LVIV, Ukraine – Prominent Ukrainian capital investors and business angels discussed their algorithms for investing in Ukraine’s tech industry at the Lviv IT Arena conference on Oct. 1.
And all agreed that the process of investing, either in big tech companies or small startups, could be made simpler and easier if the government did its part by passing better laws and improving the economy.
The help of investors is almost always needed to develop young companies, according to Horizon Capital CEO Lenna Koszarny. She compared California’s Silicon Valley, the desired destination for many IT startups, with the Earth’s highest mountain and said, “If I needed to climb the Everest, I would go with a guide.”
But the creation of partnership between investors and entrepreneurs is not entirely dependent on figures and business plans, she said.
“We look, first of all, at the entrepreneur, at the spark in the eye. We look for passion, we look for energy,” Koszarny said. “Investing is both art and science.”
Digital Future CEO Oleksii Vitchenko agreed: “People are the most important asset in any startup.” However, he said that there’s another important thing startups should have to attract his attention – companies should be focused on global markets.
“We want to invest into something digital that can compete globally,” Vitchenko said.
The Oct. 1 investment panel discussion at the conference was focused on details of putting money into companies, and, according to managing director at HP Tech Ventures Vitaly Golomb, the final goal isn’t only to earn money after investing.
“We’re investing in a third technology revolution,” Golomb said.
And while Andrey Kolodyuk, AVenture Capital’s founder and managing partner, said that there are usually two-three agreements closed with Ukrainian startups every week, Golomb thinks the environment in the country is still far from being perfect.
“I cannot say to a friend of mine, ‘Hey, you should go to Ukraine and invest.’ There’re a lot of things that are still missing.”
Golomb said that it’s his dream to build up links between the Silicon Valley and Ukraine. “That’s why I came here and invested my time,” he said.
Alexander Galitsky, whose AlmazCapital has invested in more than 30 companies globally, including $3.6 million investment into Ukrainian pet-monitoring device developer Petcube, told the audience that despite the fact that an idea can be born in any place around the world, he would only invest in companies that were registered in countries with developed legislature.
“(Ukraine) needs to make laws to support technology (companies),” Galitsky said. He also said more of Ukraine’s budget should be devoted to developing information technology.
“Silicon Valley happened because of government money – not private,” he said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Denys Krasnikov can be reached at [email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by Beetroot, Ciklum and SoftServe. The content is independent of the donors.
