Ukraine has been defending its territories as well as human lives for over a year and a half. Since then, the lives of a million people and the country’s IT sector have changed. Tech companies have felt a significant crisis; some lost fruitful contracts as it has been difficult to develop products and attract significant investments. Sergey Tokarev, an IT investor and co-founder of the technology company Roosh, commented on global issues in IT and noticed the valuable trends to increase investments in Ukrainian IT.
According to the latest stats in the IT sector, the export of services in Q1 2023 fell by 16% compared to Q1 2022. Sergey Tokarev underlines two factors revealing such a contrast in numbers. On the one hand, Ukrainian IT needed more force and investments to develop and promote their products. Considering the daily risks because of the war, many investors and partners refuse to collaborate with Ukrainian outsourcing companies. On the other hand, another factor involves the impact of massive layoffs in the IT area in tech giants.
Tokarev believes that conveying to the international community the adaptability of the Ukrainian industry to wartime conditions, where specialists are giving their utmost effort and creating innovative technological solutions, is crucial. This resilience ensures that the quality and timeliness of work remain unaffected by military operations. According to Tokarev, highlighting this aspect will help regain contracts, particularly for IT companies currently situated in Ukraine.
Despite the fears and challenges, Ukrainian tech companies have been looking for a way to save their reputation and attract investors. Sergey Tokarev mentions that many companies opened offices in other countries, though the main office is still in Ukraine. Thus, they do their best to expand their network and reach the global market.
The entrepreneur believes this can become a stable trend for attracting new investments and increasing Ukrainian IT development abroad. He emphasizes that creating venture funds might help tech companies appeal to more investors and partners. According to Tokarev, MilTech startups are making strides in Ukraine because of the war conditions. There is a high demand for defense-tech solutions that can be tested in real conditions. Moreover, such approvals of IT military products are seen right in place for the whole world.
At the same time, Sergey Tokarev underlines the importance of combining such projects with a particular tech education. This will help strengthen the practical part of education. The investor exemplifies SET University as an excellent option to get the required knowledge to come up with solutions the IT companies need.
The investor pointed out that once students finish university, it’s important for them to know their goals, what options they have, and how to move forward. To make this happen, the investor recommended that students should be allowed to work on real business problems while they’re still in school.
Lately, there has been a growing concern about the possibility of AI replacing humans, particularly with the substantial advancements in AI tools such as ChatGPT. Sergey Tokarev believes that AI isn’t here to replace experts but to help them. It was initially designed to make work easier and handle tedious tasks. AI is also great at handling huge amounts of data that would be overwhelming for a human. So, considering these advantages, we should embrace AI as a valuable tool to do our work faster and more effectively.
Recently, Sergey Tokarev along with AI House organized a tech event from 11 to 15 September and he invited all Ukrainian AI experts to attend the event. The entrepreneur believes that Ukraine will show rapid growth in the IT sector in the post-war period. The country has every chance of becoming a powerful hub in AI and ML in Europe.
