You're reading: Report: Ukrainian startups attract $132 million in 2015

The Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (UVCA) has released a factbook on Ukraine’s IT ecosystem that says Ukrainian startups attracted 237 percent more investments in 2015 than in 2014.

According to the report, Ukrainian tech startups attracted $132 million via 66 signed agreements last year, while in 2014 Ukrainian companies gained only $33 million in 86 deals.

The average size of a deal at seed stage in 2015 was $400,000, while $101 million out of the total $132 million attracted in 2015 was invested at the startups’ growth stage. Some 48 percent of the total amount of money came from foreign investors.

The figures put Ukraine in second place in the ranking of Central and Eastern European countries by private equity investments to GDP.

“Already at a top of the European IT outsourcing charts, and now a prolific source of international startups, Ukraine is gaining more attention from global investors, but still remains an undercapitalized market compared to other European countries,” UVCA chairman and managing partner at AVentures Capital Andrey Kolodyuk said on June 21.

The most noticeable deals in 2015 included the acquisition of Looksery for $150 million by Snapchat (not included in total figures); Petcube, in which Almaz Capital, AVentures Capital, and Y Combinator invested $2.6 million; and DepositPhotos, which attracted $5.8 million from the EBRD and TMT Investments.

Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Overview 2015 from Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association.

The UVCA was established in 2014 and promotes investment opportunities in Ukraine for foreign investment funds. The association also conducts market research and lobbies for laws to improve the investment and business climate in Ukraine.

Kyiv
Post staff writer Denys Krasnikov can be reached at
[email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by Beetroot, Ciklum,
Steltec Capital, 1World Online and SoftServe. The content is independent of the
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