Sigma Software Stars Recognized as Top Women in Ukrainian VC and Startup Ecosystem

Vestbee has recently presented the list of Top Women from VC and Startup Ecosystem in Ukraine. Vestbee is one of the leading platforms empowering startup founders, VC funds, angels, accelerators, and corporates with the right community, infrastructure, and tools to succeed. It highlights impactful female leaders from various countries and has now spotlighted Ukraine.

We were happy to find in the list Daria Yaniieva, Investment Director at Sigma Software Labs, the corporate venture capital wing of Sigma Software, as well as several other women related to our company.

Daria Yaniieva manages a portfolio of 20 companies with a total investment of $2.3 million. The activity of Sigma Software Labs and Daria as its head is aimed at helping startups succeed using the vast capabilities of the Sigma Software ecosystem: the network of 250+ clients and partners in more than 30 countries, domain and technology experts, fine-tuned practices for startup development, community and event support. Daria Yaniieva actively contributes to building a strong community around Sigma Software Labs and developing the Ukrainian startup ecosystem. In the summer of 2024, she became an expert at the Ukrainian Startup Fund, responsible for the following areas: AI, Big Data, Cybersecurity, Fintech/Legaltech, Defense, and Infrastructure Rebuilding.

At the same time, Daria led all-Ukrainian startup contest UNICORN, a part of Startup World Cup 2024: Ukraine competition that gathered 116 Ukrainian startups and furnished the winner a place at the global round of Startup World Cup in San Francisco with the main prize of $1 million in funding. The Ukrainian round included monetary prizes, intensive mentoring sessions, and opportunities for startups to present their ideas to technical specialists and startup development experts.

The competition was held on the basis of UNICORN Startup Contest, Ukraine’s largest technology startup competition led by Sigma Software Labs and supported by the government authorities.

In addition to Sigma Software Labs, Daria also holds the position of an adviser at SID Venture Partners, a Ukrainian $10 mln venture fund founded in 2021, which was recognized as “Investor of the Year 2023” by the Ukrainian Startup Fund and Lift 99.

Besides that, Daria took part in the launch of the Defence Builder Accelerator as a Board Member and actively mentors the accelerator’s startups together with 30 experts from around the world. The program has attracted 7 defence startups in the first batch with over 300 more in the pipeline and over 200 private and institutional investors from the US, Europe, and the UK.

We were also glad to see many outstanding female leaders with whom our company cooperated in numerous areas.

Thus, founders and top managers of startups from Sigma Software Labs portfolio were included in the lists. These are:

• Anastasiia Smyk, co-founder and CEO of INPUT SOFT, a web-based platform that helps optimize resources, reduce costs, and collect and analyze data from all processes at airports. Anastasiia was featured in Forbes Ukraine’s ‘30 Under 30’ list and is a Techstars alumni.
• Margaryta Sivakova, co-founder & CEO at Legal Nodes, a legal tech startup she co-founded in 2018, aimed at transforming the operations of the legal market. She was recognized by Forbes Ukraine in its ‘30 Under 30’ list in 2022 and by Forbes Europe in its ‘30 Under 30’ (Technology) list in 2024.
• Veronica Korzh, Partner at SID Ventures, Co-founder & CEO of GeekPay, a platform dedicated to simplifying and securing batch payments in digital currencies.

SID Venture Partners, a VC fund initiated by Sigma Software, was also marked with a prominent woman featured in the list. Galyna Isakiv, Head of Portfolio & Operations at SID Venture Partners, mentor at the Ukrainian Startup Fund, and advisor at Sigma Software Labs.

Moreover, Kateryna Bezsudna, Co-founder at Defence Builder and Buntar Aerospace, took a well-deserved place among Top Women from VC and Startup Ecosystem. Sigma Software, as an investor of Buntar Aerospace and one of the creators of DefenceTech accelerator program Defenсe Builder had a chance to appreciate the talents of Kateryna.

And last but not least, Kateryna Hrechko, CEO at Techosystem, a civic union representing key players in Ukraine’s tech ecosystem, with a focus on product companies. The organization aims to bring together market participants to create more favorable business conditions in Ukraine, promote the tech ecosystem, and showcase its global potential. Sigma Software has the honor to be one of the companies that initiated the creation of Techosystem.

We congratulate all women recognized for their significant role in Ukraine’s VC and startup ecosystem! Our hope is that they will take entrepreneurship in Ukraine to a new level and become role models for the next generation of female leaders!