As Ukraine's technology startups struggle to connect with Silicon Valley investors, their fellow countrymen in London are trying to open doors in the U.K. investor community.
To get the ball rolling, Ukrainians Serhiy Burnus and Oleksiy Kolchanov organized the Ukrainian Startups Roadshow at three London locations on July 23-25.
Taking place at Bloomberg headquarters, Google Campus, and Deloitte Digital Studio, 10 early-stage technology startups from Ukraine presented their products to an audience of almost 250 business people and investors.
Around 70 percent of the visitors were Ukrainians, most of them based in London. Professional investors from venture capital firms, investment banks and investment funds accounted for 20-40 percent of the visitors, depending on the day of the event.
It took lawyers, Burnus, 33, currently living in London, and Kolchanov, 28, based in Kyiv, slightly more than half a year to organize the event.
“The most difficult thing was to find enough time to dedicate to organizing activities so that it wouldn’t harm our jobs,” Kolchanov said. All organizational and administrative expenses, like setting up the event’s website, organizing communications with partners, and catering services, cost the pair $800.
The startups covered their own travel and accommodation expenses, while Bloomberg, Google, and Deloitte each agreed to provide their venues for the event free of charge. According to Burnus, five volunteers also helped the pair organize the three-day roadshow, and no outside sponsors helped with expenses.
Organizers personally chose which companies would pitch their products.
“We wanted to present projects with various levels of development, from some elementary idea stages to young businesses that have already had some financial results,” Kolchanov said.
Each startup had a set amount of time to present their projects while following a standard roadshow format. The purpose was for Ukraine’s most promising startups to gain some exposure, Burnus said.
“We just felt Ukraine is unrepresented in the U.K., and we wanted to showcase the best ideas and projects,” he told the Kyiv Post.
Burnus has lived in the U.K. since 2010 when he came to study law, and after he completed his studies he found a job there. Asked why he had spent so much time and resources on such an event, Burnus said he was passionate about promoting Ukraine abroad.
“I follow all of Ukraine’s achievements in various spheres. Technology is the most successful one, and it’s worth highlighting it and promoting it abroad,” he said. “Young (Ukrainian) entrepreneurs have got some bright ideas and skills that investors find attractive to invest in, and I just want to help expose these talents and draw the attention of U.K. businesses to the Ukrainian technology market.”
The roadshow was not the first of Burnus’ initiatives: In 2012, he started a volunteering project called Ukrainian Events in London to promote Ukrainian culture, language, history, business and education initiatives via range of events.
Then late last year, together with Kolchanov, Burnus founded a non-profit organization in London called Ukrainian Startup Hub – the official organizer of the roadshow.
“We’re in process of formalizing the entity’s structure and membership, and will complete registration in the near future, so it can also serve as a representative body for Ukrainian startups, providing legal and promotional support,” Burnus said.
Oksana Borysenko, the CEO at one of the participating startups EnableTalk, said that her team had collected a lot of valuable feedback and contacts interested in their startup. EnableTalk is developing sensor-equipped gloves that can convert sign language gestures into speech output via a mobile phone. The project took first prize at the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition in 2012. The device still needs a lot more work before it can hit the market.
“There were lots of questions, useful recommendations, interest from potential investors, and offers to introduce us to British (and non-British) organizations of deaf-mute and autistic people,” said Borysenko.
Ivan Pasichnyk, the CEO of startup Ecoisme, which works on energy consumption efficiency solutions, was another event participant. Pasichnyk said he had made some very useful contacts at the London office of Deloitte.
“In Ukraine, Deloitte helps only with financial matters. In London I found out about their operations with innovational projects, and high-risk startups,” Pasichnyk said. “Deloitte Digital (a department at Deloitte in London) could become a bridge between startups and big companies, which is very much needed in the very beginning, when startups are just looking for new clients and partners.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Bozhena Sheremeta can be reached at [email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by AVentures Capital, Ciklum, FISON and SoftServe.
