to harness the power of technology to improve mental health outcomes, and this collaboration is a significant step forward in achieving that goal,

said Viktor Samoilenko, CEO of Aspichi.

After the study, Rocky Mountain Care has become a customer of Aspichi with the intention to expand the VR therapy solution to additional RMC post-acute care and assisted living facilities.

• Preply was founded in 2012 by Ukrainians Serhii Lukyanov, Dmytro Voloshyn, and Kyrylo Bigai. It develops an online language learning platform that connects teachers with students using a machine learning algorithm.
• The startup team consists of 500 employees of 60 different nationalities in 30 countries. In 2023, the startup opened its first office in the United States. Preply’s valuation at that time could be $500 million. In July last year, Preply received $70 million from Horizon Capital, an Ukraine-focused venture fund, Reach Capital, and Hoxton Ventures.

Our new London hub will enable us to foster closer connections, enhance collaboration, and tap into the city’s rich talent pool. A heartfelt thank you to our dedicated teams for making this possible and for continuing to build the unique Preply culture we cherish,

the company’s post in LinkedIn.

The new London office will allow Preply to establish closer cooperation between teams, as well as take advantage of the city’s strong human resource potential.

About Helsing:

• Co-founded by Niklas Köhler, Torsten Reil, and Gundbert Scherf in 2021, Helsing develops a platform uses AI to analyze live data and improve the decision-making for defense, intelligence, and national security systems. The company employs 250 people. In September 2023, it raised a €209 million Series B  funding round led by General Catalyst, following a €103 million Series A fundraise led by Daniel Ek and Shakil Khan’s investment firm Prima Materia in November 2021.

• Helsing has been active in Ukraine since 2022 and recently established the Defence Manufacturers Alliance, a joint initiative with the Ukrainian government. Since its founding, the company has secured a series of government contracts, including the German Eurofighter Electronic Warfare upgrade, the AI infrastructure for the Future Combat Air System, and a number of classified contracts in the maritime and land domain.

The fresh Series C round:

• General Catalyst, the leading investor in the round, was founded in 2000 in San Francisco. The firm prefers to make investments in companies operating in consumer, enterprise, fintech, crypto, and health assurance sectors
• Elad Gil, an entrepreneur and investor from US, Accel, a global venture capital firm, Saab, a Stokholm-based defence and security company, Lightspeed, an US-based multi-stage venture capital firm, Plural, the Tallinn-based VC firm focusing on early-stage rounds between €1 million and €10 million, and Greenoaks, an investment firm based in San Francisco, also joined the investment.

European security is at a crossroads and Helsing will play a significant role in giving democratic societies the ability to deter and defend. But speed is of the essence. This new funding round allows us to further up the tempo and invest in large-scale R&D and capabilities across all domains,

the company’s three founders said in a joint statement.

According to company, the funding will be used for product development and R&D, a particular focus will be on bolster its work in the Baltics, as russia’s war in Ukraine goes on. 

About the program:

Huge Thing is part of the SpeedUp Venture Capital Group, a group of venture capital funds in Poland. As a group, it invests in enterprises at the early stages of development.

Now, the Huge Thing team has prepared three specialized tracks for the Startup Booster program, according to the different stages of startup development and the so-called TRL, or Technology Readiness Levels:

While preparing the Huge Thing Startup Booster program, we decided to divide it into three tracks, perfectly tailored to startups at different stages of development. This way, the invited mentors, partners, and the prepared content will perfectly address their current situations and needs,

Maria Tyka-Majewska, Senior Program Manager at Huge Thing, commented.

Industry Test (corporate) (TRL 6-9):

The corporate track designed for startups with an already functioning product or service. Participants will receive grants of up to €80,000 and have the opportunity to collaborate with project partners, including Veolia, the City of Zduńska Wola, Saint Gobain, PKO Bank Polski, Rossmann, PZU, Alior Bank, Żabka, and Legimi. The goal of this track is to provide startups with the opportunity to test their solutions in a real business environment.

Go Global (TRL 8-9):

This track is designed for startups that have reached a higher level of technology readiness and have completed their initial market implementations. The program offers grants of up to €80,000 and focuses on supporting companies in their international expansion, particularly in Asian, American, and German markets. Participants will receive assistance with market entry strategies, establishing business contacts, and adapting their products and services to the specifics of local markets.

Sector Agnostic (TRL 5):

This track focuses on startups at an earlier stage of development, specifically at TRL 5. The program is designed to support the refinement of their product or service and prepare them for market entry. Participants can receive grants of up to €40,000 and will have the opportunity to collaborate with mentors and Huge Thing partners. Additionally, the initiative facilitates the establishment long-term partnerships.

Recruitment for Startup Booster program has already started and will be open until July 28th, here.

• Founded in 2019 by Estonian entrepreneurs Martin Rand, Kaspar Korjus, and Kristjan Korjus, Pactum develops a solution using advanced mathematical models, cognitive science, negotiation techniques, and intelligent bots to digitally engage third parties and negotiate mutually-benefiting contracts, leading to better pricing, payment terms, and supply continuity.
• The company is based in Mountain View with engineering and operations in Estonia. Pactum also claims that its autonomous bots can contact thousands of suppliers simultaneously seeking the best pricing and terms for routine corporate purchases in logistics and a wide range of other sectors. Among its clients are Maersk, Walmart, Vodafone, and Veritiv.

Who supported the investment?

• The fresh round was led by Tallinn-based Karma Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, specialised in late seed and A round investments in Europe’s deep-tech software startups.
• An existing Vienna-based venture capital group 3VC also participated in the round, together with Atomico, a European Venture Capital firm headquartered in London, with offices in Paris, Berlin, and Stockholm, Project A, an early-stage tech investor with offices in Berlin and London, an Estonian VC fund SuperAngel, and a Budapest-based Portfolion, the venture capital and private equity arm of OTP Bank Pactum.

The investment round brings its total fundraising to $55 million. In December 2022, Pactum raised €19 million.

Pactum will use the funding round to accelerate additional research and development into autonomous negotiations, refine autonomous negotiation tools specifically for procurement teams, and develop initiatives to help upskill procurement professionals.

• Aboard is a Toronto-based B2B SaaS platform for healthcare institutions that helps them implement HR programs. Specifically, the service automates manual workflows such as onboarding, offboarding, credential expirations, employment anniversaries, and more.
• It also automates tasks (e.g., calendar bookings, emails, notifications) and the work of employees. The company was founded in 2020 by Lee MacDonald.

• The round was led by US-based East Post Road Ventures, with participation from Estonian Startup Wise Guys, an accelerator that invests in early-stage startups from the Baltic, Central European, and African regions. It has invested in over 350 startups and had 13 exits.
• Startup Wise Guys typically invests up to €500,000 per startup through multiple funds that manage €45 million and are backed by more than 150 investors. The CEO of Startup Wise Guys is Cristobal Alonso. Recently, the fund announced its investments of €100,000 in 15 startups.

This funding will empower us to accelerate the development of our HR solutions tailored for healthcare, ultimately driving efficiency, reducing administrative burdens, and enhancing employee satisfaction within healthcare organizations,

said Lee MacDonald, CEO of Aboard.

This investment will drive Aboard’s expansion into the US healthcare sector. Its amount was undisclosed.

• Mission Possibleis a transformative offline venture-building program, launched with the support of the Ukraine-Moldova American Enterprise Fund in September 2023, aimed at building and scaling Ukrainian startups. The first batch wrapped up with 20 entrepreneurs on board. The fresh batch will last from September 2024 to February 2025.
• Ukraine-Moldova American Enterprise Fund (UMAEF) is a regional fund with $285 million in capital, operating in Ukraine and Moldova over 29 years focusing on investment in small and medium-sized businesses.

Mission Possible has managed to bring together a community of over 100 people — experts and founders keen on startup growth. The program addresses key early-stage entrepreneurial challenges, providing participants with essential knowledge, access to global markets, and capital through networking and partnerships with international organizations,

Anton Waschuk, Director of Innovation, Education, and Entrepreneurship at Ukraine-Moldova American Enterprise Fund.

Who can participate:

• Founders with technical and engineering backgrounds, tech and particularly AI enthusiasts;
• Entrepreneurs looking to transition into tech;
• Bright students and scholars;
• Individuals who have worked in startups in various roles and are ready for their journey;
• Experienced professionals with strong domain expertise and insight;
• Repeat founders.

The program offers:

• Connections with advanced international ecosystems in Europe, the UK, and the USA;
• Access to investments within the program;
• A community of like-minded individuals and learning from successful founders and mentors from 100+ leading tech companies and startups.

Learn more about participation conditions, selection stages, and program opportunities via the link. Applications are open until August 12, 2024, inclusive.

• Based in Helsinki, Finland, with operations in Europe and North America, Silo AI specializes in end-to-end AI-driven solutions that help customers integrate AI into their products, services and operations. Their work spans diverse markets, with customers including Allianz, Philips, Rolls-Royce and Unilever. Silo AI also creates state-of-the-art open source multilingual LLMs, such as Poro and Viking, on AMD platforms in addition to its SiloGen model platform.

Silo AI has been a pioneer in scaling large language model training on LUMI, Europe’s fastest supercomputer powered by over 12,000 AMD Instinct MI250X GPUs. Together with university collaborators, they have trained state-of-the-art open-source models for EU languages, such as the Nordic Poro and Viking models. We have collaborated extensively with the team in optimizing the software layer, allowing for efficient training of AI models on LUMI,

said Dr. Pekka Manninen, Director of Science and Technology at CSC-IT Center for Science, Finland. “

• Founded in 1969 as a Silicon Valley startup, AMD works on high-performance computing, graphics and visualization technologies. The acquisition marks the latest step from AMD in a series of moves aimed at expanding its footprint in the AI landscape. Last year, the company acquired AI software firms Mipsology and Nod.ai and has invested more than $125 million across a dozen AI companies over the last 12 months.

Silo AI’s CEO and co-founder Peter Sarlin will continue to lead the unit as part of the AMD Artificial Intelligence Group, AMD said. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2024.

Registration will continue until August 1, via the registration form. The final will be held on August 10, the winners will receive grants for the further launch and development of projects. The result of the team’s work can be a presentation of ideas, own technological solutions, demo-prototypes, entire services, applications or platforms.

Who can participate?

Both individual specialists and whole teams are invited to join, including:

• developers, engineers, and network architects;
• cyber security specialists, researchers and scientists;
• students, graduates, and young specialists in the technological and cyber security fields;
• specialists with experience in the energy sector;
• startup founders, project and product managers.

Participants are encouraged to start with new ideas and projects, but you can also join with existing ones.

About Cybersecurity Innovations Hackathon:

The Cybersecurity Innovation Hackathon will be held in a hybrid format with an online part for teamwork and an offline final on August 10 in Kyiv.

The hackathon implements the largest European IT competition DEV Challenge with the assistance of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the support of the USAID Project “Cybersecurity of Critically Important Infrastructure of Ukraine”. The Hackathon supports the Ukrainian Startup Fund and the first innovation park UNIT.City.

Additionally, in June 2024, Open Data Hackathon was held in Kyiv with the support of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the “Support for Digital Transformation” project with the support of USAID and UK Dev, as well as the executive partner SocialBoost. Winners received a prize of $143,000.

• Scaler was co-founded in 2021 by Zlatan Menkovic and Luc van de Boom in 2021, and specializes in ESG decision-making. Its platform provides real estate investors and asset managers with machine learning, ESG monitoring and reporting tools to decarbonise the industry at scale. Customers can model the impact of decisions and their overall portfolio to asset-level footprint, and generate reports for different disclosure and regulatory requirements.

• It’s also been designed for specialists and non-specialist teams so anyone can use the tool, from CFOs to sustainability leads and property managers. In addition, Scaler helps clients create roadmaps and order work such as retrofitting or installing heat pumps and solar panels. 
• Currently, the company is working with 30 customers, which have over $350 billion under management. The startup also claims it reduced their carbon output by 15 million kgs – equivalent to the electricity use of over 10,000 homes a year. 

The funding details:

• Plural, the lead investor in the fresh round, is an early-stage investment fund that backs founders on a mission to change the world through technology. Based in Tallinn and London, Plural aims to have a GDP-level impact on Europe, address systemic risks, and reduce the opportunity gap worldwide through the companies it backs. Recently, the fund also joined €6 million round in Feather, a German insurtech startup.
• Base10, an early stage venture capital firm from San Francisco joined the round.

Solving the real estate industry’s carbon problem is complex, when north of 60% of carbon emissions in major cities come from buildings and energy use is only increasing. In only a few years, Scaler has built the most compelling software solution in the market to rapidly appraise investors’ ESG scores across their properties and outline concrete strategies to meet net-zero targets. We’re excited to work with them to transform the real estate industry,

Khaled Helioui, Partner at Plural, said.

The company will use the funds to further develop the product, grow the engineering team, and expand to new markets beyond Europe.

AIN.UA researched how the private investments of young people have changed over the past few years, the reasons for those changes, and why we should save for our future pensions right now.

When and why do the youth start to invest?

According to the AIN.UA survey, which had 82 participants, most people begin investing at the age of 21-25 (34.6%) and 26-35 (34.6%). People younger than 20 and older than 40 are less likely to make investments (5% each).

Over the past ten years, based on my experience, many more young people started thinking about investing,

Halyna Trytiak, a Financial Advisor, said AIN.UA.

She noted that people continue to invest or only begin to invest even though Ukraine has not experienced stability in recent years.

“Under stresses and risks, we tend to care about our future. People started saving more during the pandemic and are now considering investing. Generally, we think less about resources during stable periods, and more likely, we would think of security at unstable times,

Trytiak explained.

The respondents had different opinions regarding the influence of the full-scale war on investments:

• 31% stated the full-scale war had no influence on their intentions to invest;
• 26% admitted that war negatively influenced their wish to invest. About a fifth of them see no perspectives in investing in Ukraine;
• 20% answered that the full-scale war positively impacted their intentions to invest, and one-third of them made the first investments in their life.

Where do young people invest?

The most popular investing goals, according to AIN.UA survey, are:

Cryptocurrencies

Compared to the previous investor generation focused on real estate and deposits, the current youth prefers to invest in stocks and cryptocurrencies, the founder of the Simeinyi Budzhet, a financial literacy project, and a partner at iPlan.ua, Lyubomyr Ostapiv, emphasized.

So, the respondents recalled low entry threshold, accessibility, and high profitability as the main advantages of cryptocurrency investments.

Cryptocurrencies seemed to be the fastest and easiest way to multiply your capital,

said a survey participant, Roman, a QA Engineer.

He started investing in cryptocurrencies in 2021 after mining Ethereum for two months. His first $1,000 was invested in diverse coins: ETC, Solana, XRP, Luna, Matic, and Ada. He spent another almost $4,000 on a mining farm.

Roman continues investing in cryptocurrencies, while many of his contemporaries find it only a backup option.

Speaking of cryptocurrencies as an asset, it becomes more attractive when increasing value. When it decreases, all the hype also disappears. So I wouldn’t say many investors regularly go in and out,

Halyna Trytiak summarized.

She calls cryptocurrencies one of the riskiest assets with the lowest substantial base and asks to pay attention to such high-risk investments.

Despite all their popularity, Ukrainians don’t show a general trend to save in cryptocurrencies. Only 13% of the survey participants prefer this kind of saving. Most Ukrainians, 93.9%, prefer the US Dollar, 53.7%, the Euro, and 41.5%, the Hryvnia.

Stocks

The second most popular investment target of AIN.UA readers is company stocks. It is a long-term saving plan, Lyubomyr Ostapiv stated.

Ukrainians invest more in foreign companies because of apparently lower risks. That interest in foreign stocks has been stable for a few years already.

Clients are mostly interested in Eurobonds of Ukraine or blue chips — Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, etc.,

said Yevheniia Hryshchenko, Deputy Director at ICU Group, in an interview for Minfin.

In early 2022, foreign securities grew popular in Ukraine since people could purchase them via mobile banking apps. However, the trade volume decreased with the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion when Ukrainian regulatory bodies temporarily paused the trade.

First, there were transaction amount limits: Ukrainians could transfer not more than UAH 100,000 a month to foreign broker accounts. In May 2022, the regulator entirely forbade external transactions to buy securities, stocks, and bonds and pay broker fees.

In August 2022, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission lifted most equity and commodity market transaction restrictions.

“The equity and commodity markets worked manually during the first five months of the full-scale war. The regulator monitored and analyzed the results of each permitted transaction. It would be nonsense in a peaceful life, but the war brought new circumstances. Thanks to that individual approach and conservative politics, we have managed to overcome panic, save assets, and avoid defaults for several securities,” 

A PHP Engineer, Mykyta, started investing in stocks of foreign companies even before the full-scale war. He had to choose a broker available in Ukraine. “There were Interactive Brokers. There was also Freedom Finance Ukraine, which, however, had Russian roots and was already fucked up at that moment.

About Freedom Finance Ukraine

Freedom Finance Ukraine is a company owned by a stockbroker, Timur Turlov, who holds Russian citizenship. Sanctions were imposed on the company in 2023. According to the EP, the total value of the assets blocked on the company’s accounts—shares and bonds of more than 280 issuers—is UAH 3.5 billion.

I chose Interactive Brokers for their protected complicated registration process, equity protection up to $500,000, and access to many tools.”

Mykyta invested mainly in US-based companies over NYSE and NASDAQ. Initially, he traded via Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) and later purchased separate stocks.

I have invested in SCHD, AAPL, COIN, Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL). At that time, the shares of Apple cost me much less. And now they are at the peak level [$208.14 on June 25, 2024 — edit.]. In addition, I invest in dividend funds and buy stocks on hype, which means the most spoken and growing securities at the time. In January, it was CoinList. The most recent one is Nvidia. Or I can invest in some perspective area, for example, related to AI. In general, my portfolio contains preferably technology companies,

said Ruslan Mahomedov, the Director of the Commission, about lifting restrictions.

With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Mykyta stopped to invest for some time and had to sell most of his portfolio. Later, he resumed his trading activity and almost caught up with the volume he had before. Now, he invests in stocks and cryptocurrencies, plans to invest in real estate and not rely on known domains anymore.

Domestic government bonds

As of April 2024, nearly 178,000 Ukrainians invest in the domestic government bond (DGB) market, 90% of which are military bonds, according to the National Bank of Ukraine’s statement for AIN.UA.

For Tetiana, who works in the digital advertisement industry, an investment in bonds was the second in her life. Before this, she invested in her boyfriend’s company once.

I decided for the bonds to help our army quickly and conveniently, via monobank, and most safely, as it could be during a war,

she explained.

Her motivation to invest was to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “My boyfriend, for instance, had invested all his savings in military bonds even though he could purchase stocks of foreign companies. However, risks were not a case here,” Tetiana added.

The ROI of bonds decreases due to increasing inflation and interest rates, Halyna Trytiak explained. However, the existing ROI is high enough to cover the inflation and UAH to USD exchange devaluation. A low entry threshold is a pro. You can start investing with only ₴1,000.

Experts recommend looking at corporate bonds as an alternative. For example, NovaPay and !FEST Coffee Mission, a part of !FEST Holding, issued their corporate bonds. The NovaPay bonds are available via its app.

The bonds of !FEST Coffee Mission are fixed to the US Dollar — it’s an innovation in the Ukrainian market,

said the founder of the Simeinyi Budzhet financial literacy social project and a partner at iPlan.ua, Lyubomyr Ostapiv.

Halyna Trytiak emphasized that the corporate bond market in Ukraine develops because Ukrainians willingly purchase bonds to support businesses they like.

Why do pension investments become more and more popular among young people?

17% of the respondents indicated their concerns about pensions as a reason to invest.

The government can guarantee only minimum social welfare (in 2024, it’s ₴2,361 — edit.). But for more, you must work as long as possible. The First Deputy Minister for Social Policy, Darina Marchak, stated this in a live stream at Espreso.TV in June 2024.

According to her, the demographic situation in Ukraine is critical: one taxpayer works to pay pension one pensioner. “And this situation will highly likely get worse,” the Deputy Minister for Social Policy added.

It is due to the war-related negative migration, the low birth rate that decreased even more during the full-scale Russian invasion, and high early mortality because of warfare.

“Ukraine must be an active longevity nation. We must be interested in and work as long as we can and retire when we feel no physical capacity to work,” thinks Darina Marchak.

Lyubomyr Ostapiv recommends officially working employees to think about long-term pension investments. He noted that people ideally should save for 20 to 30 years. Compound interest, a result of an accumulation from a principal sum and previously accumulated interest, would work better for such a long-term deposit.

Non-state pension funds

The experts advise non-state pension funds (NPF) to invest in private pensions. It is a long-term investment. You can conduct a contract with the fund for several years and pay contributions to your own pension account.

There are traditional risks connected with NPFs: How reliable an NPF is and whether it can offer a ROI more than the inflation rate,

Oleksandr Panchenko, an Advisor of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission Director, said in his commentary for AIN.UA.

He recommends paying attention to how long a fund operates, what its partners are, if they are well-known, etc.

Then, compare the ROI for past years with inflation rates. “If a fund could overcome inflation in a long-term perspective (over ten years in a row), it is worth your attention. There are such funds in Ukraine, and usually, the more assets the fund has, the better the numbers,” Panchenko summarized.

There are 63 officially registered non-state funds in Ukraine, and 58 are active nowadays. After January 1, 2024, non-state pension funds lose the status of financial entities and become organizations under finance service regulations.

Here are the largest Ukrainian NPFs by assets:

• OTP Pension (since 2009) — ₴550 m, 64,000 members;
• Privatfund (since 2004) — ₴428 m, 51,000 members;
• Ukreximbank Fund (since 2005) — ₴394.4 m, 6,000 members;
• Emeryt Ukraine (since 2006) — ₴278 m, 70,000 members.

An alternative can be bank deposits (a possible contra is taxed income) and pension life insurance, Panchenko added.

After planning long-term investing, Roman began investing in MetLife — one of the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, represented in Ukraine with the MetLife PJSC — in his 25.

“I have a 50-year agreement,” Roman explained. “I pay one thousand Hryvnia monthly, plus inflation. So, my recurrent payments will increase with time. The total investment should be around UAH 500,000, which will become ₴1.2 million in 50 years.”

Other international life insurance companies also work in Ukraine: UNIQA, GRAWE, or PZU.

The pension system of Ukraine. The context

The pension system reform started in Ukraine in 2003 with the passing of two bills: “On Compulsory State Pension Insurance” and “On Non-State Pension Provision.” It aimed a shift to a three-level system.

1. Tier 1 is based on solidarity and subsidizing principles. The current pensioners are paid with companies’ and employees’ Pension Fund contributions. Working people’s contributions should also pay the next generations of pensioners.
2. Tier 2 represents an accumulation system of compulsory insurance. The contributions are invested on the contributor’s behalf. The amount of contribution shall not exceed 7% of salary. Retirement savings can be inherited.
3. Tier 3 is voluntary contributions to non-governmental pension funds. The pension fund creates an account on a member’s behalf and accumulates contributions from the individual, their employer, or the member’s family.

Ukraine has a mixed pension system today, where Tier 1 and Tier 3 are functioning. The second level had to pass in 2009, but it is still not working. The draft law “On Compulsory Accumulative Pension Provision,” according to which there should be compulsory accumulative pensions, has not been adopted by the Ukrainian Parliament yet and has remained there since 2021.

In 2023, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal of Ukraine announced a pension reform that should make solidarity pensions not less than 30% of the average salary of an employee during his life, plus a cumulative component, that Tier 2 component, possible.

The Advisor of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission Director, Oleksandr Panchenko, believes that the launch of Level 2 this year is plausible.

He underlined it should not be about fast paying of contributions. Ideally, it would be a topic for the time after the victory in the ongoing war, stabilization of the economy, and at least two years of building the required infrastructure.

We have been speaking about the launch of the 3-level pension system for 20 years. The longer it takes, the fewer citizens make pension savings, and the lower pensions — solidary and cumulative — they get in the future,

A faster de-shadowing of the labor market can be a benefit of an accumulative pension.

“An accumulative pension is formed from pension contributions and income from their investment. The higher the pension contributions, the higher the pension payable,” explains Oleksandr Panchenko. “Pension contributions are paid from the official salary. If it is low, contributions will be negligible.”

He adds that the accumulation reform will encourage people to get officially employed rather than receive salaries “in envelopes” because their pensions will depend on the amount of official payments.

Even if there were no absent Tier 2 and no demographic crisis, the Ukrainian pension system would still have many problems. Debts for pension recalculation are one of them. State’s debt under court decisions has grown to UAH 66 billion, Darina Marchak said on the Chronicles of Economy podcast.

The debt is related to court cases of ex-military and law enforcement officers. They are subject to special pension legislation that links their pension payments to the current amount of remunerations or salaries of active military and law enforcement officers. The debts also apply to payments to Chornobyl victims.

Other challenges include a possible sharp increase in the number of pensioners. Currently, the Constitutional Court is considering a case on the legality of raising the seniority requirements for retirement for specific categories of citizens. It is a reform adopted in 2017 by the government of then-Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman. The Verkhovna Rada increased the retirement age: For example, if a person does not have enough work experience at 60, they must work another 3-5 years to qualify for a pension higher than the minimum. De facto, this government decision was equal to a retirement age increase.

If the retirement age requirements amended in 2017 are ruled unconstitutional (and the process is still ongoing), the number of pensioners in Ukraine could increase by tens or hundreds of thousands. Economic Pravda, citing calculations by the Ministry of Social Policy, notes that additional spending on pensions could reach UAH 10.5 billion a year.

Financial literacy of young people

According to the study “Financial Literacy, Financial Inclusion, and Financial Well-Being in Ukraine in 2021,” financial literacy in Ukraine has improved in past years.

Ukrainians aged 25-34 and 30-59 are the most financially literate. The least literate are young people aged 18-19 and over 60.

There is no correlation between gender and awareness: Ukrainian men and women are equally knowledgeable in financial matters (12.3 and 12.2 points, respectively). At the same time, there is a connection between the level of financial literacy and education: The higher the level of education, the higher the financial literacy score. In the AIN.UA survey, almost 95% of young investors reported having a university degree.

Ukrainians are more likely to develop financial literacy by themselves, as the older generation did not teach them how to invest wisely.

According to financial consultant Halyna Trytiak, this is due, in part, to the negative financial experience of the parents of modern youth.

For example, in the 90s, many Ukrainians lost money on the so-called “savings books.” Because of this, parents taught children not to trust financial institutions. Today, under capitalism, the playing field has completely changed, and behavior has not adapted. Still, some people dramatically distrust banks,”

the expert believes.

“All I knew about finances was that “you have to have something behind your soul.” As my grandfather says, you have to save for a rainy day,” Roman, a survey participant, answers the question about financial literacy in the family. Before investing, he worked overtime at several jobs for a long time because he knew he had to use every opportunity to make money.

Another participant, Mykyta, has almost the same situation. “My family had no rules of financial literacy at all, and even saving money was difficult,” he says.

In general, the country’s economic stability also influences the level of financial literacy, Halyna Trytiak emphasizes.

Since independence, we have not had long-term stability in the financial sector for more than five years in a row,” she explains. “Regular devaluation of the Hryvnia, inflation, revolutions, and the full-scale war affect the sense of security and the ability to plan for the long term, for example, for 10-20 years,

Even before the full-scale invasion, according to the study “Financial Literacy, Financial Inclusion, and Financial Well-Being in Ukraine in 2021,” Ukrainians focused more on short-term plans and spending than saving. However, almost 47% of young people surveyed by AIN.UA are ready to invest long-term — for five years or more.

The trend of spreading financial literacy is positive, says financial expert Halyna Trytiak: “Nowadays, young people actively engage in personal financial literacy and teach their children to do the same. There are also financial literacy courses for children and teenagers. Over time, this will ensure positive results.”

Investment tips

Consider your own goals and planning, and only then consider investment prospects. “The correct sequence is to determine your financial goals, whether they are short- or long-term, and what level of risk you are willing to take,” says Tritiak. “If the goal is short-term, up to a year, and you are planning a long-term investment, for example, five years or more, then you should decide whether it is appropriate at this stage.

Analyze investment opportunities: the entry threshold and conditions, the possible investment amount, and taxation conditions for residents or non-residents.

Consider agricultural land as a long-term investment. “Ukraine has great prospects in the agricultural sector. It is both an option that generates passive income and an asset that can grow in value in the future,” Trytiak says. However, she adds that one should take into account the entry threshold: for agricultural land, it is several hundred thousand hryvnias.

Pay attention to public investment based on the REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) model.

• Swedfund is a financial institution established by the Kingdom of Sweden. Their mission is to fight poverty by investing in developing countries. Investments are made in energy and climate, healthcare and to reach small and medium-sized companies.
• As a public company, Swedfund is managed by the Swedish Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The operations are financed in part by an injection of capital, which is the responsibility of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and by the return of funds from the own portfolio.
• Swedfund was founded in 1979 and has made more than 240 investments in more than 60 countries since its inception. In addition, it plays a key role in Ukraine’s reconstruction and resilience by providing long-term support, taking risks, and mobilising private capital.

Work assignments of the head of the investment office:

• Head of office and country representative;
• Generating local pipeline;
• Focus on networking, deal sourcing and deal preparation;
• Supporting transactions in due diligence processes and commercial discussions in cooperation with the sector teams in Stockholm;
• Follow up and evaluate existing portfolio companies in the country;
• Market Swedfund and participate in high-level meetings and interactions;
• Ambassador for Swedfund values and culture;
• Establishing relationships with other DFIs, MDBs and other relevant stakeholders;
• Monitor development and report to headquarters.

Requirements include:

• Relevant academic background, MBA, MSc or the equivalent advanced degree;
• Full proficiency in Ukrainian and English;
• Investment background, including with an international company/organisation with a least 10-15 years of relevant experience;
• Deep understanding of the local business environment and a broad local network;
• Experience in sourcing direct investment opportunities (equity and loans).

Applications are accepted until August 5, 2024. Applicants must be eligible to live and work in Kyiv. More details via the link.

AIN.Business has gathered information about Ukrainian businesses that are helping Kyiv residents deal with the consequences of the shelling.

Dnipro-M distributes gloves and tools to clear rubble in hospital

Dnipro-M, a Ukrainian company specialising in construction tools, is providing equipment to the people who are clearing the rubble of the hospital. Gloves are also being delivered to the nearest wards and to the site itself.

Social media user X @IamKrus has shared this in his post:

Socially responsible business is best manifested in times like these. There is @dnipro_m next to the Ohmadyt hospital. I ran in and said: give me all the gloves you have, we’ll sort out the money. They gave them to me, and after a while I ran back for more tools – they said that I didn’t have to pay for everything I took and that they were bringing more gloves from the nearest wards.

Water vending machines near Okhmatdyt are now free of charge

People can get free drinking water into their own containers at the following locations:

• Fora, 27 Vyacheslav Chornovil Street, BWT Aqua. Drinking water aquabox No. 4025;
• Fora, 16 Sholudenko Street, BWT Aqua. Drinking water aquabox No. 383.

Ukrainian business transfers money to Okhmatdyt’s account

Nova Post transferred UAH 1 million to the Children’s Hospital Charitable Foundation. The A-BA-BA-GA-LA-MA-GA and Vihola publishing houses donated UAH 400 thousand and UAH 20 thousand, respectively.

PrivatBank is allocating UAH 3 million to purchase the necessary equipment to restore the hospital’s destroyed building, as well as to purchase the necessary medicines and medical supplies.

Ruslan Shostak, co-owner of VARUS and EVA, also joined the fundraising campaign and donated UAH 1 million to the hospital.

ATLAS UNITED 2024, together with the Good Donations Children’s Charity Foundation, will donate funds to restore medical equipment. The fundraising was launched in June to buy medical equipment for the hospital, and now the funds will be used to restore it.

Ukrainian IT company Intellias has launched an internal fundraising campaign for UAH 400 thousand, and the company’s CEO will add another UAH 500 thousand.

Food and water from Ukrainian supermarkets for the victims

The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Danylo Hetmantsev, thanked the Ukrainian chains ATB, Silpo, Novus, Auchan, Varus, and Kolo, which responded to the request to provide water and food to the victims. “An hour and a half later, the trucks were on the spot,” Hetmantsev wrote.

Cafe Maria collects food for children’s hospital

Fruits, fruit puree, pastries, and biscuits for children can be delivered to the cafe at 26/41 Pavlovska Street.

Kyiv bakery Bakehouse to donate 50% of its proceeds to Okhmatdyt patients’ needs

More than UAH 150,000 will be donated to children under the care of the Tabletochki Charitable Foundation. The Kyiv bar BGRNY will also donate 50% of its profits to the Tabletochki fundraiser.

Dobrobut provides free assistance to victims of the attack on Okhmatdyt

All Dobrobut ambulance crews are working at the scene. Those who were injured in the shelling of the Okhmatdyt and need medical assistance can contact the reception departments at the following addresses

• 3, Simi Idzykovski str;
• 12A Mykola Bazhana Ave.

Accounts to help the patients and staff of the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital can be found here. As of 15:00, the hospital’s CF has already raised over UAH 19 million.

• In the last five years, Antler has supported over 400 European startups, especially across the Nordics. With 140 investments in 2023 alone, Antler is one of the few early-stage VC firms that has increased its rate of investment during the downturn. Antler is also actively removing barriers to entrepreneurship and is committed to supporting a new generation of diverse founders.
• The first Antler’s fund was launched in 2021 and was valued €30 million.

About Nordic Fund II

• Nordic Fund II primarily targets the Nordic region, covering Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, and it has now entered the Estonian market. 
• Antler’s operating model is based on 12-week accelerator residency, where participants form teams and establish startups. Successful teams that emerge from the residency receive an investment of up to €300,000 to help propel their startups to the next stage.

SmartCap Venture Capital Fund has invested €5 million in the fund, strengthening its commitment to early-stage startups and innovative tech investment strategies. The fund has also received anchor investments from the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) and Tesi from Finland.

Estonia has consolidated its position as one of the most exciting tech ecosystems in Europe. It has produced some of Europe’s fastest growing tech companies and Tallinn is home to more unicorn founders than established tech hubs like Manchester, Madrid and Copenhagen.

Antler is a global investor committed to supporting the best founders around the world and we are very excited to work with SmartCap to back a new generation of Estonian tech startups,

Jussi Kallasvuo, Partner at Antler, said.

AVentures Capital investment fund has published its fresh survey of the venture and IT market of Ukraine for the year 2024. AIN shares the key details.

• In total, Ukrainian tech companies attracted $209 million in investments in 2023. Early-stage investments account for 38% of the total volume of investments in Ukrainian technology companies in 2023 (vs. 39% in 2022).

$209 million of investments are distributed in the following directions:

• EdTech. 41% — approximately $85 million (including GoIT and Preply)
• IT Services. 14% — approximately $30 million (including Trinetix and Viseven)
• Finance. 14% — approximately $29 million (including Stroom and Fintech Farm)
• Retail. 10% — about $21 million (including Deus Robotics and Competera)
• Entertainment. 7% — approximately $16 million (including Respeecher and Competera)
• Other. 14% — approximately $29 million (including Osavul and Haiqu)

The largest investments were raised by five companies:

• Preply — $70 million from Horizon Capital, Reach Capital, Hoxton Ventures, Owl Ventures, and others.
• Fintech Farm — $22 million from Nordstar and others.
• Dressx — $15 million from Greenfield Capital, Warner Music Group, The Artemis Fund, Slow Ventures, and Red DAO.
• Viseven — an undisclosed amount of investment from Horizon Capital’s Growth Fund IV.
• GoIT — an undisclosed amount of investment (may be as much as $15 million) from Horizon Capital’s Growth Fund IV.

In 2023, Ukrainian entrepreneurs received a total of $6.9 million in grant funds, the largest part of which was paid by USF, Brave1, and the European Innovation Council Accelerator.

Military Tech is a new growing vertical

• According to the research, Ukrainian miltech companies attracted $6.7 million in investments (including grants);
• Brave1 invested $2.3 million in Ukrainian defense companies;
• Osavul attracted the most funding ($1 million) among Ukrainian miltech companies in 2023;

Ukrainian funds continue to fill their budgets: total monetary liabilities amount to $532 million. Horizon Capital reached $350 million at the closing of its Horizon Capital Growth Fund IV, which took place on February 19, 2024 in Tokyo.

Also, in the spring of this year, the Ukrainian Venture Capital Association launched the Ukrainian Fund of Funds (FoF). The expected initial size of the fund is $300 million.

Also, in 2024, a new Ukrainian “unicorn” appeared — Creatio attracted $200 million with an estimate of $1.2 billion. Potentially “unicorns” can also become: Headway, BetterMe, Universe Group, Ajax, Restream, Welltech, Preply.

We talked to Yaroslav and discussed all his projects, the current demand for FPV drones, how autonomy modules increase their capacity, why automated robotic systems are the future, and why Telegram’s ban in Ukraine is needed.

Yaroslav, please describe all the projects you are working on now.

The Fourth Law is almost my 24/7 job at the moment. It is a manufacturer of autonomy modules for robotic systems. For FPV drones, in the first place. Our mission is to make such drones fully autonomous.

However, I am still an entrepreneur. I have a couple of businesses I founded that are still functioning under other people’s leadership, which give me updates from time to time so that I can report some news on social media. Then, I have a bunch of civil initiatives like Kremlingram, Spend with Ukraine, or an initiative to add Ukraine to the Civilization PC game.

It’s a lot of things to do. In any case, I spend about 70 hours a week on The Fourth Law. I am also the founder of Odd Systems, which is very useful for wartime. Hired managers run it most of the time, but I also dedicate at least four hours weekly to this project.

We know little about The Fourth Law. Please tell us about the starting capital for this company.

We attracted some investments in the last month, but I have been its sole investor from the very beginning. Our cooperation with investors is crucial not only in finances but also in the expertise, contacts, and experience they can share with us.

Can you name these investors and the size of their investments?

It would be best if you always remembered that in the case of Ukraine and drone-related technologies, we must keep a certain level of secrecy. Too much information can harm. That’s why we cannot go in public with all the details. I can only say that the operation is running.

OK. Please tell us more about the autonomy modules you produce at The Fourth Law. How do they work?

FPV drones can sometimes carry sensitive cargo, which can be interfered with by clutters. One day, you need to deliver a package over a forest or a mountain, which creates a radio shadow. Then, you need so-called last-mile delivery when a pilot knows where to deliver the cargo but cannot fly over there because of losing radio communication. Some systems allow for the capture of the point of delivery and transfer of control to the board computer at a specific stage of the flight. These are last-mile delivery systems. We produce them for our clients.

Another part of our work is to split pilot’s missions into fragments and automate as much of them as possible. For example, search for a point of delivery or navigate the return flight within 10 to 20 km and back to the base (or not). Some missions require the simultaneous operation of multiple drones. For this, we need the autonomy we are developing now.

We work with FPV drones, which are probably the most robotized platform in the world. Maybe vacuum cleaners can compete with them in terms of automation. As PCs or smartphones used to be, FPV drones have become a platform for many charming solutions.

Nowadays, FPV drones require much attention from talented engineers, as do all robotic systems. I am sure we will see autonomous robots completely replacing people in several areas of activity within the next ten years.

There are two technology megatrends. The first one is the evolution of semiconductors: they got smaller, more powerful, and more efficient. The second trend is the development of neural networks and technology, now called AI. Twenty years ago, AI meant entirely different technologies. Those old ones and the new ones meet each other in a bridge technology—autonomous robotics. I am sure it will soon cause a critical shift in such multi-trillion industries as transport or agriculture, as the Internet changed access to information once.

In Ukraine, this area is essential for upgrading our defense capability. So, attracting as much attention from engineers and entrepreneurs as possible is crucial not only in the near perspective but for the next decades. Robotic autonomous technologies will also affect the defense capabilities of Western nations, Ukraine, and the world economy. That is why I started to deal with them.

So, The Fourth Law works for the defense capability of Ukraine now. And in the future, you plan to expand to new markets, including civil applications, right?

Exactly.

Have you already started working in this direction?

We started a pilot integration with a US-based FPV drone producer. They seem happy with that, and we will deliver new products together.

Odd Systems manufactures FPV drones in addition to autonomy modules. What were the sources of financing for this project?

My savings.

Do The Fourth Law and Odd Systems work in tandem? Can your customers order drones with installed autonomy modules?

Yes, we cooperate closely there. It is possible, but we sell the modules as separate items and even franchises to some clients.

Have your drones and modules already been used for their purpose? Do you collaborate with the government?

Yes. We also cooperate with Brave1 and other state entities. Everything is fine. Both companies are very young; both started with significant, daily growth results. Our current focus is to expand the scale. The issue of employee reservation against mobilization is on the table, as in many other companies. However, it will be resolved soon.

What would be your recommendations for beginner entrepreneurs in defense tech? Where to start?

If a guy has a decent idea, it is a great beginning already. In general, I think entrepreneurs should be curious and persistent. If you are a Ukrainian with business or engineering talents, ask yourself: What will you tell your children in 15, 20, or 30 years about what you did in 2024? Make sure you will remember that time with pride.

The Ukrainian defense tech community is open-minded, large, and resourceful. Here, you can always find people who share your ideas and help you take your own place. This industry is well appreciated not only in Ukraine but also around the world. So, it is like a gravity field to which the world’s matter bends.

Indeed, if you produce something valuable, you will always find funding, compassionate people, and options to make your ideas come true. An important thing to consider is that entrepreneurs should speak with the end users. It is a must in every industry, especially in defense tech. Unfortunately, I must admit that many still lack this skill.

There can be another situation: two engineers meet to create something, but they lack a product manager who will speak with users and think about how the product should be used, look, and pass all the way from a technological idea to the hands of end users. It can also happen that there are enough engineers but no entrepreneurs. And they are not able to build a solid business. If you don’t have a guy with a business background, find a partner with relevant experience who is ready to help. Then, some businessmen don’t look far enough. Their sight is limited to one or two years within Ukraine, while they must count in decades and worldwide.

When you finally get everything, you will find the required resources, funds, and specialists. And this will result in great value for the Ukrainian defense capability now and vast opportunities in the future.

We, as a nation, won’t live without threats. So, we must look forward. Look, learn, read. Speak with the people. And all will be fine.

Let’s discuss your other project, Kremlingram. It started as a volunteer initiative. Did it also require some investments?

We invested nothing in Kremlingram. It is more a project of journalist investigations that started in a Signal chat of a group of people who studied and discussed ties of Telegram with the Kremlin. That is how we named the project.

In general, Kremlingram began with my author columns on Ukrainska Pravda and Kyiv Independent. Later, more IT specialists, journalists, bloggers, state officials, etc. joined us. And last autumn, we launched a website.

We spent the last few months formalizing the Kremlingram project. Several guys, led by Nazar Tokar, have systematically worked on this. Recently, we also created BuyMeACoffee and Patreon profiles. We also raise donor funding to hire a few full-time journalist investigators to systematize content creation. We will also cooperate with foreign partners to develop alternatives for Telegram in Ukraine as soon as possible. We should also bring the idea to foreign partners, our government, and our citizens that Telegram is a Trojan horse in the pockets of 70% of Ukrainians.

How different are the opinions about Telegram in our society? Can they change radically and quickly?

Of course, we have seen some opinion shifts in Ukraine for the past twelve to eighteen months. I would say people became more cautious regarding Telegram. But it’s going not so fast, especially in the context of ongoing war and the scale of risks connected to this messenger. Just imagine all Ukrainians have their phones bugged. That is the scale of risk we are discussing now.

Sure, we cannot know for certain which level of access Russian authorities have to the application. But if so, the enemy would do everything to protect it. Unfortunately, Telegram has become a core of communication for us as Privatbank used to be at the core of our banking system. It is not so easy to cease using it.

Today, a set of essential activities go via Telegram — from news to FPV drone fundraisers and official state communication. You cannot just cut it all and block Telegram entirely. It would be a very complicated and non-motivated move that caused undesired destructive effects.

However, we can see a shift to alternative platforms that is too slow, even though GUR and SBU made statements about Telegram risks. And these risks appear in two dimensions. The first is social media and information distribution channels without content moderation, leading to spreading fakes, propaganda, and manipulations.

The second is Telegram itself as a means of media and communication. All messages are stored on servers and are not protected with two-way encryption. So, we can’t have any proof that this information is not read by anyone or won’t be read in the future. We don’t see any judgments from the state towards this app.

These judgments can be followed then by public statements of influencers and government officials who use Telegram and are gonna swiftly shift to alternative platforms. For example, the media would not close Telegram channels immediately but publish news on other platforms 10 minutes earlier than on Telegram.

However, despite the too-slow reactions, more and more people cease to use Telegram publicly. The trust is decreasing. And this trend will be only increasing. The question is how to speed up the process. If Germans managed to refuse to purchase Russian oil, Ukrainians could surely refuse to use Russian Telegram.

Do you think it will end up with a ban or a restriction on the level of law?

Exactly. The ban on Odnoklassniki and VKontakte was an absolutely right move from the perspective of national security. The same will likely happen with Telegram. But it should be a well-thought and step-by-step state policy of lowering the dependency of Ukrainians on a social network created, controlled, and loved by Russians. It is like that joke about a duck: It looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck. So, maybe it is a Russian tool, isn’t it?

• Tietoevry Create is an international IT company that specializes in providing digital services and software solutions to a wide range of industries. The company is headquartered in Finland and operates in 23 countries across Europe, Asia, North America, and Latin America, employing approximately 10,000 people globally.
• Tietoevry Create focuses on various sectors, including healthcare, banking, energy, and public services, delivering advanced IT solutions such as cloud services, data-driven insights, and enterprise applications. The company’s mission is to support its clients in their digital transformation journeys by leveraging cutting-edge technology and industry expertise.

The decision was made due to a transition to a new operating model, which involves the integration of three previously independent subsidiaries: MentorMate, EVRY India, and Ukraine’s Infopulse. These processes are planned to be completed by the end of the Q4 2024.

Operational simplification leads to the potential reduction of some non-billable roles in administration and management,

the company reports.

Accroding to DOU, these changes are prompting Infopulse to reduce 70 specialists in Ukraine. The company states that this concerns only administrative and managerial positions and will not affect the bench and developers. Those affected by the reduction will be offered support.

• Launched in 2018, Cluby provides a platform through which restaurants and other venues can connect with their customers, manage their customer registers, sell digital products like monthly subscriptions, tickets and VIP passes, offer member benefits, develop personalized loyalty programs, and create marketing campaigns to encourage repeat business.
• The startup’s founding team includes entrepreneurs Kalle Ek, Joel Leino, and Pekka Koskinen. It has 12 employees and has raised a total of €3.2 million in funding. In 2023, Cluby’s yearly growth rate was over 5x, and there are already over 500 restaurants in Cluby and over 100,000 users who have downloaded the app, according to the company.

We launched the first prototype in the summer of 2019. But then COVID hit the restaurant industry, and therefore us, really hard. For 3 years, we kept our team small and improved our product in a close relationship with hand-selected restaurants. In the beginning of 2023, we decided it was time to start scaling, and since then we’ve grown both our restaurant and our user base month-to-month. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved with our team so far, and we’re excited to finally expand Cluby to other countries in Europe,

Kalle Ek, co-founder and CEO at Cluby, says.

• The investment round was led by Vendep Capital, the Oslo-based VC firm backing early-stage SaaS software entrepreneurs in the Nordics and Baltics. Its first ticket usually ranges from €100,000 to €3 million.
• Cluby co-founder Pekka Koskinen and Wolt co-founder Elias Aalto also joined the funding round.

Cluby will use the fresh costs to expand its services throughout Europe, help restaurants convert casual visitors into regular patrons by offering tools for customer management, digital product sales, and loyalty programs.

• Steep is a Swedish startup aiming to simplify analytics work. It was founded in 2021 by Johan Baltzar and Nino Höglund, former leaders in Analytics and Design at Spotify, iZettle, PayPal, and Kry.
• Steep enables a few data experts to serve a large organization effectively, facilitating self-service among all users and promoting real-life collaboration within teams. This approach allows users at all levels to engage with metrics, discuss changes, and align on a unified view of the business, making data analysis more accessible and efficient across the organization.

Steep has already made a big impact at Voi. Using metrics instead of dashboards is definitely a mindset shift, but the benefits are worth it. It’s helping all our users to do much more on their own and allows our data team to work smarter and move faster,

Magnus Dahlbäck, Sr Director in Voi, which is already using Steep, said about the startup.

• The fresh round was co-led by the London-based VC firm Connect Ventures, investing in product-led companies in Europe at seed stages in consumer, health, fintech, SaaS fields, and Inventure, an early-stage VC with over 90 companies from deep tech to consumer internet brands, across Nordics and Baltics, with offices in Helsinki and Stockholm.
• Nordic Alliance VC, a Singapore-based Antler, and Greens also joined the investment round.

This new funding will be used to accelerate product development, expand the team and reach more companies globally. The startup also announced the beta release of Steep’s new AI-enabled interface.

About Feather

• Feather was founded in 2018 by Rob Schumacher and Vincent Audoire. The company develops a a platform to serve over 50 million expats working and living in Europe. Now, the company is operating in Germany, France, and Spain.
• The startup aims to simplify the insurance process based on individual needs and includes a digital claims process and transparent customer service, ensuring clarity and ease in navigating insurance options. Expats can manage their insurance needs, supported by personalized recommendations that align with their lifestyles.

Our goal is to give people honest, unbiased advice, with the information they need to make the right decision. And, because of how complicated insurance is, we offer tools, articles, and support where people can reach out to a human about problems or questions they have. Currently, Feather has helped people from over 150 countries get insurance digitally and is expanding quickly,

Feather’s team claims.

Investment details

• Keen Venture Partners is the lead investor in the current round. It is a venture capital firm that supports founders across Europe from Seed to Series B rounds.
• The Tallinn-based VC fund Plural also participated in the financing as the existing investor. Founded in 2022 by Sten Tamkivi, Taavet Hinrikus, Ian Hogarth, and Khaled Helioui, Plural focuses on leading early-stage rounds between €1 million and €10 million.

In February this year, it led €83.6 million investment for the Estonia-born startup Starship Technologies.

• Senior executives from Allianz, AXA, and Bastian also participated in the deal.

The fresh funding round will accelerate its expansion into new European markets. The platform is expected to be launched in three more countries by the end of 2024.

About eAgronom

• Founded in 2016, eAgronom helps farmers monitor and verify sustainable practices, generate carbon credits, increase agricultural efficiency, and gain access to financing in the future. Now, eAgronom works with over 3,000+ farmers in 14 countries. The startup also claims that working directly with its platform, partner farms across Europe and Africa have already stored 525,000 tCO2 p.a., which is roughly equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of 100,000 people.
• The company is on track to reach its 4.1 million hectare target by 2025.

The average farmer has only 40 harvests to experiment with throughout their entire career. This makes the farming sector extremely conservative. If something is more or less working then it makes sense to continue with it. eAgronom’s sustainability programs – food value chain/scope 3, offsetting, sustainable finance, and others – help to reduce the risk for farmers by providing extra incentives and education,

Robin Saluoks, co-founder and CEO of eAgronom, said.

Investment details

To date, in 2022 eAgronom raised €6.4 million for its Series A round and further €5.5 million in 2023. Prior funding rounds have enabled eAgronom to initiate field trials and seminars with partner farmers, and determine best practices for each region with specific climate and soil conditions.

• The current round consists of €4.2 million raised during a booster round last year, now converted into equity and an additional €5.8 million raised this year. Swedbank AB is leading the round with a €4 million investment.
• In addition to the new lead investor, existing investors, Icos Capital, Soulmates Ventures, and SmartCap Green Fund, have also increased their investments to support the startup.

eAgronom will use the current investment to expand its presence in key markets and scale the company in several sustainable farming programs, especially Scope 3 and sustainable financing. In addition, the startup aims to raise an additional €2-4 million later this year.

In an interview for AIN.Capital, the founder of Glovo, Sacha Michaud, and the director of Glovo in Ukraine, Maryna Pavlyuk, talked about the results and successes of the service in Ukraine and the CEE countries, talked about the telemedicine service, volunteer initiatives, as well as cooperation with Ukrainian startups. In addition, they discussed the PowerUp conference, which took place on June 18 in Kyiv and was attended by Sacha and Maryna, and also shared their impressions of the winners of the Glovo Startup Lab startup competition.

In June 2023, in a previous interview for AIN, you said that the company reached pre-war numbers in March 2023, and in May 2023, the company already saw growth. What are the current business figures in Ukraine percentage-wise?

Maryna Pavlyuk:

The growth has reached 23%, and by now, taking the run rate of May, it’s closer to 30%. The development is clear, the industry is not stagnating.

We have around 12,000 partners and more than 250 employees in Ukraine. Also, millions of users. Over the past years, we paid more than €20 million of taxes. Although we are not sharing the daily number of deliveries, there have been over 70,000 couriers that have done at least one delivery with us. In regards to our active fleet, we can’t really tell the number because it is not stable. In a week, we’re talking about 10,000 to 12,000 active couriers, which heavily depends on the demand of the market. Let’s say for the last half of the year, it was around 10% to 12% of growth month by month.

Of course, it depends on demand, but we still see the huge interest and the potential that we have on the market, in terms of new customers acquisition.

In the same interview, it became known that as of July 2023, Ukraine ranked in the top 5 among 25 countries where the service was present. Has this position changed?

Sacha Michaud:

Yes, it’s now the third on the list.

Compared to?

Sacha:

Compared to Spain and Italy. In that order.

And how does the Ukrainian market differ from Spain and Italy?

Sacha:

It’s a great merit to the Ukraine team to rank this high. Spain, where we were born, and Italy were the first two markets where we launched. In fact, Ukraine was the 20th market we launched. And it’s already in third place and still growing so quickly.

I think that there’s a lot more similarities between the markets than differences. In Spain and Italy we operate in more cities and a lot of smaller towns, whereas in Ukraine we’re in 37 cities. So here we’re not in so many smaller areas compared to them. And that’s the biggest difference.

We know that shortly after the start of the Russian war, Glovo launched a telemedicine service in Ukraine, the only country in the world at the time. Was this launch successful and was it possible to expand this service to other countries?

Maryna:

It is a very niche service. There was not a big business idea behind that. We were believers. At the time, we saw the need to support the community, which the telemedicine services allowed to. So we opened it nationwide and you still can access the service. Our main goal was to allow people to get very quick access to the qualified consultation online. I cannot say that it is big now. It is still quite niche, however it allowed us to expand the service to home appliances repair.

In terms of the other countries, I know that the teams tried to launch it in a few other markets. The service can be added if you have good partners and customers, as such services are heavily dependent on the people. For us, it’s super important to deliver good user experience, that’s why we don’t exaggerate the numbers. We prefer quality over quantity. 

Sacha:

The good thing about our app is that we have hundreds of thousands of users connecting every day. So it’s very easy for us to add and test out different services. I think the services that we launch in the future will primarily be related to delivery or, at least, to our partners, stores and restaurants, and digitizing retail businesses. But it doesn’t mean we can’t run services like telemedicine where they’re very useful for our customers.

Still, our core business that will drive growth will be around everything related to our restaurants, stores, and supermarkets.

Given the resilience that Glovo demonstrated in Ukraine, how did your business continuity plan evolve between the period of COVID, the first days of the war, and afterwards?

Sacha:

COVID was a big moment for us and our industry. Many of our countries initially closed down, which allowed Glovo to be an essential service to the economy. We were oxygen to restaurants and stores who couldn’t have physical customers. Still, it was difficult because timetables changed and it was a very strange situation to manage those operations. COVID also educated the market a lot on everything that wasn’t only restaurant food. I think it was a great moment for consumers to get used to other things, especially supermarket-bought items. And people continued using the supermarket delivery even when the pandemics finished. Although the time was difficult, at the same time, for certain industries, it was quite beneficial.

Moving forward to the Russian war in Ukraine. We initially closed down the app in every city across the whole country. Firstly, the team carefully assessed the situation. Seeing that our couriers were trying to do deliveries themselves using Telegram and Messenger, Maryna and the team advised us to reopen, which we did within 24, 48 hours in the cities which were safe to operate.

Secondly, we built some tech solutions which allowed us to switch off a city and cancel orders, which let the customers and couriers know immediately. And now we monitor the cities we are operating in, make sure that they’re safe and we keep them open. And if a city is in trouble [Air raid alerts and curfews — ed.], we close down the services.

Maryna:

On the one hand, operations are quite difficult, but on the other we have learned to be very agile in many ways, like adopting the global technology to the local needs and issues that we have from day to day.

Since the beginning of the war, Glovo has taken a fairly active volunteer position, helping businesses at the frontline with free shipping and investments. What volunteer initiatives do you support or endorse now?

Maryna:

We started doing these projects to make a difference. At the start of the war, we started receiving many self-volunteering ideas and programs from our team, for example, delivering critical medicine to people who couldn’t leave their homes. We also had a lot of products in our grocery stores, which we started giving away to the people in need. The same goes for our cloud kitchens across the country, which started preparing food for our soldiers, doctors, and for people in need. There have been a lot of small and big ideas.

Afterwards, this evolved into a more shaped program. We partnered with all the key funds in Ukraine, United 24 being our biggest partner, with whom we have another big project coming up. The total amount that we managed to donate to various charities and people, over the past two and a half years, is over €1 million.

Sacha:

In terms of global initiatives, we have our Impact Fund. Basically, we assign a small amount of money per order to this impact fund globally, and, doing millions of orders every week, it slowly accumulates. We can later invest these money into relief funds, like the one in Ukraine, where we help our couriers and partners if they face any problems. Ninety percent of our partners are small stores and restaurants, and we try to help with their business growth, as it can help us grow, too.

As it was said, we’ve donated over €1 million in different initiatives since the start of the war. And we’ll continue doing the good thing on an even bigger scale, because this fund grows at the same speed as the business.

In an interview for AIN.UA, Choice co-founder Volodymyr Olyanitsky said that his startup closely cooperates with Glovo within the Glovo On-Demand service. Can you tell us about how Choice or similar companies work with Glovo?

Maryna:

Basically, Choice is one of the integrators of Glovo On-Demand. Glovo provides the technology for small businesses in order to help to work smoothly finance-wise and operational-wise through a simple interface. Apart from Choice, there are lots of different brands that we are also working with through Glovo On-Demand. 

Sacha:

It takes a lot of money to create a full cycle delivery business, starting from restaurant production, lead generation, and then delivery. Sometimes it requires even bigger investment than opening a restaurant. And, as Glovo is an expert at what we do and we have an operational fleet, we decided to support these initiatives, in order to build on our loyalty channels. It’s also beneficial to us, as we get more partners and order volumes coming through the direct integrations of the Glovo On-Demand by our delivery partners.

Two years ago, Glovo announced downsizing of global teams. How is the company doing in other markets now? How did the company manage to optimize its internal processes to overcome the crisis?

Sacha:

I think similar thing happened across all tech companies. There was a phase of very high growth where we wanted to invest in the growing businesses, which meant investing in our channels, marketing, but also in people. What we’ve been doing the last year and a half, is really focusing on profitability. Many of our markets are already profitable [Ukraine is among those countries — ed.], but we still have a lot of markets which are still growing and not profitable. 

We’re also planning to become profitable in H2 this year as a company, nine and a half years after starting. This means a lot of things, but above all, it means optimizing our technology and increasing the efficiency of our teams.

In addition to Ukraine, Glovo operates in other CEE countries such as Poland, Romania, and Moldova. Can you share how the business is doing in these markets?

Sacha:

We’re extremely excited about this whole region, Central and Eastern Europe. It’s one of our fastest growing areas. We’re the market leader in the region. Of course, not all the countries are as big as Ukraine. However, Romania is also one of our top five markets, with the rest growing rapidly. We’re super excited about the results there and in the rest of the region.

Looking ahead to the second half 2024 and beyond, what are Glovo’s short and long-term goals and projections for the CEE markets and Ukraine?

Sacha:

There are two areas that we really put our focus on. The first one is growth: expanding the number of cities that we operate in. And the second is getting more partners in, for example, quick commerce, to offer our customers an even bigger choice of goods.

We’re planning to also focus on our other services, like the one we talked about, Glovo On-Demand, or, what we call it, “logistics as a service”. Being a tech enabler, helping digitalize our partners and being a great ally to them — that’s probably where growth is going to come short term.

Regarding other services, an ideal plan for us would be to start working with payment plans. Or becoming our own wallet. I think there’s great opportunities, especially in countries where we’re the market leader and we offer a lot of value. We can probably align with other local companies and do things together. And Ukraine, obviously, would be an ideal candidate.

Maryna:

There are a lot of things that are in the development stages at the moment. And Ukraine, of course, despite the current macro factors, is still the country that is great for testing new services. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there are interesting things that will definitely require more time and partners.

Sacha:

And we’ve got some cool stuff coming up in the app. You’re going to like it.

Now, let’s talk about the PowerUp conference, which took place in Kyiv on June 18. What was the motivation behind the creation of this conference? What goals did you want to achieve?

Sacha:

Helping Ukrainian startups with visibility, especially at a European level, is our main goal. I think, to have a larger impact, we should be attracting more scale-up companies to come to Ukraine. And this conference is a good opportunity to tell large international tech companies as well as investors that they can still do business and grow; that they should be investing in local startups and creating jobs for people here because it’s a really good and profitable idea. I think the kickoff event really helps with raising awareness about the real state of the Ukrainian startup ecosystem.

Can you share with us the results of the conference?

Sacha:

The first part of the conference consisted of three panels that brought together heads of Ukrainian technology companies, institutions and venture funds, representatives of state institutions, as well as industry experts in discussions on the following topics:

• How to start a company and scale it outside of Ukraine;
• How to manage a company in Ukraine despite adversity and have a successful business;
• Why is it still profitable to invest in Ukrainian companies and develop talents?

At the end of the panel discussions we were joined by the Minister of Digital Affairs of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov, who closed the ceremony as the final speaker. In fact, last time I met him, we talked about how we need to raise awareness outside of Ukraine about the fact that the businesses are still working here, despite many things happening. Of course, it’s difficult, there are many missile attacks every day, but people are getting on with their lives. And the most important thing right now is that we really invest in the economy.

As we know, the highlight of the conference was the Glovo Startup Lab competition, which Glovo organizes every year together with USF. Please comment on which startups took the winning places, what awards they received?

Sacha:

There were a total of nine finalists at this year’s Glovo Startup Lab [UTU, Banani, Birb, GetOrder, Getpin, Howcow, Releaf Paper, ToGether, Uspacy — ed]. At the end of the conference they presented their solutions, and we the panel judges decided on three winners:

• First place received €20,000 in funding + internship in Barcelona — Getpin, an online marketing tool that helps businesses with physical locations attract customers looking for products or services nearby.
• Second place: €10,000 funding + internship in Barcelona — Uspacy, a CRM system for small and medium-sized businesses.
• Third place: €5,000 funding + online mentoring from Glovo — Howcow, anAI system that determines the best time for cows to conceive and detects health issues.

And can you share your impression on the winners of the conference?

Sacha:

There’s huge potential in them. They’re very early on, so I do think they need guidance and help, like all other startups. I think great companies are built by great people who work hard, who just are persistent. And above all, these companies are going to grow because they have great teams, great leadership, and great ideas.They’re not going to grow because someone holds their hand. It’s super exciting and I think it’s going to be a great experience for both them and us. 

To my mind, in general, companies that are built in Ukraine have a great opportunity to expand very quickly in the region and be leaders in the region. I think entrepreneurial talent is unique in this country, while technology levels are extremely high. When I came here  three months before the invasion, I really felt that Ukraine was moving in the right direction. I think Ukrainian society has great tech awareness, how you embrace new things, which is quite unique compared to most European countries.

Based on past experience, how does Glovo plan to support startup winners after the competition? Are there plans for ongoing mentoring or partnerships that will help to, possibly, integrate their solutions with Glovo services?

Sacha:

First of all, apart from the money they also receive our mentoring. We can help them through our ecosystem, our partner network, and our data. We have big access to the venture capital network and to a pool of talented individuals. Obviously, we’ll help the winners as much as we can.

Concerning the latter part of the question. Generally, one of the things we don’t talk a lot about is the amount of local companies we end up partnering with doing such different things, like giving solutions to our couriers. As an example, we just mentioned Choice, or other similar companies, or even fintech. It can be a whole wide range of services that we can plug into our network. There’s always opportunities for great companies to work with us and us with them. I think it’s the key to success.

Also, related to startups. We have a project called Glovo House, which incentivizes our employees to start their own companies based on their ideas. This can ensure that our legacy is not just Glovo. Already, close to 100 startups have been founded by ex-Glovo employees. Most of them received good funding, so they’re already on the road to potentially get bigger than Glovo.

The project focuses on these main areas: 

• Verification of the project. If anyone presents a project, we can look at it and, based on our experience and network, help them to redefine the project a little bit better. 
• We can give them access to our network of capital, either through local funds, angels or crowdfunding within the company.
• And then of course awareness. Glovo is a well-known brand in pretty much every country we operate. So we have easy access to channels to raise awareness about any new startups our employees come up with.

Any words in conclusion?

Sacha:

Personally, it’s amazing coming here. It’s my sixth time visiting Glovo in Ukraine since we launched here. I was super energized to arrive. And also the team here is an example for the Glovo globally.

• Founded in 2012, Stebby provides a software service platform for companies to manage their employee wellness benefits and helps employees access these benefits conveniently. Stebby has 180 000 users and 48 employees across the Baltics. In 2020, Stebby entered Latvia and Lithuania.
• In 2022, Livonia Partners, a pan-Baltic private equity investment firm, invested in Stebby. The firm is currently investing from €157 million Fund II, Livonia team works across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. In addition to Stebby, other recent investments in Estonia include Bestair, Wildix, and Telema.

Stebby is a great example of Livonia supporting established management teams in buying companies. It has been a strong growth story and the employee wellness benefits market is still in its infancy in the Baltics, so we were thrilled for Up Group’s interest and vision,

Maarja Pärs, Investment Director at Livonia Partners, commented.

About Up Group

• Up Group is an independent international group that connects individuals, businesses and regions to develop management, transaction and relationship platforms that contribute to well-being and performance. The company designs integrated solutions (vouchers, cards, mobile applications, web platform) for different aspect of people’s daily lives: meals, gifts, culture, leisure, holidays, personal services,training, education, health, social assistance business expenses.
• Up has over 3 400 employees, generates €759 million revenues yearly and operates in over 23 countries.

Transaction details were not disclosed, but its known that the current management will continue to lead Stebby together with the new partner.

• Founded in 2017 by Martim Gois, Vertti Sarimaa, Aleksi Jokela, and Matti Parkkila, Valpas offers smart anti-bedbug bed legs that trap bedbugs during the first night a guest stays in a room, preventing infestation. The technology attracts bedbugs using CO2 emitted by sleeping humans and uses a unique material design to trap them. The system is supported by an IoT and AI-enabled mobile app that provides image recognition for pest identification and disposal.
• Earlier, Valpas team claims it has already worked with over 300 hotels including Accor Hotels, The Luxury Collection, Design Hotels, ARP-Hansen and Bob W in over 40 destinations across Europe, Mexico and Japan.

No travel or home insurance covers the cost and pain of a bed bug infestation at home. Nearly every infestation at home comes after a night in a hotel or rental bed. By staying at a Valpas affiliated hotel, travellers know the room they get is clean and no matter where they go around town the hotel keeps them safe,

Martim Gois, CEO and co-founder of Valpas, commented.

• Zenith VC, a Swedish VC firm investing in post-revenue businesses focused on solving real-world business problems across Nordics, led the funding round.
• Icebreaker VC, Finnish Industry Investment, Canon Marketing Japan MIRAI Fund, Activum SG Ventures, Houghton Street Ventures, Rockaway Ventures, and Morrow Ventures, also participated in the financing.

Valpas will use the fresh investment to ramp up the production of its bedbug prevention technology and build strategic partnerships with travel booking agents and platforms. According to the startup, this will make it easier for travelers to identify and choose bedbug-safe hotels.

About Metaplanet Holdings

• Metaplanet Holdings is an early-stage investment firm started by Skype’s founder Jaan Tallinn. It has more than 160 companies in its venture investment portfolio. The fund invests in innovation with the potential to produce an outsized return for the benefit of humankind.
• Among its notable investments are SpaceX, DeepMind, and Anthropic. In December 2023, Metaplanet led a €2.5 million round for Woola, an Estonian company that makes protective wool packing.

WeatherXM investment details

• WeatherXM was founded in Athens in 2012 by Manolis Nikiforakis, Stratos Theodorou, and Nicolas Tsiligaridis. It is a decentralized network of weather stations. The network rewards station owners who are collecting and sharing local weather data through systems built on the blockchain.
• The company has developed a WS2000 Helium-LoRaWAN autonomous weather station that connects to a nearby Helium-LoRaWAN gateway. The station collects local ground weather information and is monitored by volunteers who are compensated with WeatherXM’s crypto token, $WXM.
• WeatherXM’s collected data is available to anyone for free personal use, with paid-for offerings for Web2 and Web3 businesses that wish to use it commercially. The startup has already deployed 5,000 of its weather stations in over 80 countries. 

WeatherXM raised $7.7 million during its Series A funding round. The funding was led by Lightspeed Faction VC. In addition to Metaplanet, Zurich-based Protocol Labs, US Web3 investment manager Borderless Capital, asset management firm Arca, Alumni Ventures, VC Placeholder, Red Beard Ventures, GS Futures, accelerator and investor Consensys Mesh, Westerly Ventures, venture studio dlab, and some business angels also participated.

The company will use the investment to increase headcount and expand its network to begin monetizing its commercial users.

Neurable investment details

• Founded in 2015 by Adam Molnar, Ramses Alcaide, and James Hamet as a University of Michigan spinout, Neurable develops AI-powered tools for brain signal translation and brain-computer interface technology. The platform enables brain-computer interfaces in everyday devices. Neurable is dedicated to creating a world where individuals can overcome physical and mental limitations through innovative neurotechnology solutions.
• In addition, the company designed headphones MW75 Neuro. The user can connect them to the Neurable app and start focus sessions, receive personalized break recommendations, review focus measurements, and receive insights to improve focus habits. When the brain is focused, it produces unique brainwaves that MW75 Neuro can detect using Neurable proprietary focus algorithm.

Neurable received $13 million in investment capital from the US-based Ultratech Capital Partners, TRAC, the Berlin-based firm Pace Ventures. Metaplanet is one of the participants in the round.

About LiveEO

• Founded in 2018 by Daniel Seidel and Sven Przywarra, LiveEO is a provider of earth observation technologies and solutions which provide actionable insights for businesses, resulting in increased safety, efficiency, and sustainability. The startup’s team consists of 130 people.
• The startup has customers around the world, including North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia. Among them are Europe’s largest railway operator, Deutsche Bahn to safeguard its assets, helps a Nigerian pipeline operator tackle oil theft and reduce million-dollar losses and helps to curb illegal logging in Moldova. Other notable customers include E.ON, Iberdrola, and Network Rail.

Investment details

• The leading investor in the fresh round is NordicNinja, the largest Japanese VC based in Europe backing companies tackling the world’s carbon footprint with a focus on climate tech, deeptech, and digital society. LiveEO is also its first investment in Germany.
• Other investor in the round also included DeepTech & Climate Fonds, a new German investment fund supporting support deep tech and climate tech companies on their long-term growth path.

The funding will be used to scale LiveEO AI-powered satellite data for actionable insights to help critical infrastructure operators manage climate risks.

In March 2024, NordicNinja also co-led $24 million round for Griffin, UK’s banking platform.

In the Startup of the Day column, Otso Laakkonen, Varpu Laakkonen, and Terho Laakkonen, the founding team of Maire, share the details about the startup’s idea, its product, and future plans.

The Startup of the Day column on AIN is dedicated to tech projects from all sectors that originate from the CEE countries. If you would like to introduce your project, please fill in the questionnaire.

Tell us about your startup. How does it work?

We turn online demands into an on-demand offering through predictive insights. By analyzing online search demand, we build a real-time, continuously updating view of the relevant demand forecast for up to 24 months ahead for large B2C customers.

How did you come up with the startup’s idea? What was the reason/motivation behind it?

Our grandparents from our dad’s side, Maire and Veikko, owned a shop and ran their own business in North Carelia back in the mid 20th century. We spent a lot of childhood summers running through the shop-turned-storage hallways. Maire was a kind and strong woman and without her, Veikko wouldn’t have been able to do what he did.

Our grandparents from our mother’s side, Maire and Lasse, were also entrepreneurs. Lasse was a silversmith, and together they ran a small shop in Töölö, Helsinki around the same time. Maire was gentle and supportive, and never played favourites.

Later, Otso has started several businesses from underwater logging to software automation consultancy. Terho has always had a side hustle or two while working for exciting startups. Varpu always dreamt of running her own design business and took that leap a few years back, and Touko has been working in prominent startups in various growth roles.

The three of us started to develop the product through our own unique perspecitves. One through customer acquisition, another through visual experience and the third from an engineering viewpoint.

How long did it take to reach the prototype or MVP? What did you encounter?

It took about a year to find our sweet spot. Initially, we started with marketing department but quickly realized that the market is crowded and the budgets are small.

Moreover, we understood that the data we can gather is more valuable than gold. It was quite staggering to notice that the marketing department was the only one utilizing this precious data.

From the very beginning, our own approach has been highly strategic, so it was a natural progression to refocus our efforts higher up in the value chain — where the budgets are larger and where our data can truly be utilized,

Marketing works with the existing offering, but Maire is utilized where the offering is decided. Now, we are selling to CEOs instead of SEO’s.

When exactly did you launch your product? Or when the launch is planned?

We are currently only taking in selected customers that are a strategic fit for us.

Tell us about the startup’s business model. How do you monetize your product?

Our SaaS model is structured such that the customer selects the number of categories they wish to track, and pricing is adjusted accordingly.

What are your target markets and consumers?

Our market has been global from the very beginning. Our customers are large B2C retailers and brands. We are experiencing the positive challenge of generating interest across various industries.

If the startup has already launched the product, what are the results: metrics, income, or any clear indicators that can be evaluated.

Our Q1 revenue surpassed our total revenue for 2023, and our revenue in May exceeded that of Q1. We anticipate reaching cash-flow positivity by the end of the year.

What about your team? How many people are working in the startup? If you’re looking for new employees, indicate whom exactly.

We are currently a team of five and looking to expand with the addition of predictive analytics expert, preferably those with PhD. We only hire based on real need, and at the moment, we are able to achieve everything we want with our current personnel.

Fun fact: We are a family business that needed a CDO and CTO when starting out, and amusingly, the best ones available turned out to be my siblings.

Have you already raised any investments? Provide us with more details on each funding round: the amount, investors, the purpose of the investment.

We raised an angel round of €450,000 to get ourselves off the ground. Investors include notable names such as Smartly’s founder Tuomo Riekki, Hoxhunt’s founder Karri Kurunmäki, and the former CEO of Dextra, Leena Niemistö

What’s next? Tell us about your future plans.

We are building what is as close as it gets to a crystal ball for large B2C companies, and in many respects, it already fulfills this vision. Everything we build or do is expected to be at the world’s best level, and we see no reason why we shouldn’t become the world’s number one prediction tool for B2C.

About Raft Capital

• Raft Capital invests in growth and expansion-stage companies across the Baltic States. It is a generalist investor, targeting multiple industries. The management team of Raft Capital Management is licensed by the Bank of Lithuania to engage in investment activities, and includes Artūras Gegužis, Andrejus Boicovas, Gintautas Galvanauskas, and Imre Visse (Estonia).
• According to Artūras Gegužis, the fund focuses on small and medium-sized firms in the Baltic region that growing. These include manufacturing companies that export, companies that innovate and create new products, service providers, and other businesses.

The fresh €50 million fund

• Raft Capital plans to invest between €2 and €10 million per company. The fund also claims these businesses should have sales of between €3 and €50 million and EBITDA of between €500,000 and €5 million.

Our primary investment region, the Baltic States, is seeing economic growth above the EU average, but there are less chances for business expansion due to a shortage of equity capital sources. Furthermore, in order to attain sustainable long-term growth and draw in the interest of reputable strategic and financial investors, the majority of Baltic enterprises must move into larger export markets,

Artūras Gegužis stated.

• In addition, Raft Capital would also consider investing in companies in the Nordic countries and Poland if these investments had clear synergies and benefits for the portfolio companies.
• Through Raft Capital Baltic Equity Fund, investments are made by the European Investment Fund, INVEGA, pension plans administered by Luminor investment management companies in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and other private investors.

In the future, Raft Capital also plans to launch the fund’s second round looking for additional €20-30 million.

About ConfidentialMind

• Founded in 2023 by Markku Räsänen (CEO), Severi Tikkala (CTO), and Esko Vähämäki (Chief Architect), ConfidentialMind is a startup building a generative AI platform for on-premises and private cloud environments. The startup claims, its standalone microservices gen AI software infrastructure stack enables customers to deploy and develop complex gen AI systems on valuable data.
• ConfidentialMind’s technology supports various data types and sources, facilitating the creation of complex pipelines, closed-loop internal co-pilots, and process automations without the need for extensive bespoke engineering work. The startup’s platform aims to become an essential tool for enterprises and governments maintaining control over their sensitive data.

The systems that enable AI in data centers are traditionally difficult to build and maintain. We make development and deployment of generative AI models and applications in enterprise and government data centers as easy, or in some cases even easier, than in the cloud,

Markku Räsänen, CEO and co-founder of ConfidentialMind, said.

Investment details

• The fresh investment is a combination of equity funding and a loan from the Finnish Government. It was spearheaded by Failup Ventures, a Finnish-American venture capital fund based in New York and Helsinki. The fund invests in early-stage startups, its typical initial investment is $200,000 – $1 million.
• The Angel CoFund, managed by Innovestor and Founder’s Edge, and several angel investors including Ilkka Hiidenheimo, Jonathan Scudder, Daniel Fried, also participated in the financing

Thanks to the fresh capital injection, ConfidentialMind plans to expand its sales, marketing, and engineering teams across Europe. As the startup continues to grow, it aims to offer a comprehensive platform equipped with all the necessary tools for building generative AI applications.

• In total, there are more than 240 companies working in the field of artificial intelligence in Ukraine.
• Among them, the most famous Ukrainian startups are Grammarly, Preply, and People.ai.
• Since 2019, two Ukrainian AI companies have become “unicorns” (Grammarly and People.ai), and the three largest Ukrainian AI startups are valued at more than $14.5 billion (Grammarly, Preply, and People.ai).

One of the key factors of Ukraine’s success in this field is the growth of the number of specialists in the field of AI, which has grown fivefold in ten years. The current number is reaching 5,200 professionals as of January 2024.

• Nevertheless, the number is quite small compared to other IT specialists. Ukraine has the second highest number of IT specialists (307,000) among CEE countries, while the number of AI specialists is still less than 1%.
• The most prevalent age group among specialists in the AI/ML industry falls between 21 and 25 years old.
• Data Scientists and ML Engineers stand out as the predominant professions among specialists, representing 63% of all professionals in the AI industry. Notably, these fields offer the highest average salaries among all IT specializations in Ukraine.

According to Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation Fedorov, in order to increase the number of specialists, 106 educational programs in AI have already been opened in Ukraine. He also noted that a key step for training strong specialists should be establishing cooperation between universities and AI companies so that students have access to practical knowledge and experience.

About Bisly

• Founded in 2018 by Siim Vips with Ants Vill, Bisly is a startup that specializes in the development of an intelligent building platform. In addition, the startup also manufactures custom hardware components that can be integrated into an open software platform.
• On the software side, Bisly blends its Single Cloud Platform that integrates different stages of the customer experience with its digital twins system. Bisly claims, its digital twin system accelerates setup and continually tracks consumption data, optimising areas where efficiency measures are lagging and improving energy conservation and financial savings over time.

Investment details

• The fresh round was supported by new investors including Foxway founders Urvo Männama and Paul Padrik.
• The existing investors like Aconterra, a Belgium venture capital fund investing in European early-stage technology companies, SmartCap Green Fund, a venture capital fund managed by Estonian SmartCap, Pinorena Capital, a private equity firm led by entrepreneur, Illimar Mattus, supporting fintech companies, also joined the round.

Having proven their expertise in Estonia, Bisly is well-positioned to meet the increasing global demand for smart building technology. Their advanced solutions and strong team make them well-equipped to drive significant reductions in the carbon footprint of buildings worldwide, contributing to broader climate change initiatives,

Robert Martin from SmartCap commented.

• Along with the deal, the company also announced C-Suite transitions in the company. Ants Vips will take on the role of Chief Strategy Officer. The C-suite is rounded out by CFO Kristjan Kõrgmaa, CTO Jaanus Lepik, and CPO Mihkel Kõrgmaa. The supervisory board has also expanded with the additions of Sergei Anikin, the angel investor and former Pipedrive CTO, and Jarek Kurnitski, a Professor of Energy Performance and Indoor Climate in Buildings at Tallinn University of Technology.
• This funding round will be directed towards Bisly’s plans for expansion throughout Europe, especially Germany and the United Kingdom, where the company has already opened offices and started courting partnerships.

In October 2023, Bisly managed to raise €3.6 million from Aconterra, Second Century Ventures and REACH UK, SmartCap Green Fund I, and Pinorena CapitalI. Read more details below:

• Founded in 2023, Radix is a new Poland’s VC fund with three general partners — Paweł Bochniarz, Wojciech Ratymirski and Michał Urbanowski. The firm has already engaged several tech investors in Romania, Hungary, and Ukraine as venture partners, responsible for operations in the key local CEE hubs.
• Radix’s portfolio consists of startups, including Booksy, ML System, Tresoit, Bitrise, Lerta.energy, and Noctiluca. The founders of VC have a collective 45 years of experience in technology ventures. To date, they have overseen 8 exits and made 38 investments.

The details:

The fund is supported by the European Investment Fund (EIF), a member of the European Investment Bank Group that aims to help Europe’s SMEs access financing, and PFR Ventures GreenHub, a fund of funds that invests in venture capital and private equity funds around Europe, as well as various angel investors.

This milestone marks a journey that began over four years ago, with the vision of a CEE-focused deep tech fund. Our goal is to raise at least €60 million to support 16-20 startups from all corners of CEE, investing at the late seed stage with tickets of app. €1-2 million.

Pawel Bochniarz, General Partner at Redix Ventures, commented.

Radix Ventures plans to guides 50% of the fund for follow-on investments in portfolio companies, focusing on energy, manufacturing, transport and mobility, and dual-use technologies with a positive environmental impact.