The Remarkable Resilience Of Ukraines Tech Sector

In February 2022, the Ukrainian technology sector is booming. According to the Ukrainian Information Technology Association, the country's IT exports tripled to almost $7 billion a year between 2016 and 2021. Its universities have long been an excellent breeding ground for STEM talent, and thousands of these young graduates have helped Ukraine progress. office, full of developers and designers working with international clients, and then a true cutting-edge innovation center. Cutting-edge startups: from deep tech and robotics to translation and artificial intelligence.

The war was to put an end to all this. Russia's all-out invasion left tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers dead or injured, many driven from daily life on the front lines. Millions of people have been displaced from their homes and are now scattered across Europe and beyond. Russia has targeted infrastructure, cut off electricity and communications, and threatened to cut Ukrainian companies off from customers and donors abroad.

Yet the tech sector hasn't just survived, it's thrived: by the end of 2022, Ukraine's IT exports had grown by almost 7%, even as the economy contracted by almost a quarter. third. These are the stories of the survival of four startups, but they are just one example among thousands of extraordinary acts of resilience, challenge, courage and collaboration in Ukraine's tech sector.

"Music is a very powerful tool."

Quantum physics graduate student Andrei Dakovsky hid fake Western rock records in his bedroom in the late Soviet Union. “I was lucky because the KGB caught me,” he says. "When the Soviet Union collapsed and you could easily walk into a record store and buy a Led Zeppelin, I was missing something important. The feeling of exclusivity and being underground."

Dakovsky turned his forbidden love for rock music into a career, eventually establishing Universal Music's first office in Kyiv and becoming a central figure in the development of Ukraine's music industry in the chaotic post-Soviet renaissance. He brought Elton John to Ukrainian TV and produced Kyiv's first rock opera. As we strolled through central Kiev, he showed me the nightclub he had opened after a friend who needed a loan persuaded him to invest there. Now closed, first because of covid, then because of the war.

In 2020, Dakhovskyy launched the Djooky program with business partners from Ukraine and the United States, realizing that little-known artists, especially from outside America, do good business and earn a lot of money on platforms like Spotify, where there are few quality artists. . “The music industry is very monopolistic and centralized,” explains the artist. "I know the system...and I can't change the system from within."

Djooky is a marketplace where fans can buy shares of artists to help them build their profile and capitalize on their success. When the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic, the company launched the Djoki ​​Music Awards, allowing fans to compete for their favorite song in a massive multinational competition that brought together artists and listeners around the world. The platform has 200,000 registered users, artist publications from over 140 countries and 15 successful auctions.

Inflation cools | Continued from Bloomberg 7/13/23