There are currently over 480 businesses with majority Ukrainian capital operating in Serbia, including 161 companies and 320 entrepreneurs, according to Marko Čadež, president of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, citing data from the Serbian Business Registration Agency.
“Mostly in the fields of IT, consulting services, trade, and small business,” he said in an interview with the agency “Interfax-Ukraine”.
For comparison, Čadež cited data from pre-war 2021, when 202 Ukrainian companies and 117 entrepreneurs were operating in Serbia. According to him, about 40% of them were subsequently closed, but after 2022, a significant number of new registrations were recorded.
“Last year, for example, not a single company or entrepreneur was closed,” he noted.
The president of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry added that Ukrainian business in Serbia is gradually shifting from traditional trade to digital and other knowledge-based services.
“The number of IT entrepreneurs, consulting firms, and design studios is growing year after year,” said Chadezh.
BUSINESS, IT, SERBIA, Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, UKRAINE
Global spending on information technology (IT) in 2026 could increase by 13.5% and exceed $6.3 trillion, according to a press release from research firm Gartner.
“This forecast highlights the accelerated growth of AI infrastructure and advanced memory chip technologies,” said John-David Lovelock, a leading analyst at Gartner. “Investments in data centers are growing rapidly, which in turn is driving increased demand for high-performance computing. This dynamic creates significant growth opportunities for companies supplying AI-optimized processors and technologies.”
The most significant growth this year is expected to come from data center spending—up 55.8% to $788 million.
“Sustained demand combined with limited supply has led to record price increases for high-speed memory chips,” notes Lovelock. “This surge makes the memory segment a profitable area for chip manufacturers.”
Former majority owner of the Agro-Region agricultural holding and former Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Aivaras Abromavičius will focus on investments in the Ukrainian technology sector and projects related to the future reconstruction of the country after selling the asset to the Kernel group.
“The day after the deal was closed, I already invested in a Ukrainian technology company. I think the corresponding press release will appear in the coming weeks. My wife and I want to remain very active people, so I am not planning to retire. On the contrary, now we must look at those Ukrainian companies that will become critically interesting when large-scale reconstruction begins,” he said during a Business Breakfast at Forbes Ukraine.
According to Abromavichus, shifting focus from the agricultural sector to IT and infrastructure projects is a logical step after almost 20 years of investing in Agro-Region. He noted that the technology market in Ukraine is currently showing high stability, and the upcoming reconstruction will create demand for assets in areas that will ensure economic recovery.
The investor added that despite his exit from agribusiness, he plans to attract foreign capital to Ukraine, focusing on companies with high growth potential.
Details of the new deal in the technology sector are not being disclosed until the investment round is officially completed.
Abromavichus also announced a number of promising areas for investment in Ukraine. He noted that the country has already become a “world champion in agrotech and militech,” so these are the areas to invest in. The businessman paid special attention to infrastructure and noted that although logistics was a step “where everyone wanted to be present,” now, due to falling prices, “it’s a different game.”
In his opinion, investors should focus on assets that will be in demand during reconstruction and software companies.
“I really like technology companies… we should go to Ukraine and look at them,” he concluded.
Aivaras Abromavičius is a Lithuanian-Ukrainian entrepreneur, former Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine (2014-2016) and former Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Ukroboronprom (2019-2020), who was a key partner of the investment company East Capital for a long time. Currently, Abromavičius owns shares in a number of Ukrainian IT startups and technology companies through controlled investment structures, and also has interests in real estate and consulting.
The sale of 100% of the Agro-Region group of companies (shareholders — Aivaras Abromavičius and Lars Erik Hokansson) to Andriy Verevsky’s Enselco group was one of the largest M&A transactions in Ukraine’s agricultural sector since February 2022. The investment company Dragon Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to the sellers, while OMP provided legal support. As a result of the acquisition of assets with a land bank of 41,000 hectares in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, and Khmelnytskyi regions, the Kernel Group (through Enselco) has increased its total land fund to 550-600 thousand hectares.
The Agro-Region Group is a high-tech integrated business comprising three operating clusters and approximately 200,000 tons of elevator capacity. The company specializes in growing corn, wheat, sunflowers, rapeseed, and soybeans, with an annual harvest of 200,000 tons. According to YouControl, at the time of the transaction, Aivaras Abromavičius owned a controlling stake in the holding (53.6%) through Garna Stockholm Holding AB, while Lars Erik Hokansson’s share was 44.28%. The deal was closed after receiving all necessary regulatory approvals, becoming a landmark investment signal for the industry amid martial law.
Export revenues of the Ukrainian IT sector last year amounted to $6.45 billion, which is 4.2% less than in 2023 and 12.3% less than in 2022, according to statistics from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
The largest inflows in terms of this year were recorded in the fourth quarter – $1.67 billion, while for the same period in 2023 and 2022, this figure was $1.70 billion and $1.87 billion, respectively.
According to statistics, the United States of America was the most active importer of Ukrainian IT last year, with $2.39 billion worth of goods, although its share in the total volume decreased by 2.6 percentage points (p.p.) to 37.2%.
The second place was taken by the UK, which increased its share by 0.8 p.p. to 8.8% and imported $565 million worth of Ukrainian IT services.
It was followed by Malta, whose share among importers decreased by almost 0.7 percentage points to 7.8%: in 2024, the country purchased $565 million worth of IT services from Ukraine.
The top five countries in terms of consumption of Ukrainian IT exports are Cyprus and Israel, whose shares slightly increased in 2024 to 6.1% and 4.6%, respectively. Cyprus imported $394 million worth of Ukrainian IT, while Israel imported $297 million.
Exports of IT services in 2024 will decline by 4-6% compared to 2023 and may amount to $6.3-6.4 billion, Lviv IT Cluster predicts.
“The decline in IT services exports that began in 2023 continues. Under the optimistic scenario, by the end of 2024, it will decrease by 4% compared to 2023. Under the pessimistic scenario, this figure will reach 6%. We should expect $6.3-6.4 billion. Thus, in 2024, the tech industry will not show growth for the second year in a row compared to last year,” follows a study by IT Research Ukraine conducted by the Lviv IT Cluster.
At the same time, despite the challenges of a full-scale war, the technology industry in Ukraine remains one of the key industries and provides significant foreign exchange earnings. The IT sector is the largest exporter of services in Ukraine, accounting for 38% of total exports of services. In total exports, IT ranks second after food exports, the study says.
According to the data, 2118 IT companies operate in Ukraine. Half of them are service companies, including 47% outsourcing and 3% outstaffing. Another 31% of companies are product companies. The rest have a mixed business model.
45.7% of the IT companies surveyed said they do not plan to open new representative offices in the short term, 17.1% plan to open in Ukraine, and 34.3% abroad. Most want to open a representative office in Poland. In addition, 6% of CEOs plan to close their office in Ukraine.
The number of specialists working in the IT industry in 2024 decreased by 1.6% to 302 thousand. Most of them, 238 thousand people, live and work in Ukraine. The number of Ukrainian specialists abroad also decreased to 62-64 thousand people against 65 thousand in 2023, the study says. The average age of a Ukrainian IT specialist is 31.5 years. The majority of respondents, 68%, do not have children.
The median income of IT professionals in Ukraine, according to IT Research Ukraine 2024, decreased by 1.7% compared to 2023 and amounts to $2590. At the same time, the majority of respondents reported that their expenses for rent, food, and other basic needs have increased.
Most 97% of IT companies donate and implement projects that bring Ukraine closer to victory. 67.6% of surveyed companies have mobilized specialists on their staff. IT companies support their employees serving in the Ukrainian Defense Forces by providing them with job security, fixed salaries, or partial compensation.
About 20% of Ukrainian IT specialists work abroad, while in 2023 their number increased to 65 thousand from 50-57 thousand a year earlier, according to the study AI Ecosystem of Ukraine: Talents, Companies, Education, prepared by the non-profit organization AI House and Roosh investment group with the support of the Ministry of Digital Information.
According to the data, the total number of IT specialists in Ukraine increased to 307 thousand in 2023 from 285 thousand in 2022.
According to Eurostat data cited in the study, Ukraine ranks second among Central and Eastern European countries in terms of the number of IT specialists, followed by Poland with 600.7 thousand.
At the same time, the number of AI/ML specialists has increased fivefold over the past 10 years, but as of January 2024, it amounts to slightly more than 1% – 5.2 thousand people.
“The active migration of specialists abroad as a result of the war leads to a shortage of qualified personnel in the domestic market, hindering the development of the industry,” the study says.
The most widespread professions among specialists are Data Scientists and ML Engineers, which together account for 63% of all AI/ML industry professionals. It is noted that these areas offer the highest salaries among IT specialties in the country. The average salary of a junior specialist in Ukraine is $1-1.5 thousand, and a senior specialist – $4.5 thousand.
Over the past 10 years, the number of product AI companies in Ukraine has increased by 3.7 times and reached 183 by 2023, while the number of service AI companies has increased by 46% to 60. Over the past four years, 34 companies specializing in artificial intelligence have opened. It is noted that 55% of the offices of Ukrainian AI companies are located in Kyiv.
At the same time, the country ranks last among the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in terms of the number of venture capital investments attracted over the past three years. The leaders are Poland, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic, which attract 12-16 times more funding than Ukraine, the study says. The probable reasons are the full-scale invasion of Russia and the registration of Ukrainian companies in European countries or the United States.
In 2023, the amount of venture capital investments that 22 Ukrainian companies managed to attract decreased by 31% to $10.8 million compared to 2022, which, according to the authors of the study, repeats the general trend of a decrease in such investments in the world. The war also complicates the process of negotiations between startups and potential investors to raise funding.
