Ukrainian investors, accelerators and consulting companies on Aug. 22 founded an association to have international investors park their money in Ukraine’s lucrative technology sector. Called Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (UVCA), it strives to shape “the future direction of the private equity industry by…representing interests of private equity investors to policymakers and improving the investment and business climate in Ukraine,” according to the association's presentation.
UVCA’s founding
meeting was attended by 32 participants representing major investment and
consulting companies such as Horizon Capital, European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development, KM Core, AVentures Capital, Vostok Ventures, Startup.ua,
Capital Times, and EY. The full members list, however, will be published after
the association’s general meeting on Sept. 9.
“There is no doubt
that we will participate in creating UVCA,” said Viktoriya Tigipko, Managing
Director of the TA Venture fund. “Now as never before, it’s important to
consolidate efforts.”
United we stand
Among the
association’s main goals is promoting Ukraine as an attractive destination for
international tech investors despite the tense situation in the country.
“All investors have to
unite and join forces to change the […] perception that war is a deal breaker
for investments,” said Andrey Kolodyuk, Managing Partner at AVentures Capital,
adding that “UVCA should integrate into the global investment network and start
with Europe and become an equal member of EVCA (European Venture Capital
Association) to be present during their annual event in November in
Germany.
“In the long term we
have to work together to facilitate relationships between investors in the
entire value chain from angel, seed, early stage and private equity fund investments,”
he concluded.
AVentures’ Yevgen
Sysoyev noted that international venture funds are eager to have a local
partner and co-investor. He said that such funds as as Intel Capital, Bessemer
Venture Partners, Accel Partners, Almaz Capital, and Siguler&Duff are
screening deals in Ukraine.
Changing the rules
Another important
aspect of the association’s work is to initiate changes in the local
legislation to improve the business and investment climate in Ukraine. UCVA’s
roadmap states that the first such amendment should be submitted to parliament by
the end of 2014, though there are no details of what it will contain.
“We will have a legislation
committee and it will prioritize the amendments in the course of work,”
explained the elected head of UCVA, Jaaneke Merilo, who is also a managing
partner in the recently created association of Ukrainian business angels UAngel.
Andrii Degeler is the Kyiv Post’s information technology reporting fellow. Degeler has been covering the IT business in Ukraine and internationally since 2009. His fellowship is sponsored by AVentures Capital, Ciklum, FISON and SoftServe. He can be reached on Twitter (@shlema) or [email protected].
