Half a billion a year: ten major Ukrainian startups that hit the jackpot
In 2019, Ukrainian startups received more than $ 500 million of investments. We talk about the ten most successful innovative projects that investors believed in.Ukrainian startups received $ 510 million in investments in 2019. This is one and a half times higher than in 2018 – $ 337 million. At the same time, the number of transactions slightly decreased – from 115 in 2018 to 111 in 2019.
These are the main results of the annual review of Ukrainian venture capital and private capital for 2019, on the eve of the Ukrainian Association of venture capital and private capital presented (UVCA).
How are investments in Ukrainian startups growing and which startups in 2019 received the most money for their development?
The average investment check in a Ukrainian startup is $ 5,7 million
2019 distinguished itself by 29 agreements of Ukrainian investors. The average agreement check grew by 78% to $ 5,7 million.
Software companies have become leaders in the number of transactions and their volume, moving online services to second place. The volume of the ten largest transactions almost doubled – up to $ 456 million. 90% of attracted investments – US capital.
Every year Ukraine strengthens its position in the international IT arena, increasing investment and becoming the home for Unicorn (unicorns) and an R & D hub for foreign companies, UVCA notes.
“From year to year, our report shows an increase in investment in the Ukrainian market. Although the country went through elections in 2019, investment in a number of industries continued to grow. In particular, in areas related to software development, hardware products and online services”, – says the partner of Deloitte in Ukraine and co-author of the annual review Volodymir Yumashev.
“Although 2020 makes its adjustments, the report shows that Ukraine has significant potential for investment. Only the economic situation in the world is stabilizing, Ukraine will be able to boast of new investment growth”, – he said.
According to the report, the vast majority of funds raised, $ 439 million is an investment in growth. Of these, only one Ukrainian startup – GitLab received $ 268 million. The volume of early investments – “seedbed”, “seed”, round A, round B – remains small.
Investment rounds are the stages of raising funds for business development.
There are three early stages of attracting investments for startups: pre-seed (“pre-sowing” stage), seed (“sowing” stage), Round A. The remaining stages are late: Round B, Round C, Round D.
The name of the round corresponds to the stage of the business, it is convenient for startups and investors. Startups immediately understand which investors to go to, and the latter can focus on those segments that interest them.
The structure of investments in Ukrainian startups
Agreements to $ 0,5 million remain the most popular.
The structure of transactions by amount
The largest amount and the largest number of transactions were received by startups developing software $ 272 million and 18 agreements. In second place is online services, in third is hardware.
Transaction Structure by Sector
According to the disclosed transactions, $ 423 million from $ 510 million invested in Ukrainian startups in 2019 were from the United States. Only $ 8 million was invested from Ukraine.
The structure of investment capital by country of origin
Top Ten Agreements 2019
Growth Investments (growth)
GitLab, $ 268 million
GitLab — DevOps platform for the interaction of software development specialists with IT specialists and the mutual integration of their work processes to ensure product quality. The platform is delivered as a single program. Startup entered the lists of new unicorns in 2018.
Company valuation: $ 28 billion
Total funding: $ 436.2 million
Offices: none, employees work remotely
Employees 1 thousand
Grammarly, $ 90 million
Grammarly — artificial intelligence-based online service to help you write English texts. He entered the lists of new unicorns in 2019.
Company valuation: $ 1.3 billion
Total funding: $ 200 million
Offices Kyiv, San Francisco, New York, Vancouver
Employees: about 250
Billion dollars for a startup from Kyiv: how Grammarly became a “unicorn” and why it is not for sale
People.ai, $ 60 million
People.ai — artificial Intelligence CRM Platform Has a chance to become a unicorn soon.
Company valuation: $ 05 billion
Total funding: $ 100 million
Offices Kyiv, San Francisco, New York, Atlanta
Employees: about 150
JiJi.ng, $ 21 million
JiJi.ng — african online classified site, which is a portfolio asset of the Ukrainian company Genesis. The site has been developing since 2014. He works in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania.
round a
Allset, $ 5 million
Allset — an application through which you can book a table in a restaurant and pay the bill, as well as receive recommendations on dishes in a particular institution. The founders are Stas Matvienko and Anna Polishchuk.
In March 2020, it became known that the startup had raised $ 82.25 million as part of the B-series round.
Unstoppable Domains, $ 4 million
Unstoppable Domains — American Brad Kem blockchain startup with an office in Kyiv. The startup creates its own domain zones (now only .zil is available) and sells domains in them to users at prices starting from $ 10.
Clients receive their own.zil domains, which are stored in the wallet in the same way as cryptocurrency. The service is built on the Zilliqa blockchain, and the content is stored in IPFS or similar decentralized networks.
MyCredit, $ 3 million
MyCredit — quick loan service that allows you to receive money on a card in online mode. The project was launched in 2016 and for three years entered the top three leaders in the online lending market of Ukraine.
AllRight, $ 1,5 million
AllRight — online school for learning English for children. The company sells individual online tutoring with tutors and earns on commission.
More sales – in Ukraine and CIS countries. Recently AllRight.io has begun work in the markets of Poland and Spain. Startup founded by Ukrainian Oleg Oksyuk.
Sowing investments
PromoRepublic, $ 2,3 million
PromoRepublic — Ukrainian-Finnish service that helps marketers and small and medium-sized businesses create content for social networks. Monetization is a monthly subscription model. Service co-founder – Max Pechersky.
RetargetApp, $ 1,5 млн дол
RetargetApp is developing a solution that automates advertising campaigns. The client should only specify the purpose of the campaign and its budget.
RetargetApp analyzes client’s advertising statistics, finds the best options, creates advertising campaigns and divides the budget between the most successful campaigns. The service provides over 12 formats on four platforms, including Facebook and Google.
According to the startup, over four years, thanks to an advertisement from RetargetApp, online stores around the world sold goods for $ 60 million to the project CEO – Pavlo Matvienko.
Investor Expectations for 2020
According to the study, in 2020, venture investors will primarily be interested in startups working in the sectors of artificial intelligence, big data and analytics.
The most attractive sectors for venture investors
Source: epravda.com.ua
