Business news from Ukraine

AGRICULTURE MINISTRY BACKS RELAXATION OF PRODUCTION LICENSE ISSUE TO WINE MAKERS

KYIV. Dec 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The procedure for issuing a production license should be relaxed for wine makers, Director of the horticulture and viticulture department of the Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry of Ukraine Viktor Kostenko has said.

“We ask the Cabinet of Ministers to create a working group consisting of representatives of all agencies involved in the issue of production licenses,” he said at the National Winemaking Forum.

He said that the license issue should be relaxed for wine makers, depending on their size.

Kostenko said that the State Fiscal Service demands only seven documents for receiving the license, while around 134 documents in six different agencies are to be collected to get them.

MORTGAGE CREDITING SLIGHTLY INTENSIFIES IN 2016 – NBU

KYIV. Dec 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Mortgage crediting of individuals slightly intensified in 2016, demand on mortgage is growing, as well as the number of applications for mortgage credits approved by banks, according to a December report on financial stability published by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).

“The crediting conditions poll conducted among banks in Q3 2016 shows that demand on mortgage credits is slightly growing along with the number of applications for mortgage credits approved by bank. Deposit corporations credit purchase of apartments and houses both on the primary and secondary markets. According to intermediaries, the share of residential housing bought in credit does not exceed 5%,” the NBU said.

The regulator said the conditions for provision of new mortgage credits are tough.

Along with buyers of apartments banks also credit constructors both in Kyiv and the regions.

“Large companies take credits for the period of up to three years. Smaller companies receive short-term credits from banks used to support the pace of construction if they fail to quickly sell apartments. However, the crediting of constructors is small. The key source of financing is own funds of companies and payments by apartment buyers,” the central bank said.

UKRAINIAN STARTUP SIXA RAISES $3.5 MLN FROM THREE INVESTMENT COMPANIES

KYIV. Dec 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukrainian company Sixa, which has developed an application for access to a high-performance virtual computer in the “cloud,” has raised $3.5 million from U.S.-based Tandem Capital fund, as well as the investment companies Horizon Capital and Digital Future.

“Sixa is a very valuable company for Digital Future’s portfolio. Fight among investors for the opportunity to finance this startup to a certain extent was aggressive. You be the judge: the project, which boasts rapidly growing sales without the help of marketing, whose customers subscribe for software upgrade,” Digital Future partner and founder Oleksiy Vitchenko told Interfax-Ukraine.

The investment company has not disclosed the amount of investment.

Sixa is a service that allows users to obtain their own virtual high-performance computer in the “cloud,” using which one can perform the most complicated tasks. The service is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Android. Users pay on an hourly basis for the service.

Sixa focuses primarily on developers, designers and gamers.

 

MEVICS STARTUP RAISES $500,000 FROM BRITAIN’S UBTOWER

KYIV. Dec 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s Mevics has raised $500,000 from Britain’s UBTower consulting company.

The company has not presented other details of the deal.

The Mevics team has created a gadget, which controls your posture and synchronizes it with your smartphone using Bluetooth.

According to tentative data, the price of the gadget would vary from $80 to $100.

The team is designing the brand, working on the new website and accounts in Instagram and Twitter. The company is also working on designing new electronics and prototypes.

Mevics CEO Viktor Laushtan said that soon the company intends to launch a campaign at Kickstarter and bring the product to the market.

“First shipments of the product are scheduled for August 2017. Then the company will enter the U.S. and European markets,” Mevics said.