IDCEE 2014: Ukraine - The Next Startup Nation - Aviram Eisenberg (CEO @ Ignite)
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Ukraine – the next startup nation Investor Day Central and Eastern Europe, Kyiv 2014 Aviram Eisenberg
Transcript of IDCEE 2014: Ukraine - The Next Startup Nation - Aviram Eisenberg (CEO @ Ignite)
Ukraine – the next startup nation
Investor Day Central and Eastern Europe, Kyiv 2014
Aviram Eisenberg
The First Time I Came to Ukraine…
8 Years ago I came to Ukraine for the first time…
I put on a nice suit (so I thought) and shopped for a good development partner
Everybody was talking with me about the IT Industry (and I thought this “High-Tech” with Russian accent
IT = Selling Development Services High-Tech = Selling Developed Products
How do we turn the IT industry to High-Tech (and not just by changing the accent)
* according to the World Bank
About Me
Father of 3 wonderful children
High-Tech professional for the last 30 years
- Computer geek in my teenage days- Platoon commander in the Army Intelligence (computer related)- Computer Science Graduate from the Technion- Chief Architect at Mind CTI- Founder and CEO Of Ignite – a global IT company- Chairman of the Israeli R&D Managers forum
Lives in Kiev (Ukraine is my second home!)
* according to the World Bank
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Country History
66 years
22,072 km2
23 years
603,628 km2
Territory
Age
Population
8,14 mln 44,29 mln
Israel - Silicon Valley in the East
spend the highest percentage of GDP on scientific R&D: 4.4% compared to 2.7% for the United States
R&D centers of Intel, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, IBM, etc.
19 companies listed on London Stock Exchange
combined market capitalization on LSEG $6.9 billion
62 companies are traded on NASDAQ, totaling $ 36 billion
* according to the World Bank
Israel is the Startup Nation
Tel-Aviv comes is #2 in the top startup ecosystems in the world
450-500 startups are established every year
each month 10 companies move to New York
distributed and powerful angel investors network
most venture capital per capita: 2.5 times more than the U.S. and 30 times more than Europe
How Did it Start?
But, it was not always like that!
30 years ago Israel’s was very much like Ukraine – selling IT services to the USA
The Israeli Army produced excellent developers
International companies came to shop for good (and cheap) developers and established branches (Motorola, then Intel, them Microsoft…)
With time, developers left the big companies and started small innovative product companies in the same vertical
Investor-friendly government policy brought more big companies
How Did it Start?
Few startups were sold to international companies
Then came the VCs and the private investors
And the rest is history…
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Startup ecosystem
70
2000
7
50
500 +
Angel investors
VC funds
Active startups
5000 +
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High motivation for High Education
Israel
2nd most educated country
“Technion” took 7th place in the ranking of the best universities in the world
Jewish Mom factor (you can do better, sonny!)
Ukraine
16K IT graduates annually
4-5K (25%) of new comers are employed in the specialty
4th of certified IT professionals in the global rank
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Individualistic and entrepreneurial spirit
Wars
10 wars (every 5-10 years)
1947-1949, 1956, 1967, 1967-1970, 1973, 1982-2000, 2008-2009, 2010, 2012, 2014
Daily living under possible terrorist attacks
now
WarsWars
High level of risk tolerance!
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Hunger to Succeed
Absence of own state
2000 years 1000 years
Each individual has a great desire to determine own destiny!
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Areas of IT Expertise
Israel
Homeland Security - military software
- airport and objects - personal surveillance control
Cyber security
Medical Devices industry
Scientific researches
Ukraine
Programming instruments and platforms
Computer games
anything else you heard of?
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Conclusion - Ukraine’s Strengths
High motivation for High Education
Individualistic and entrepreneurial spirit
Hunger to Succeed
It's rebirth time for Ukraine. Let's help her to overcome the challenges and make the new startup-hub!
