The Salient Points at Web Summit 2022: Ukrainian Stand, 70 Startups, and Top Officials

This was the second year in a row when Ukraine was represented with a national stand, and for the second time, Sigma Software Group co-organised it together with the Ukrainian Startup Fund, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, UNIT.City, the Embassy of Ukraine in Portugal, Ukrainian Hub, and European Business Association.

Ukrainian Tech Ecosystem Stand

The Ukrainian national stand was jam-packed during all 3 days of the Summit. At least 30,000 people visited it, including such distinguished and honorable guests as the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska, Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov, the Mayor of Lisbon Carlos Moedas, the US Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Marisa Lago, and undisputed and undefeated world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk. World-known media have featured Ukrainian presence at Web Summit and Sigma Software: Reuters, CNBC.

Our partners and related companies Sigma Software Labs, Black Snow Games, and SID Venture Partners also had their moments at the stand.

Black Snow Games, founded by our Board Member and Extended Reality evangelist Vlad Beck, showcased the next gen AR gaming and business gamifications with their unique tech synergized with blockchain. The stand visitors could test the technology by playing a demo of the company’s AR game and discuss it with Vlad Beck and Daria Yaniieva, Sigma Software Labs’ Investment Director, who were present at the stand. Over 160 played the game.

Currently, the technology that emerged on the basis of Sigma Software XR expertise, is used in the large-scale immersive AR game Black Snow and in an innovative AR solution improving user experience in one of the world’s largest malls.

Sigma Software Labs, the first Ukrainian business incubator on the basis of an IT service company, provided insights into the Ukrainian tech ecosystem, the synergy of IT businesses, and their work with startups. Also, visitors could pass interactive tech quizzes to check their knowledge of the history of science as well as learn something about Ukrainian startups and unicorns. Today the joint portfolio of the Labs and associated venture fund SID Venture Partners includes over 30 startups and they definitely aim to help them take their place in such future quizzes.

Ukrainian Startup Alley

The Ukrainian Startup Fund together with GIST organized the largest delegation of Ukrainian startups in history, which included 24 teams. The teams demonstrated the resilience of the Ukrainian tech ecosystem and amazing results of the country’s tech sector – Ukrainian startups and tech companies raised almost €351 mln in the first six months of 2022. The export volume of computer services for the first half of 2022 has reached €3.75 bln, which is 23% more than for the same period in 2021.

Startup teams formed the Ukrainian startup alley close to the main stand, while the total number of Ukrainian companies at this year’s Web Summit reached 70. The startups had an excellent opportunity to pitch their products and ideas in front of hundreds of people.

Six startups from the joined portfolio of Sigma Software Labs and SID Venture Partners took part in Web Summit:

• Datrics, a drag-n-drop AI platform that provides the fastest way to create and operate Machine Learning solutions. The platform enables Machine Learning for non-practitioners and automates MLOps for professionals within an enterprise. This September, Datrics partnered with NEAR Foundation.
  Datrics made it to the TOP-100 startups of the Web Summit 2022!
• Datuum – a set of tools that connect to a database (RDBMS, CSV file, or even Excel spreadsheet) and scan it, after which the AI-based toolset finds and displays the data automatically, giving users the ability to adjust the process. This technology reduces the cost of mapping and retrieving data by up to 80% compared to the manual process, which makes the platform a unique solution for large enterprises and public sector structures in the transition to updated processes for working with big data.
• Finmap – an online financial accounting service for small and medium-sized businesses that provide users with access to business financial analytics. Among the unique features are dashboards about business expenses and income, filters by project and customer categories, automatic synchronization via API with accounts of different banks, etc. The Finmap SMB market segment today has insane potential. For example, the competitor BukuKas in the Asian market recently raised a round of $ 50 million, the next round has a chance to bring it closer to the unicorn. Finmap has a chance to approach similar positions in the potential market.
• Black Snow — a platform for the development of AR games and navigation, as well as a separate shooter game with elements of virtual reality and with the ability to participate in a battle anywhere in the world via a smartphone screen.
• V-art – a platform for digital art assets, bringing a perfect match of legal & tech infrastructure on a rapidly growing market of immersive experiences. V-Art combines NFT marketplace and IP rights to trade & manage digital assets with SaaS to virtual galleries and AR for users from 90+ countries.
• Liki24– a healthcare marketplace that connects 1M+ customers, 10K+ pharmacies, laboratories, pharma producers, and insurers in a single ecosystem.
• Orderly Network – permissionless, decentralized exchange protocol and modular ecosystem built on NEAR, providing competitive solutions in terms of trading speed, market-leading order execution and minimal fees than any current decentralized solution.
• Awesomic – a platform matching businesses with designers. YC alumni. More than 900+ clients: Natural Capital Exchange, Reface, People.ai, Restream. Named a Raising Star in Europe by Atomico, Google for Startups, and Dealroom.co.
• Coaty World provides brands with new and simple migration to the metaverse, aiming to increase their awareness and promote their product.

Master Classes and Speeches

The visit of the First Lady of Ukraine was a surprise almost for everybody. In her speech, she called the visitors to support Ukraine and told how the aggressor state uses modern technologies to destroy the Ukrainian electricity and Internet networks.

Several press conferences and master classes were held by government officials where Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov, and Alex Bornyakov, Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Digital Transformation were among the key speakers. The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, and the Embassy of Ukraine in Portugal were also among the partners of the national stand.

Valery Krasovsky, CEO and Co-Founder at Sigma Software Group, General Partner at SID Venture Partners, joined the master class Ukraine: Inspiring Brave New Tech World. He talked about Ukraine’s venture ecosystem in 2022 from the point of view of SID Venture Partners, the most active VC in the country. Valery also highlighted major events in the Ukrainian VC world in the last 12 months and explained how startups were adapting their product and investment strategies, how Web 3.0. investment vertical was adjusting to the new reality, and shared three lessons based on a unique experience of running a VC fund during the wartime.

Olga Paramonova, VP, AdTech at Sigma Software, contributed to the master class. Olga was speaking about synergies that empower changes, tech products solving war issues, and social impact against the war.

Veronika Korzh, co-founder and CEO at GeekPay and board member at Sigma Software Labs, held a webinar and QA session “Pains and Gains of crypto payments.” The team of the startup GeekPay could also be found at the Ukrainian startup alley.

Unity of Ukrainian Business

At Web Summit 2022, Sigma Software additionally represented  UA Tech Network as an informal association of Ukrainian IT companies that had been founded by Sigma Software, UA Tech Club, and IdeaSoft. The association was created during the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine with the aim of supporting the country’s small and middle-size IT businesses.

Co-founder companies expanded networking for all member companies of the association and found potential customers for them within Web Summit 2022. The participants, who were not physically present at the technology conference, previously submitted their requests to the co-founders of the association for their resolution.

Ukrainian companies that found out about UA Tech Network at Web Summit 2022 also applied to join the association (more than 20 applications).
The co-founders of the association additionally talked about the full cycle of services and diversification of risks of cooperation with Ukrainian companies, which became possible thanks to the consolidation of efforts and the common desire of Ukrainian entrepreneurs to make their own contributions to victory.

Moving Forward

Despite the unprovoked and brutal russian aggression, the Ukrainian IT sector has shown incredible resilience and determination even in the country’s darkest hours. To this day it remains the only industry in Ukraine that still shows growth during the war.

Many tech giants such as Amazon, Apple, and SpaceX have shown their support to Ukraine. Microsoft’s Brad Smith announced the extension of aid for Ukraine’s tech wartime tech innovation by up to $100 million in Microsoft services.

The organizers of the Ukrainian national stand are also negotiating potential partnerships with representatives of the biggest startup communities in Europe and the US.

Find out more about all Ukrainian activities and initiatives here.

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