People-Centric Ecosystem. How Sigma Software Became the #1 Employer in Ukrainian IT

“I am proud of our team – it is people who motivate us to move forward and respond to the most difficult challenges,” said Valery Krasovsky, Co-founder and CEO of Sigma Software Group. “From the very beginning, a people-centered approach was embedded in the company’s philosophy, and it remains a top priority to this day.

From Five Friends to a Global Tech Ecosystem

In the early 2000s, five friends from Kharkiv teamed up and started fulfilling IT orders for foreign clients. In 2002, they registered the company Eclipse SP, the name coincided with the name of a popular development environment at the time, although the meaning was slightly different and the letters SP stood for Software Programming.

At the very beginning, the founders decided to build a company that would not only fulfill client’s wishes but also create products that would change the world, helping to develop the IT ecosystem in Ukraine. This goal has kept them together to this day. Sigma Software is a rare example of a company where the founding team has been in business together for more than 20 years while maintaining partner relations.

“We know how to negotiate with each other,” says Valery Krasovsky, “The basis of our unity is the pleasure of work and the pursuit of a common goal. This is part of the company’s mission statement, which was laid down in 2002 when the company was founded. Today, the company has grown 400 times, but the founders have managed to carry the principles of mutual respect through the years of development.

In the early years, the company grew rapidly and soon appeared on the radar of foreign investors. Although the founders were not looking for strategic partners, they saw a potential deal as an opportunity for even more rapid growth and expansion of possibilities. It would have been difficult for a Kharkiv-based company of 60 people to receive orders from global customers like Volvo. So, in 2006, Eclipse SP began considering proposals from strategists.

The most convincing was the Swedish IT company Sigma Group, which was then listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. While other companies offered a 100 percent buyout, which was not tempting for the founders, the Swedes appealed to us because of their democratic culture and the fact that they gave the founders the opportunity to continue developing the business on their own, using the power of the powerful Swedish brand. It was important to find a strategic partner with the right values, one that would appreciate the Ukrainian team and consider them equals.

In 2006, the Swedes became the majority shareholders of the business. In 2010, the founders changed the name to Sigma Ukraine, and in 2014, after the start of international expansion, it was decided to change the name to Sigma Software as the group’s key software development company. Today, Sigma Software has more than 2000 employees and 40 offices in 19 countries.

Projects Around People

“A person who strives to achieve their goals and is not afraid to take responsibility,” is how Valery Krasovsky describes a specialist who feels comfortable working at Sigma Software. Today, the diversity of the Sigma Software Group ecosystem allows specialists to realize their potential in both service businesses and product IT companies, and to build their own projects, attracting investments from internal and external investors. The company’s own university creates opportunities for continuous self-development and the updating of skills.

Another feature of the company is its horizontal structure. To a large extent, Sigma Software was a teal organization even before the world started using this term. The decentralized structure allows talented people and entire teams to develop.

“If a person wants flexibility, dynamics, interesting projects that are always on the edge of today and tomorrow, if they want to work in a large company but feel the culture of a startup, then they should come to us,” says Volodymyr Bek, another co-founder of Sigma Software.

The challenges of recent years have given Sigma Software the opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to its People First principles. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Sigma Software managed to evacuate most of its employees, as well as their families and friends. In total, Sigma Software evacuated about 3,000 people from the war zone. The company managed not only to retain all its customers but also to increase its business. In 2022, Sigma signed agreements with 55 new customers, and the business grew by almost 40%. In 2023, despite all the circumstances, we managed to retain both our business volume and team. In 2024, we are continuing to grow together with our clients around the world.

“Despite the evacuation and the tension of the first days of the full-scale war, our incredible team did not miss a single contractual deadline and fulfilled all obligations to our customers,” recalls Valery Krasovsky. He is happy that Sigma Software specialists also treat customers humanely and responsibly. Customers can feel it: in the challenging year of 2023, customer satisfaction reached a record high of 95%.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Sigma Software, as a responsible and humane business, has made it a top priority to support the Ukrainian Army and civilians affected by the war. In 2023, the company established its own Unity Fund to make this work systematic. In the middle of 2024, the amount of support exceeded $4 million.

Sigma Software University provides free training for Ukrainian military developers. Also, with the direct involvement of the company’s specialists and partners (Sigma Software Labs, Genesis, KSE, and Buntar Aerospace), the company launched the Defense Tech accelerator program Defenсe Builder, which aims to support defense startups, attract investment, and gain a real advantage on the battlefield.

This year, in honor of its anniversary, instead of giving gifts, the company announced a fundraiser with Unity Fund. We started with a contribution from the company, which was a budget for making branded gifts. Then the company invited colleagues to join with their personal donations or spread the word on social media, expanding the fundraising. On top of it, the company doubled the contributions made by its specialists. As a result, UAH 1,702,100 was raised, which will be used to develop a system to protect Ukrainian and European cities, including Kharkiv, which suffers from shelling every day.

Sigma Software’s values are professionalism, continuous development, and relationships built on trust, and the main principle is “We work for our future, the future of our team, our children, our clients, and the state.” In 2024, this principle has become especially important for the company in terms of the country’s future.

For over 22 years, Sigma Software has received hundreds of professional awards but the company’s CEO considers the title of the best employer in Ukrainian IT an extra special award – it means that the company’s human-centered course was the correct path to take. “I believe that we will be among the top companies for both customers and specialists not only in Ukraine but also for the entire world,” predicts Valery Krasovsky.