Foreign direct investments in Ukraine in q-iii of 2020 (operations, $ MLN).
NBU
Ukrainian company Augmented Pixels, which is based in Palo Alto (California, the United States) and develops products in the fields of navigation, digital mapping and virtual/augmented reality, has raised $2 million in investments.
“Augmented Pixels, Inc. closed a $2M funding round from current and new investors and completed the development of indoor navigation, earth-scale 3D mapping and cloud localization technologies,” CEO and Founder of Augmented Pixels Vitaliy Goncharuk has said.
Augmented Pixels will use the funds to continue its innovative R&D efforts while also expanding with an executive team based in the United States.
In general, the company has raised $7 million since 2015.
As reported, ICU invested in Augmented Pixels in July 2020. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
The volume of investments in household solar power plants reached EUR 600 million from 2015 by the end of 2020, the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving has reported.
“As of the end of 2020, there are more than 29,900 families in Ukraine who have installed solar panels. Their total capacity reaches 780 MW,” the agency said on Facebook.
According to the report, the top three in terms of the number of household solar plants are Dnipropetrovsk (4,184), Ternopil (2,512) and Kyiv (2,350) regions.
The agency also indicated that from 2018 to 2020 inclusive, the number of households with solar plants increased fourfold – from 7,450 to 29,900.
Taking into account the agency’s data for the first three quarters of 2020, in its last quarter, the capacity of solar plants increased by 68 MW, and investments by EUR 40 million. The number of households that connected home solar generation facilities rose by almost 1,500.
The state-owned enterprise Artyomsol in 2020 reduced salt production by 41%, to 1.18 million tonnes, which is associated with weather conditions, quarantine and increased competition in world markets, the company said in a press release on Tuesday.
According to it, Artyomsol produced 762,200 tonnes of ground salt used for sprinkling roads without packaging, which is half as much as in 2019, and this is associated with a warm winter in Ukraine and far abroad. According to the state-owned enterprise, the production of packaged salt increased by 3.6%, to 186,400 tonnes, whiles the production of iodized salt decreased by 6.6%, to 53,200 tonnes.
Salt packed in bags (10 kg, 20 kg and 50 kg) was produced in 2020 by 27.6% less only 147,600 tonnes, production of salt packed in flexible intermediate bulk containers reduced by one third, to 51,000 tonnes.
The output of salt briquettes over the year, according to a press release, decreased by 6.7% , to 11,200 tonnes, while salt blocks increased by 17%, to 3,400 tonnes.
The state-owned enterprise indicated that in 2020 the enterprise shipped its products to 15 countries of the world. The main importers of its products are Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Belarus. More than 70% of the products were sent to the Ukrainian market.
According to the enterprise, at the end of 2020, there was a tendency to increase production volumes of the entire range.
“We have started a program of ‘rehabilitation’ of the enterprise, which includes a set of rapid measures to improve production efficiency and social support for workers. In 2021, we plan to increase investments in renovation and modernization of production to UAH 250 million, while in 2020 the volume of capital investments amounted to UAH 66 million,” Acting Director of Artyomsol Victoria Lutsenko said.
Artyomsol is one of the largest enterprises for the extraction and sale of sodium chloride (NaCl) in Central and Eastern Europe. The production facilities of Artyomsol are located in Soledar, Donetsk region.
For its development, the Mining and Metallurgical Complex (MMC) of Ukraine requires an increase in annual investments to $2.3-2.4 billion by 2030 from $1.8 billion in 2019, CEO of GMK Center Stanislav Zinchenko said, presenting the study entitled “Metallurgy of Ukraine: Vision 2030” in Kyiv on Friday.
According to him, the country’s mining and metallurgical complex is currently a low-cost exporter of raw materials and semi-finished products, and by 2030 it should become a stable supplier of quality products, maintaining the position of the basic industry in the “new” economy.
He said that among the global trends is weak demand for steel in the coming decades – growth of less than 1% per year; excess steelmaking capacity and the development of protectionism, which leads to high competition in the markets; volatility in steel prices, it is also decarbonization, digitalization, possible changes in supply chains, an increase in the need for capital investments. In general, the situation is characterized by weak market conditions and low financial performance.
In the domestic mining and metallurgical complex, the strong side is vertical integration, the weak side is underinvestment, a high need for investments, large emissions of harmful substances into the environment, insufficient quality of finished products, dependence on exports, low consumption in the domestic market.
In turn, Chief Analyst at GMK Center Andriy Tarasenko identified five strategic areas for the mining and metallurgical complex: cost leadership, increased unit efficiency, environmental friendliness, strengthening the benefits of vertical integration, and diversification by product and market.
To implement these areas, it is necessary to reduce the cost of steel production, increase the share of output with high added value, boost steel consumption from 108 kg per person to 160 kg per person, which will ensure the growth of products with high added value by 38%. It is also required to improve environmental friendliness, reducing CO2 emissions by 20%, dust – by 50%. To increase the production of premium pellets with a high iron content and direct-reduced grade (DR) pellets by 10 million tonnes.
As part of the diversification of product markets it is necessary to expand the geography of sales and reduce dependence on countries with a high level of risk (trade, environmental, military).
Ukraine should pursue a policy of stimulating investment, developing the internal market, countering protectionism and implementing environmental programs, including by joining the European Green Deal.
According to the experts, in the case of such activities, the MMC of Ukraine by 2030 will increase steel production by 14.4% compared with 2019, to 23.8 million tonnes, and will increase foreign exchange earnings from exports by $600 million per year. At the same time, GDP will be additionally generated in the amount of $1.75 billion, tax revenues to the budget will increase by $400 million annually, and capital investments will increase by $1.3 billion.
DOMESTIC MARKET, INVESTMENTS, METALLURGICAL COMPLEX, METALLURGICAL INDUSTRY
Mobalytics, a startup with Ukrainian roots, has announced the closure of the series A funding round in the amount of $11.25 million, investments will be used for the creation of a personal assistant for gamers.
Mobalytics told Interfax-Ukraine that the round was headed by the venture funds Almaz Capital and Cabra VC. Other investors who participated in the round include HP Tech Ventures, General Catalyst, GGV Capital, RRE Ventures, Axiomatic, and T1 Esports.
“Being among the first investors, Almaz Capital supported Mobalytics at every stage of the startup’s growth from the launch of the first game to the emergence of several game genres on the platform. The team did this masterly, creating all the conditions for scaling their product,” Danylo Stoliarov, a partner of Almaz Capital, said.
The startup plans to use the attracted investments to further develop the product, improving analytics and a personalized approach to each user. In addition, Mobalytics intends to increase the number of supported games on the platform and expand its technical and product teams over the next six months.
The Mobalytics team has been building and testing the GPI (Gamer Performance Index) for four years.
Mobalytics is an analytics platform and personal gaming assistant designed to help video game fans hone their skills. In 2016, the startup won the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlegrounds.
One of the largest parts of the startup team is located in Ukraine, the head office is located in Los Angeles (the United States), two of the three project founders are also Ukrainians.
