Investments in Ukrainian startups for six months of 2020 – list
Half of 2020 is almost over. Despite all the turmoil, Ukrainian startups continued to raise investments and attract new investors. The AIN.UA editorial team collected all investments for 2020 to see what it has become for startups. In the selection, transactions are sorted in descending order of the investment amount.
Revolut — $ 500 million
British fintech project Revolut is positioning itself as a bank without branches. All operations are performed via the smartphone app. He got into our selection, because his co-founder is a native of Ukraine Vladislav Yatsenko.
In February, the company attracted another round of investments, which tripled its valuation to $ 6 billion. Technology Crossover Ventures was the lead investor.
Details — here.
Preply — $10 million
Preply is an international EdTech marketplace for learning foreign languages. The company was founded by Sergiy Lukyanov, Dmitro Voloshin and Kirilo Bigay.
The startup attracted a new round at the end of May, according to the results of which the total amount of funds raised exceeded $ 15 million. The London venture fund Hoxton Ventures acted as the lead investor, the company’s valuation has not been disclosed.
Details — here.
Allset — $8,25 million
American startup Allset is a mobile application that allows to booking a table in a restaurant and pay the bill, as well as get recommendations on dishes in a particular institution. The startup was founded by natives of Ukraine Hanna Polishchuk and Stas Matvienko.
The round was led by the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and was attended by Andreessen Horowitz, Greycroft, SMRK VC Fund and Inovo Venture Partners. Due to the coronavirus crisis, it almost fell through – some investors changed their minds to invest. As a result, instead of the planned $ 12 + million, Allset raised just over $ 8 million.
Details — here.
DMarket — $6,5 million
Ukrainian startup DMarket is working on monetizing items in games. The company was launched in 2017 by the founder of the platform for trading virtual items skins.cash Volodymir Panchenko, Tamara Slanova and co-founder of the Natus Vincere esports club Olexandr Kokhanovsky.
In June, DMarket attracted a new round, as a result of which Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins joined the board of directors of the company. Investors include Almaz Capital and Xsolla. Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins joins the company’s board of directors.
Details — here.
Zakaz.ua — €5 million
Zakaz.ua was founded in January 2010 by the Ukrainian businessman Yegor Anchishkin (withdrew from the project). The company offers a service for online ordering and delivery of products from popular supermarket chains.
The deal was closed at the end of February 2020, but announced only in April. The lead investor was the current shareholder of Zakaz.ua – Chernovetskyi Investment Group (CIG).
Details — here.
ClassTag — $5 million
ClassTag is a free platform where parents can communicate with their children’s teachers. The startup was founded by an emigrant from Ukraine Vlada Lotkina.
The round was announced in June 2020. Investors include AlleyCorp, Contour Ventures, Founder Collective, John Martinson, Newark Venture Partners, Smart Hub and TMT Investments.
Details — here.
Rentberry — $4,5 million
Rentberry is a Ukrainian real estate startup. Initially, it was launched on the US market, but later the service was also scaled up to Europe and Asia. It was created by Ukrainians Oleksiy Lyubinsky, Lilia Ostapchuk, Olexandr Kotovskov and Denis Golubovsky. The development office is located in Kyiv.
In July 2020, Rentberry raised $ 4.5 million, of which $ 2.3 – on the WeFunder crowdfunding micro-investment platform. Angel Investors Marlborough, McKinsey & Company partner Srikant Inampudi and Invesque CEO Scott White also took part in the round.
Details — here.
3DLOOK — $1 million
3DLOOK is working on a technology to scan the human body from a photo using artificial intelligence, neural networks and 3D technologies. The startup was founded in 2016 by Vadim Rogovsky, who previously headed Clickky.
The lead investor of the round, which was announced in early July, was the financial group ICU Ventures. A venture investor from Kazakhstan Murat Abdrakhmanov and several angels from the USA and Eastern Europe also took part in the deal.
Details — here.
Astromix — $300 000
The startup is developing personalized horoscopes: by profession, personality type, talents, astrological forecasts, calendars, etc. The founder of the service is Dmitro Tkachenko.
This is the first investment in the company and was announced in March. The investor was Adventures Lab, founded by Andriy Krivorchuk (formerly managing partner of CIG).
Details — here.
Mriyar — $300 000
Mriyar was founded in October 2018. This is a startup that is working on the creation of several products – b2b and b2c platforms for trading auto parts.
The round was attracted at the end of January – at that time the product was still under development. The investments were divided into two tranches: the first $ 150,000 were directed to launch the b2b-part of the platform, the rest – to refine and launch the b2c part of the project.
Details — here.
Elision — $150 000
Elision is a podcasting platform that allows content creators to earn money from content and allows listeners to have unlimited access to all the podcasts on the Internet. The startup was founded in November 2019 by Ukrainian Viktor Pavluchinsky.
The deal, announced at the end of April, is the first investment in Elision. … The investor is the venture fund Genesis Investments.
Details — here.
Propertymate — $120 000
Propertymate was founded in 2018 by Ukrainians Bohdan Hnatkovsky and Sofia Vishnevskaya. The team is developing a platform for real estate agents that allows you to combine data about buyers and real estate in the market.
The startup entered the Techstars Austin accelerator. As part of the program, the project received $ 120,000 in investment and 3 months of mentoring.
Details — here.
Go To-U — $100 000
Go To-U is creating a platform for bringing together charging station businesses and electric vehicle owners. Users can book a charger, as well as plan a route and take advantage of other bonuses.
The startup entered Techstars under the Smart Mobility Accelerator program. It takes place in Turin.
Details — here.
Very Good Security — NDA
Very Good Security is working on a SaaS solution that allows companies to use sensitive data without the risk of loss and responsibility for storing it.
In January 2020, Visa joined the investors of Round B, which was announced in October 2019: Goldman Sachs, Andreessen Horowitz, Vertex Ventures US, Max Levchin (PayPal co-founder) and Nik Bilogorskiy.
Details — here.
eForce — NDA
eForce was launched in Kyiv in 2019 by Dmitro Komarovsky and Eldar Mensutov. The application helps to keep track of the schedule, results and statistics of eSports matches, aggregates the streams of all tournaments in the Dota2 and CS: GO disciplines.
The startup was funded by the Russian company Tribuna.com (the largest asset is Sports.ru). The volume of investments, as well as the terms of the transaction, were not disclosed.
Details — here.
Love&Live — NDA
Love & Live is a group of fashion brands with an office in Kyiv. It includes the brands of clothing, footwear and accessories Love & Live, Katarina Ivanenko and others, as well as the marketplace of Ukrainian brands Shopping Mall. The founders of the company are Ukrainian entrepreneur Alexey Omelyanchuk and designer, photographer Ekaterina Ivanenko.
The group received investments from the Ukrainian venture capital fund SMRK. As part of the round, the company was valued at $ 10 million.
Details — here.
Respeecher — NDA
Respeecher is dedicated to creating digital models of human voices. Using the product, stunt doubles can voice films or commercials with the voices of celebrities without their direct involvement. The startup was founded in 2018 by Grant Rieber, Dmitro Belevtsov and Olexandr Serdyuk.
The deal was announced in February. The lead investor was the New York-based ffVC fund; ICU funds, Acrobator and a syndicate of one of the first investors in the Network VC startup took part in the deal. The investment amount was not disclosed, as was the company’s valuation.
Details — here.
Skyworker — NDA
Skyworker is an HR and marketing SaaS service that helps IT companies build an online pool of potential job candidates.
The startup attracted its first investment from an investor from Kazakhstan, Murat Abdrakhmanov. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed, the valuation within the round was $ 1.5 million.
Details — here.
PatentBot — NDA
PatentBot is a chatbot for registering trademarks. It was founded in 2017, it took 3 months to develop the project. Now PatentBot works in the markets of Ukraine, CIS, EU, USA and China.
In March, the startup attracted another round, the investor within the framework of the round was the law firm Dubinsky and Osharova. The transaction amount has not been disclosed, the new start-up valuation is $ 1.5 million.
Details — here.
Meredot — NDA
Previously, Meredot created a “smart plug” and also optimized existing wireless charging capabilities. The company has now found a niche in electric scooter sharing and is developing a wireless docking station.
The startup attracted preseed investments from Overkill to its project. The amount was not disclosed, the estimate of Meredot was 1.33 million euros.
Details — here.
Source: ain.ua
