Over the past year,
Ukraine has seen fewer major technology conferences than in the years
before, with projects like IDCEE and Startup AddVenture being put on
hold. This doesn't mean that the tech entrepreneurship community has
become any less active in trying to connect the infrastructure
players in Ukraine and beyond, however.
On January 27–28,
Kyiv-based business accelerator GrowthUP teamed up with Silicon
Valley Open Doors (SVOD) and Google Ireland to
organize
SVOD
Europe, a conference in Dublin aimed at bringing
together startups and investors from Europe and Silicon Valley.
Held at Google’s
European headquarters, the event gathered more than 400 people
interested in the conference’s main topic: “Unicorn vs Narwhal.
Myth vs Reality.” The word “unicorn” is often used in
the startup community to describe a private company valued at $1
billion or more.
The list of Europe
and U.S.-based keynote speakers and panelists included IBM Venture’s
Deborah Magid, Alexander Galitsky from Almaz Capital, Google
Ireland’s Paddy Flynn, and a number of other prominent VCs,
entrepreneurs and corporates. Comparing starting up on both sides of
the Atlantic, the speakers found differences and similarities,
though agreed on the importance of connecting the two ecosystems.
“Can Europe
compete with U.S. tech startups?” panel discussion at SVOD Europe (Andrii Degeler)
A country with
traditionally strong ties to the U.S., Ireland appeared to be a good
place to hold a discussion of this sort. Together with the UK, it’s
viewed by many entrepreneurs as a connecting link between the two
ecosystems. The governmental authorities, and particularly the
Enterprise Ireland agency, cultivate this image by actively
attracting startups from abroad to move to the country and grow their
business on the Green Island.
“Over the last
couple of years we’ve put a fair bit of effort into trying to attract
very early stage businesses,” Enterprise Ireland’s John O’Dea
told the Kyiv Post. “Last year we ran a competition for overseas
startups [that would like to relocate to Ireland]. We offer €50,000
in funding for 10% equity, and we had 95 applicants.”
This year,
Enterprise Ireland will organize two competitions for startups from
abroad with the same conditions, O’Dea added.
The Irish government has
also sponsored SVOD Europe, providing funding and “a significant
amount of technical and moral support,” SVOD Europe’s executive
director and the founder of GrowthUP Denis Dovgopoliy wrote in a blog
post after the conference.
Looking for the best
Although the
panelists discussed a long list of topics, Dovgopoliy wasn’t
sure whether the main topic had been fully explored.
“I expected it
to be much deeper, but apparently many people still think that the
more money a startup raises, the better,” said Dovgopoliy.
“That’s not our strategy [at GrowthUP]. We want to find a
billion dollar startup, but we’d rather have in our portfolio a
company like LinkedIn or Soundcloud than one like Uber or Airbnb with
an inflated valuation.”
Stas Khirman,
Anna Dvornikova, Denis Dovgopoliy and winners of the startup
competition on stage at SVOD Europe (Andrii Degeler)
Among the startups presented at SVOD Europe, however, were quite a few
“narwhals,” or projects that aren’t raising huge amounts of
money by addressing a hyped topic but demonstrate a “boring” yet functional business model.
“I had a
personal bet with myself that we’ll see at least two Blockchain
companies, but there were not many fintech companies at all,”
said Deborah Magid, Director, Software Strategy at IBM Venture
Capital Group. “But I think one thing I was disappointed in is
that there weren’t so many companies that were really disrupting
their industries.”
The jury of
investors, however, found at least three highly disruptive projects
at the event. In addition to theorizing on the best practices of
growing a business, SVOD Europe hosted a startup competition, where
25 projects chosen before the conference pitched the judges and other
infrastructure players.
Among the winners
announced at the end of the conference was Kyiv-based
Wishround,
which made it to the third place. Founded by Vitaliy Kedyk in 2014,
the startup provides sort of a crowdfunding platform, where your
friends and family can chip in for a birthday present or any other
gift for you. The money from backers can be used with retailers that
Wishround works with.
The second place
went to
Recast,
an Israeli startup that’s working on an app, which will allow anyone
to become a part of a popular movie using only a smartphone with
camera. Recast’s image processing technology will supposedly allow
for seamless cutting an actor from the scene and putting the app user
there instead.
A video demo of the app.
Topping the
international victory podium was
Ourobotics,
a bioprinting startup from Ireland founded by Cork-based researcher
Jemma Redmond. Ourobotics is working on 3D printers that would be
able to print human tissue for a variety of uses. The first printer
that the startup is offering costs about $13,800, which is
significantly less than similar solutions available today. In the
future, Ourobotics plans to build machines able to print human organs
quickly enough to make it useful for medical purposes.
Startup
competition judges at SVOD Europe introduce
themselves to the audience (Andrii Degeler)
All three winners of
the contest will travel to Silicon Valley in May to pitch on the
American edition of SVOD. In addition to that, Ourobotics received a
special prize from Google, which provided €5,000 in AdWords credit
for the winner.
But before the SVOD
conference in the U.S., the Ukrainian part of the organizing team plans
to have another event in Kyiv, which will take place during Kiev
Startup Week in April. Although it probably won’t be as big as some
of the previous gatherings, it could be a sign of the industry getting back on track.
Andrii Degeler can be reached at [email protected]. The
Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by
Ciklum, Steltec Capital, 1World
Online
and SoftServe. The content is
independent of the donors.
