Business news from Ukraine

UKRAINIAN IT COMPANY SOFTSERVE OPENS OFFICE IN DUBAI

SoftServe, one of the largest Ukrainian IT companies, opens a new office in Dubai to support clients in the Middle East region, the number of which is growing rapidly.
According to the press service of the company, the new office of the company is located in the business center Dubai Internet City.
SoftServe said that the company has been operating in the Middle East since 2018, supplying solutions for large business conglomerations in the areas of trade, finance and the energy sector. The Middle East today is a hub that is rapidly developing and attracting investment, and due to the increase in population, opportunities are opening up for activities outside the oil sector. Therefore, this region occupies a key position in SoftServe’s growth strategy.
“Today, we are seeing an increase in demand for software and digital transformation in this region and are pleased to be able to provide our expertise. Our new office will better serve and support our customers by developing innovations in the areas of artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud solutions, and digital banking solutions. We expect to build long-term and sustainable relationships in the Middle East, providing the most relevant technological solutions and services. Our presence in the location is another evolutionary step in the development of key markets in the region,” the press service said, quoting Executive Vice President EMEA at SoftServe Volodymyr Semenyshyn.
According to the company, the new office of SoftServe in Dubai will offer clients a full range of services – from consulting to project management, implementation of solutions and their ongoing support. In addition to the business development direction, developers will also work in the office.
The company said that the Dubai office will become a place for frequent visits by employees, customers and partners. In general, in 2019-2020, 150 employees of the company traveled to the UAE for business purposes.
“SoftServe is partnering with Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure to showcase expertise across the region that is recognized by global corporations – from cutting edge technology solutions, big data management, cloud architecture to AWS best practices for business and solutions based on Microsoft technologies,” SoftServe said.
SoftServe specializes in software production, development services, quality control and support of information systems and business solutions. To date, about 10,000 employees of the company work in 38 offices. The main offices of the company are located in Lviv and Austin (Texas, the United States). The company’s development centers are located in Lviv, Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernyvtsi, Sofia (Bulgaria) and Wroclaw, Bialystok, Gliwice and Warsaw (Poland).

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AMERICAN IT COMPANY CREATES DEVELOPMENT CENTER IN UKRAINE

U.S.-based IT company CognitOps, a provider of artificial intelligence-based warehouse applications, announces raising $ 11 million within the Series A funding round.
“CognitOps, a global provider of artificial intelligence-based warehouse operating applications, announces today that it has raised $ 11 million in a Series A round of financing. FirstMark Capital led the investment round, with all of the company’s major investors participating, including Chicago Ventures, Schematic Ventures, Haystack, and CEAS Investments. Beth Ferreira, Partner at FirstMark, will join the CognitOps Board of Directors,” the report says.
“CognitOps is tapping into a clear market need and is off to an explosive start. We believe they are at an inflection point to unleash the potential of the modern distribution center by leveraging artificial intelligence and data science at scale. The supply chain disruptions of the past 18 months have highlighted the pain points in the warehouse and have emphasized the market need for new, innovative solutions. CognitOps has only just begun to revolutionize warehouse operations and we are thrilled to be partnering with the team,” Beth Ferreira, a general partner at New York City-based firm FirstMark Capital, said.
CognitOps also announced the creation of a new global headquarters in Austin, Texas and a software development center in Kyiv.

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BRAZILIAN IT COMPANY PLANS TO OPEN OFFICE IN UKRAINE

A large Brazilian IT company, Stefanini, with the value of assets of $1 billion, has announced expansion of its operations in Europe and opening of its office in Ukraine, the company has said in a press release. “Our international presence places us in a privileged position to offer and deliver new services in all corners of the world. We want to expand our operations in Europe, and Ukraine will be our next stop,” Stefanini’s global CEO Marco Stefanini said.
According to Stefanini, one of the factors that influenced the decision by Ukraine, in addition to the thriving IT market, is that 78% of workers in the sector have intermediate or high English proficiency.
“As a global company, it is essential to work with multilingual professionals. Our expectation by the end of the year is to have a staff of 50 in the Kyiv office that is most focused on support and application development,” Stefanini said.
According to the press release, recent reports show that Ukraine has more than 1,000 IT companies and employs about 100,000 workers. With rapid growth in this segment, the expectation according to research studies is that the number of technology workers will double by 2020.
Stefanini was founded in 1987. The company currently has more than 74 offices in 40 countries in America, Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia.

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VENTURE FUNDS AVENTURES AND INSOFT SELLS IT COMPANY COREVALUE

The venture funds AVentures Capital and Insoft Capital have sold a majority stake in the IT company CoreValue, according to a press release from AVentures. CoreValue was purchased by IT Kontrakt, one of the leading IT outsourcers in the Central and Eastern Europe region, owned by Oaktree Capital Management and Cornerstone Partners Investments. The sum of the transaction is not disclosed.
“The integration of CoreValue into the IT services competency platform is a very important step for us in creating a global IT outsourcing platform. The company proved its potential and strong technological competence by providing services to large customers in the highly competitive U.S. market,” the board chairman of IT Kontrakt, the executive chairman of IT Services Competence Platform, Tomasz Pyrak, said.
CoreValue is an IT outsourcing company based in the United States. The development centers of the company are located in Ukraine and Poland. It was founded in 2004. It has grown to 400 people and delivers solutions to Fortune 500 companies, as well as to medium and large enterprises in the United States and Europe. CoreValue’s competence includes CRM-based services, cloud and mobile applications for such industries as Pharmatech, Healthcare and Finance.
AVentures Capital bought a minority stake in CoreValue in 2017.

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HORIZON CAPITAL MANAGED FUND BECOMES SHAREHOLDER IN UKRAINIAN INTELLIAS IT COMPANY

Horizon Capital managed fund has entered into a transaction to acquire a minority stake in Intellias, a leading IT services provider with operations in Ukraine, headquartered in Lviv. With this backing, Intellias will expand its operations in Eastern and Central Europe, the IT company said in a press release on Friday.
The size of the stake and other details of the deal are not disclosed.
“We are delighted to attract Horizon Capital’s backing as we broaden our delivery footprint in Ukraine and beyond. Intellias is among the fastest-growing IT Services providers with operations in Ukraine, having expanded from circa 150 employees in 2013 to over 1,100 now,” Co-founder and CEO at Intellias Vitaly Sedler said.
According to the report, to increase its client service capabilities, Intellias is expanding its delivery hubs beyond Lviv, Kyiv, and Odesa, with Kharkiv and Ivano-Frankivsk next in development, as well as locations in Central and Eastern Europe.
“We view this investment as marking a new chapter in our development, allowing us to raise the bar even further, to the benefit of our customers and employee,” Co-founder and Chairman of the Board at Intellias Michael Puzrakov said.
Intellias was founded in Lviv, in 2002 and by 2018 has evolved into a strong supplier of software development services, with a core delivery base in Ukraine. Intellias has been consistently ranking among the highest scoring IT Services employers in Ukraine and the fastest growing IT Services providers, having expanded in size over 10 times during the last six years.
Intellias was co-founded by Sedler and Puzrakov and continues to be founder-run.
Horizon Capital was established in 2006. It manages private equity funds Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF, established in 1994 with a capital of $150 million), Emerging Europe Growth Fund, L.P. (EEGF, established in 2006 with a capital of $132 million) and EEGF II (EEGF, established in 2008 with $370 million capital).
The money of these funds is invested in projects in Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus.
In June 2016, OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation) said that the OPIC would provide up to $37.5 million to EEGF III launched by Horizon Capital

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