Kormotech, Ukraine’s largest producer of cat and dog food, is setting up a venture capital fund that will invest in the development of petcare and petfood startups, the company’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
The UK-based Kormotech Ventures division will search for relevant startups and invest in innovative areas of the company’s development in international markets.
“We were once innovators when we were the first to produce cat and dog food in Ukraine. It is important for us to maintain these fundamental things – flexibility and openness to new knowledge. We want to preserve and multiply the bold entrepreneurial spirit with which we created Kormotech 20 years ago, and with which we became leaders in Ukraine and became one of the top suppliers in strategic export markets,” said Rostyslav Vovk, CEO and co-owner of Kormotech.
Kormotech Ventures will focus on finding innovative startups that are looking for seed investments in the pet care industry in Europe and the US. The company will also fully manage investment projects as a majority shareholder.
It is specified that the core of Kormotech’s business will remain unchanged – the development of high-quality pet food production and expansion of its presence in the pet food markets in Central and Eastern Europe.
The first investment of Kormotech Ventures was the acquisition of a controlling stake in Rocketo, a Lithuanian startup producing organic dog food by gentle drying at low temperatures.
Rocketo is scaling up its presence in the UK market by developing a multi-channel distribution system. In particular, in addition to direct sales through its own online store, Rocketo has been included in the Future Brands program of the Sainsbury’s retail chain and will present its organic dog treats.
“As a family business, we strive to increase the value of our partners’ products and share our experience in organizing business processes, as well as the potential of our best specialists, which will be involved in the structure of Kormotech Ventures,” added Vovk.
Kormotech LLC is a leading Ukrainian manufacturer of pet food for cats and dogs, ranked 51st in the global pet food ranking and 7th in the ranking of the fastest growing pet food brands. Kormotech sells products of its own and partner brands in 40 countries.
The company’s facilities include two dry and wet food production plants in Lviv region and a plant in Lithuania. The company produces products for cats and dogs under its own brands Optimeal, CLUB 4 PAWS (TM “Meow!” and “Woof!”) and private label. The product range includes more than 650 items.
In 2022, Kormotech’s turnover increased by 12% to $124 million from $110 million in 2021. The goal for 2023 is to reach a turnover of $150 million and increase the export/Ukraine ratio to 30%/70% from 24%/76% previously due to the synchronized growth of markets, the statement said.
The ultimate beneficiaries of Kormotech are Olena and Rostyslav Vovk.
Today, financial technologies are one of the most promising areas of business development. Modern fintech companies provide a wide range of services from securing electronic payments and open banking transactions to the exchange of crypto assets. Since electronic financial services such as, for example, shopping with a credit card or smartphone have long been an integral part of our lives, the fintech sector already hold leading positions in capitalization and development dynamics, even despite adverse market conditions preveiled in 2022.
To characterize a company operating in the fintech market, one can be guided by such criteria as the use of the latest technologies in financial transactions, including payments, electronic payments, insurance, blockchain and cryptocurrency, digital banking, investment and wealth management, as well as lending and personal financing. Currency exchange operations, electronic banking, government digitalization (in the field of taxation) and telecommunications services are also part of financial technologies.
How to determine the development dynamics of a financial company in the technology sector? First of all, you need to take into account the volume of finances spent through digital channels for a certain period. It is also important that such a company has its own application for a smartphone, the amount of download of the application, as well as the number of its active users. An important factor is the number of countries in which the company operates. It takes into account growth dynamics over the past year, as well as examples of innovations in digital payments and the impact of these innovations on consumers and businesses. And, perhaps, the most important thing is the availability and volume of funding from venture capitalists, since investors are a priori market experts and will not invest in a non-viable startup, otherwise they will simply have nothing to invest over time.
So, taking into account the above factors, our portal has compiled a list of the five most dynamically developing fintech companies in 2022.
Fifth place
Chime. One of the fastest growing American fintech companies that specializes in providing customers with free online banking opportunities. The Chime platform allows users to access mobile banking systems through a website and smartphone app. The company makes most of its money from the exchange. Chime, which is relatively new to the market, now has over 9 million users and is worth over $1.6 billion, with over 185,000 Twitter followers.
Fourth place
PayJoy. The main mission of this company is to provide access to credit operations to a billion people in emerging markets around the world. PayJoy’s unique mobile device locking technology allows customers to afford to buy their first smartphone on credit, using the phone itself as collateral, and then provides additional access to loans to overcome financial difficulties and improve wealth. PayJoy services millions of customers in countries such as Mexico, Brazil, India, Kenya and South Africa. The dynamics of development and the amount of investments allow us to say with confidence that the company will achieve its goal of attracting a billion customers in the coming years.
Third place
AMAN Holding. Founded in Egypt in 2015, the fintech company is one of the largest players in this market in the Arab world, with almost half a billion potential customers. The company services more than two million consumers daily through its terminals and smartphone app. AMAN also has a super app that allows doing e-commerce, paying bills and utility bills, making charitable donations and playing games, among other things.
Second place
Volgende Kft. This is a dynamically developing Hungarian company that is actively developing the European financial services market. The company is actively implementing innovative technologies, in particular, in the development of mobile financial applications. The main activity is the development and implementation of investment strategies, primarily in the field of venture capital investments. Volgende Kft successfully works with the world’s largest funds to attract investments, as well as the implementation of large fintech startups at various stages of development. In addition, the company is an active player in the insurance market.
First place
Western Union. One of the most famous companies in the global fintech market continues to firmly hold leadership in many areas and does not lose ground to its younger and more aggressive competitors. Today, this American company helps clients move finance around the world with a set of electronic currency transaction tools. On the Western Union platform, users can initiate transfers online, through a smartphone application or offline anywhere in the world where there is a branch of the company. Western Union maintains the largest network of branches in dozens of countries, which allows customers to quickly transfer money.
FINANCE, FINANCIAL_TECHNOLOGIES, FINTECH, STARTUPS, VOLGENDE_KFT
In 2021, Ukrainian startups attracted venture investments in 216 transactions for a record amount of $779.6 million, which is 46% more than in 2020, these are the results of the annual study Ukraine Deal Review 2021, conducted by the Ukrainian Association of Venture and Private Capital UVCA in partnership with Kreston Ukraine, AVentures and ISE Corporate Accelerator.
“For the first time I will say this figure – $2.8 billion over 8 years, of which $780 million last year was a total investment in the Ukrainian ecosystem, which was invested by foreigners,” Andriy Kolodyuk, head of the UVCA Supervisory Board, commented on these results to Interfax-Ukraine. .
As in the previous period, about half of the deals (47%) came from the Ukrainian Startup Fund (USF). Investments attributed to private equity amounted to $82.8 million, while only agreements with a declared amount were calculated.
UVCA added that in 2021 the Ukrainian venture capital market was replenished with six new players: GEEK Ventures, SID Venture Partners, ZAS Ventures, ANCHOR, PAWA. They offer Ukrainian startups financing at the level of $0.5 million, as well as their experience and expertise. In addition, last year 19 large international companies opened their R&D centers, offices and engineering hubs in Ukraine.
“But the most important thing that happened in the first quarter of 2022 was 11 transactions and 8 exits. It is very important for the ecosystem that transactions continue. Despite large-scale Russian aggression, the development of private technology investment markets has not stopped,” Kolodyuk emphasized.
According to the report, according to the results of January-March 2022, 11 venture agreements were concluded for the amount of $11.5 million, three transactions in the private capital market for the amount of $4 million, and eight exits were made for the amount of $135 million. Over the past year, UVCA estimated the total cost of the exit at $944 .7 million
According to the study, the total valuation of Ukrainian startups before the war was $20.7 billion.
An influential official and businessman from Saudi Arabia, Abdulrahman Alolaya, arrived in Ukraine on an unofficial business visit.
He is the CEO of the TaibahVally investment campaign and one of the leaders of the national investment program “Saudi Vision 2030”, which is looking for the most profitable and innovative areas for investment. The Sovereign Wealth Fund of Saudi Arabia, which finances the program, is one of the largest investment funds in the world.
The meeting took place at the Ministry of Digital Transformation. The guest was told about the developments in the field of digital state. Alexander Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for IT Development, promised to provide a list of the most successful Ukrainian startups and promote cooperation in every possible way.
“Ukraine is very interesting for us, because it has a lot of experience in modern technologies, there are highly qualified personnel and interesting startups. At the same time, the investment market is in the early stages of development and this is a good period for investing,” said Abdulrahman Alolaya.
Abdulrahman Alolaya also visited the offices of several Ukrainian technology companies, including UNITCity.
“Ukraine has a large number of interesting IT services. However, the weak marketing of these services to the Arab market leads to the fact that they do not know about it. We want to fix it,” said Ukrainian businessman Oleksandr Chechuga. He and his partners invited an Arab investor to Ukraine. Dmitry Buravel and Alexander Chechuga are co-owners of the Ukrainian company BlockHunter, which work with block chain technologies, develops electricity storage systems; Roman Movchan is the owner and CEO of PrimeBerry, one of the largest producers and exporters of berries. These companies have already managed to enter the Saudi market and are ready to help other Ukrainian startups.
More guests from Saudi Arabia were interested in Ukrainian developments in the fields of education, block chain and digital government services.
The competition committee of the Ukrainian Startup Fund according to the results of the 13th Pitch Day has defined three more startups, which will be considered by the supervisory board and approved for a grant of $50,000, the press service of the fund reports on Facebook.
In total, ten projects took part in the pitching, of which three projects at the seed stage became the winners, scoring 15 points or more:
– a platform that allows hospitality companies to automate voice communications with clients using the artificial intelligence Outloud.ai (20.7 points);
– the Esper Bionics startup, developing the next generation of hand prostheses and a cloud platform as a service that teaches prostheses the user’s habits, improving management (20 points);
– the online application for organic development and monetization of social media profiles IGnation (15.3 points).
The funds will be transferred after the relevant decision of the fund’s supervisory board.
In general, as of October 2020, there are 2,178 applications.
The Ukrainian Startup Fund is a state fund established at the initiative of the Cabinet of Ministers. Its purpose is to provide financing to technology companies in the early stages of development (pre-seed and seed).
The Ministry of Digital Transformation has selected 15 technology startups that will represent Ukraine at Startup Grind Global 2020, the tenth global conference of entrepreneurs and investors in Silicon Valley. According to the organizers, the results of the competition have demonstrated great potential for the development of Ukraine as a technological IT center.
“The competition made it possible to select the most interesting and promising Ukrainian startups. The experience of the Competitive Economy of Ukraine [CEU] program in supporting Ukrainian startups in global technological events testifies to the interest of foreign investors in the products of Ukrainian startups,”, USAID CEU Program Deputy Chief Olesya Zaluska told reporters during a pitch in Kyiv last week.
Following the results of the competition, a list of startups-finalists who will be included in the Ukrainian delegation was compiled:
1. Let`s Enhance – Improving Image Quality with Machine Learning;
2. Replay.io – A multi-channel sales platform that automates contacts using emails, calls and tasks;
3. Legal Nodes – A global marketplace for the technology business, with the help of which the founder or legal adviser of a technology company can contact a lawyer that is most relevant to legal needs and financial capabilities;
4. Poptop – The leading marketplace for booking performers of various kinds and locations for events in real time;
5. Delfast – Electric bicycles;
6. Animal ID – Service for the identification of animals;
7. Kray Technology – A drone that helps to increase crop yields and reduce the amount of fertilizer in the agricultural sector;
8. Costless – A personal shopping assistant who helps to make smart decisions, saving money, time and energy. It provides agencies, brands and retailers with real-time analytics, forecasts of changes in prices and volumes of consumption, information on consumer behavior;
9. AxDraft – Helps to draw up legal documents 10 times faster, avoiding mistakes and increasing the efficiency of the legal department by 25%, delegating part of the legal work to “non-lawyers” without risks;
10. Effa – An environment-friendly toothbrush made of paper and environmentally friendly materials as a “green” alternative to disposable plastic brushes;
11. Pix – A backpack with support for animation;
12. Nuka – Creates a convenient way to record. The first product is a waterproof perpetual notebook with the ability to clean sheets. It can be fully synchronized with the nuka mobile application. The second product is an eternal pencil;
13. CamTouch – A complex that allows you to turn any flat surface into an interactive one and control it using a laser pointer or a special stylus;
14. ActiveChat – A service for creating virtual assistants;
15. ADAM – 3D bioprinting of organic bone structures.
Startups-winners will receive the right to participate in the conference in the United States, own exhibition booth, promos, PR support from the organizers and reimbursement of financial costs for logistics.
More than 160 Ukrainian startups fought for the right to participate in the conference, of which 25 applicants were selected who presented their products to the jury during the Open Call Pitch Event in Kyiv in the evening on December 19.
“Of the 160 applications received, more than 50 startups are ready to attract foreign investment and bring their products to new markets,” Startup Grind Kyiv Chapter Director Kateryna Dehtyar said.
According to Startup Grind Kyiv Chapter Co-Director Hannah Zenn, Ukrainian startups that are on the delegate list have great potential to attract Seed and A-round investments, find customers among U.S. companies such as Facebook, Deloitte, Target, BMW, CISCO, as well as partners for further growth.
The competition was held jointly with Startup Grind Kyiv (the official representative of the Startup Grind international startup ecosystem) with the support of the USAID CEU Program.
