Top countries whose citizens become entrepreneurs in Ukraine
Over 1.6 thousand sole proprietorships were opened by foreigners in Ukraine in the first 9 months of 2025, according to the Unified State Register. This is almost 10% less than during the same period last year. At the same time, the net increase between openings and closures this year amounted to 490 non-resident entrepreneurs. Most often, citizens of Azerbaijan, Russia, and Uzbekistan become entrepreneurs in Ukraine.
Foreigners registered 1,648 sole proprietorships this year in Ukraine, which is 10% less than in the same period last year. Overall, only 0.7% of all new entrepreneurs this year are non-residents of Ukraine.
At the same time, 1,158 foreign sole proprietors ceased their activities during the same period. The net growth amounted to 490 non-resident entrepreneurs. In total, more than 213 thousand entrepreneurs closed down in Ukraine during this period, with foreigners making up only 0.5%.
Unlike Ukrainians, most foreign entrepreneurs are men: 69% versus 31% women.
It is worth noting that non-resident entrepreneurs are quite resilient: the median operating time of such a business in Ukraine is 3.1 years. The record holder was a woman with Russian citizenship whose business operated for 30 years and closed at the beginning of this year. For comparison, Ukrainian sole proprietorships last slightly less — 2.5 years.
“Opening sole proprietorships by foreigners is an absolutely normal and legal practice. People who have a temporary or permanent residence permit in Ukraine obtain a tax identification number (TIN), so they can officially run a business and pay taxes on par with Ukrainian citizens. As for citizens of the Russian Federation — they are no exception to this rule. Only those who legally reside in Ukraine can start their own business. In this case, the procedure does not differ from opening a sole proprietorship by any other non-resident,” notes Denys Popov, head of the legal department of Opendatabot, lawyer, and arbitration manager.
Most new entrepreneurs come from Azerbaijan — 229 (14%), followed by citizens of the Russian Federation — 222 (14%), Uzbekistan — 160 (10%), Moldova — 125 (8%), and Armenia — 95 (6%).
The highest number of business closures were among citizens of Russia — 241 (21%), Azerbaijan — 157 (14%), Moldova — 102 (9%), Uzbekistan — 91 (8%), and Belarus — 69 (6%).
The majority of foreigners choose the trade sector — nearly every third business. Other popular sectors include food service (14%), wholesale trade (9%), computer programming (6%), and information services (4%).
Most closures also occur in these sectors: retail trade (37%), computer programming (10%), and food service (9%).
Every third foreign entrepreneur starts their business in Kyiv: 544 in 2025. Next come Odesa region — 300 (18%), Kyiv region — 138 (8%), Kharkiv region — 104 (6%), and Lviv region — 83 (5%). The fewest foreign entrepreneurs are registered in Volyn, Chernihiv, Sumy, Donetsk, and Kherson regions — from 2 to 17.
Foreigners mostly close their businesses in the same regions: Kyiv — 297 (26%), Odesa (17%), Kharkiv (9%), Kyiv region (8%), and Dnipropetrovsk (5%).
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/fops-foreigners-2025
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/fops-foreigners-2025
More than 4 thousand companies have been founded by 14 Ukrainians over the past four years, according to the Unified State Register (USR). Each of these serial entrepreneurs accounts for more than 100 companies. The record holder among Ukraine’s serial entrepreneurs is opening 3-4 new companies a day in 2024. And the largest mass founder of companies is TAYKUN AP LLC – 532 companies.
4003 companies were created by 14 mass founders in Ukraine over the past four years. Opendatabot considers individuals and legal entities with 100+ companies to be mass founders. It is worth noting that one company may have more than one mass founder, and companies may change founders over time.
A record number of companies was created by Vitaliy Ilnytsky – 1399 businesses since the beginning of 2020. It is worth noting that this businessman confidently maintains his leadership this year. Since the beginning of the year, he has been opening about 3-4 companies a day: 507 companies in five months.
Serhiy Seko is in second place: according to the USR, he is the founder of 810 companies. Vitalii Tretyak rounds out the top three serial entrepreneurs: 436 companies over the past 4 years.
Almost half of the mass founders register companies in Kyiv – 1766 businesses or 44.1% of the total. Other popular regions among serial entrepreneurs are Lviv (8.4%), Kyiv (7.6%), Odesa (5.8%), and Dnipro (4.3%).
30.7% of companies created by mass founders are in the wholesale trade sector. Another 6% are in the field of land and pipeline transportation and 5.5% in the field of security services.
Serial entrepreneurs are not only people but also other companies. For example, 7 companies created another 2019 businesses in the same period. The leader among legal mass founders is TAYKUN AP LLC – 532 companies.
ALTON OBJECT LLC became another mass founder among legal entities – 332 companies. BUSINESS INNOVATION LLC is on the third place: 305 companies.
77% of these companies are established in Kyiv and Kyiv region.
Among these companies, the most popular areas are also wholesale trade (46.5%) and construction (7.5%).
Attorney Denys Popov notes that a large number of registered businesses owned by one person or company can be an alarming sign – it is worth checking the reputation and information about such a company before interacting.
“By law, any citizen or company can register an unlimited number of businesses. At the same time, this allows unscrupulous businesses to register companies for fictitious persons who will not be responsible for the company’s obligations in the future. Most often, this trend is found in businesses that are preparing for bankruptcy in advance or in one-day companies that do not aim to actually do business,” comments Denys Popov, attorney, insolvency officer, legal engineer at Opendatabot.
All links to companies and entrepreneurs: https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/mass-beneficiaries-2024
More than 8,000 entrepreneurs received compensation of UAH 181 million last year for employing more than 14,400 internally displaced persons (IDPs), the press service of the Ministry of Economy reported on Tuesday.
The ministry noted that since the compensation is set at the minimum wage, it has increased from UAH 6,700 to UAH 7,100 since January 1 this year, and will rise to UAH 8,000 since April 1.
“In addition, the duration of the compensation payment has been increased from two to three months, and for the employment of IDPs with disabilities, the employer will be able to receive such compensation for six months,” Deputy Minister Tetyana Berezhna said in the release.
As reported, in April 2022, the government introduced a compensation program for employers to encourage entrepreneurs to hire IDPs.
The Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs supports sending the draft law No. 8087 “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on Urgent Measures to Strengthen the Capabilities of Cyber Defense of State Information Resources and Critical Information Infrastructure”, which expands the powers of the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection and obliges private companies to have a cybersecurity officer, for a second reading.
This was stated by Anatoliy Kinakh, President of the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, at a public discussion of the draft law held at the USPP.
“I would very much ask that following the results of our discussion, the proposal that has absolute support in the context of returning the draft law No. 8087 for a repeated second reading for significant revision be taken into account,” Kinakh said.
He emphasized that the shortcomings in the text of the draft law do not meet European standards, especially with regard to state control in this area, the inadmissibility of monopolization of such control functions, which entails, among other things, corruption risks.
“I am confident that today we have a list of suggestions and comments compiled at a serious professional and state level. I hope that today’s hearings will also be taken into account during the regulatory procedures in the Verkhovna Rada during further consideration of the draft law,” added Kinakh.
During the discussion, experts and management of the ULIE, in particular, Vice President Ivan Petukhov, expert Igor Dyadyura and member of the Kyiv Regional Bar Council Oleg Chornobay criticized the overly broad scope of the law, unlike European counterparts that affect only medium-sized businesses.
Draft law No. 8087 also applies to any actions related to the storage of personal data or other information with limited access in digital form, and thus, according to Chornobay, even an individual lawyer who maintains a client database and stores information subject to attorney-client privilege must hire a cybersecurity specialist (officer).
“There is a beautiful title to the draft law, but when we look at the specifics, we see that it introduces changes that affect not only state information resources and not only critical infrastructure facilities, but also the private sector. Thus, the purpose of the draft law is one, but its implementation is completely different,” added Chornobay.
Petukhov noted that even a small business that maintains a database of employees or customers may also be subject to the law and incur additional costs.
According to him, the rights of businesses to appeal against unlawful orders of government agencies are also being violated. If now they do not have to comply with it, if there is an administrative appeal of the decision, then according to the draft law No. 8087, this order must be fulfilled, and then, after the fact, it can be appealed.
Vitaliy Deynega, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine for Digital Development, Digital Transformation and Digitalization, also criticized the bill.
“This law may prevent us from digitizing the army and deploying digital infrastructure in the context of hostilities,” he emphasized.
Deynega noted that the Ministry should retain its independence in determining the conditions and criteria for the supply of goods, works and services for the functioning of the armed forces’ information and communication systems.
As the agency reported, draft law No. 8087 was developed by a group of MPs led by Oleksandr Fediyenko.
On January 12, it was adopted in the first reading, and the relevant committee on national security, defense and intelligence recommends its approval in the second reading.
The number of individual entrepreneurs in Ukraine at the beginning of 2020 amounted to 1.8 million, which is 19,900 more compared to the figure at the beginning of 2019, the State Tax Service has said.
According to the report, the number of individual entrepreneurs operating under a simplified taxation system over the year increased by 93,800, or 8%, to 1.5 million taxpayers.
At the same time, in the first half of 2019, the dynamics of the number of such taxpayers was declining: this figure decreased from 1.39 million at the beginning of the year to 1.36 million on July 1.
