Despite the unstable economic situation, conditions of the hybrid war and continuing political crisis, Ukrainian IT-industry is considered one of the most promising areas that will be a key to economic success of the country. As Brett Wilson wrote in his article for Recode in 2014: “Today, the volume of exports of software service and development from Ukraine is about $2 billion annually. By 2012, there were more than 4,000 IT outsourcing companies in Ukraine, and the sector was growing 25 percent year over year; economists project that the $2 billion industry will grow 85 percent over the next six years.”
With about 400 universities in the country, Ukraine gets almost 40,000 IT graduates yearly, and this number is forecasted to grow up to 100,000 by 2020. Moreover, students often start working part-time while they are still studying, thus allowing their future employer to hire a skilled professional with both a degree and work experience, while still with open and fresh mind. Of course, it might seem unfair to compare Ireland with Ukraine in terms of quantity, whereas Ireland is almost 10 times smaller in population than Ukraine, however Ireland is in a better economical position, which allows no excuses for the lack of innovation on a national scale.
Ukraine is often called a nation of startups, with the large pool of highly skilled IT professionals; not everyone knows that developers of WhatsApp and PayPal were born and raised in Ukraine. Grammarly, a well-known service that checks and corrects grammatical and stylistic errors, as well as wrong expressions in texts, was actually founded in Kyiv by two Ukrainian entrepreneurs. Currently, Grammarly counts around 10 million users from different countries and has 700 contracts with leading companies and universities across the world. The company’s offices are located in Kyiv and San Francisco.
Ukrainian startup “Petcube Bites” won 2017 Product Hunt Golden Kitty Award leaving Elon Musk with his well-advertised flamethrower on the 2nd place in WTF Product Of The Year category. Petcube is a gadget that allows pet owners to watch their pets, talk to them, feed and even play with them via the mobile app. The device was highly rated at international fair Wearable Tech Show 2017, and secured its position together with Apple Watch 2, Snapchat and Android Wear 2. Petcube launched two successful campaigns on Kickstarter and fundraised more than $500k. In April 2017 Petcube was recognized with the world-famous award in the area of innovation – Edison Award).
However, Ukraine might have something in common with Ireland here, as new innovative companies don’t keep their headquarters in Ukraine and are typically getting registered in other countries, and the reason for this could be the lack of protection for small businesses from the government, complicated legal and tax systems – it is difficult to secure funds and attract investment to a country with generally unstable economic situation. Irish tech startups typically strive to look at global markets, however to be able to grow and develop in Ireland, they find that there’s not enough environment and opportunities for scale. First of all, startups should be supported by enterprises, government and universities: lack of mentorship, encouragement and funding prevents entrepreneurs from accelerating their projects, while staying in their country, instead of going to look for investment somewhere else. One reason for moving companies away from Ireland is that most entrepreneurs don’t see the country as a market for their sales.
But in the case with Ukraine, what makes the country special – is the focus on the IT industry, where many professionals from other spheres move the industry and get easily re-qualified to adapt to market conditions. Amongst other Western European countries, Ukraine is the most attractive for foreign investors who are looking for highly skilled, trained and motivated developers:
Besides the number of professionals who are able to provide exceptional service, many sources are also giving a few other reasons why companies outsource their development to Ukraine:
- Moderate cost. The cost of living in Ukraine is significantly lower and the salary of developers may be twice lower than in Western Europe, and it’s considered that the ratio price/quality is the best comparing to other Eastern European countries.
- Languages spoken. IT professionals in Ukraine have a good command of English – about 80% have intermediate or higher level of English. Moreover, most of them will also speak both Ukrainian and Russian, which in this case makes Ukraine an ideal place to connect both East and West and potentially secure investments from both sides.
- Location. There’s only 1 or 2 hours difference between major European countries, and the flight to most European cities take 2-3 hours.
- Top-ranked tech. Ukraine is first in the world in the number of Unity3D and C++ developers, and second in JavaScript, Magento, and Scala.
- Cultural compatibility. Ukrainian people are open-minded, easy-going, adaptable to changes, creative and with a strive to innovation.
While such factors as location or cost of life are hard to impact or change (let’s be honest – you can’t move Ireland to the middle of Mediterranean Sea), there’s plenty of areas of growth that could allow Ireland to succeed in its journey to growing up little unicorns!
Overall, it’s worth noting that Ireland has a lot in common with Ukraine in terms of how the countries were developing and growing over the last century, and with some similarities in history around relationships with neighbours there are definitely things that both could learn from each other. If I was to give a valuable piece of advice, I’d say that Ireland should determine a creative area in which it’s going to excel, while earning trust of sponsors from both commercial sector and government. As Ukraine was able to build its base in IT industry, I believe that Ireland has a lot of potential there, while already being the European hub for a large number of major global enterprises located all over the country.
References:
DAXX, (2016). How Many Ukrainian Developers Are There, Really? Available from: https://www.daxx.com/article/how-many-developers-in-ukraine
DAXX, (2017). 10 Reasons You Should Hire Ukrainian Developers. Available from: https://www.daxx.com/article/why-ukraine-best-it-outsourcing-destination
Eisenberg, A., (no date). Ukraine: Top Outsourcing Destinations. Available from: https://igniteoutsourcing.com/publications/ukraine-top-outsourcing-destinations/
Hulli, E., (2017). Ukraine: The Next Startup Nation. Medium. Available from: https://medium.com/startup-grind/ukraine-the-next-startup-nation-d81e0b7cffcc
Na chasi, (2017), 10 Ukrainian startups that become world known in 2017. Available from: https://nachasi.com/2018/01/09/startups-2017/
Wilson, B., (2014). U.S. Tech Companies Have a Lot at Stake in Ukraine. Recode. Available from: https://www.recode.net/2014/6/26/11628364/u-s-tech-companies-have-a-lot-at-stake-in-ukraine
Lessons for Ireland from other Innovative Countries 