While the United States has given Ukraine dozens of different munitions and weapon systems to fight the war against Russia at the same time, US tech giants are also extending enormous support to the Ukrainian tech companies to survive the war. The support has been so huge that despite the war, Ukrainian startups tripled in combined enterprise value in 2022, growing from €3 billion to €23.3 billion in 3 years. A great milestone for a country going through a war, especially when compared to the Africa and Iraq war situations.
The latest one to join the support list is Mountain View tech giant Google. In March, Google announced a $5M support for Startups under Ukraine Support Fund to allocate equity-free cash awards to back Ukrainian-founded tech companies to strengthen their community and post-war economic recovery. Additionally, it provided Ukrainian startups with mentoring, networking and technical support, and a workspace within the Google for Startups Campus in Warsaw.
And just recently, they announced announced 25 new startup recipients of the Ukraine Support Fund:
- Adwisely – An online tool for digital advertising campaigns to help increase clients’ revenue
- Birb – An apartment rental app to search for the best offers in a user’s favorite neighborhoods
- Book Box – A library service for corporations to provide employees access to books and reading material
- DjookyX – A platform enabling musicians to sell songs’ royalty rights to generate funds for their career
- Drug Cards – A cost-effective software for automated medical literature monitoring
- Folderly – An AI-based platform to improve clients’ email performance
- Fuel Finance – A cloud-based finance department for startups
- Gradual – An online platform for sales specialists to build their professional skills
- Happy Monday – Matches employees with purpose-driven organizations
- Jiffsy – A mobile commerce platform for “slow” fashion brands to help them boost sales
- Kycaid – An online identity verification and compliance management system
- Mama Plant a Tree – A digital service that allows users to plant a tree in one click
- Mate Academy – Tailor-made computer science courses for people who want to start a job in tech
- Mathema – An online math school for students from kindergarten to high school
- NetHunt – A customer relations management system designed for sales teams and integrated with Gmail and LinkedIn
- Numo – An app to support the well-being and productivity of adults with ADHD
- Orderry – Taking local businesses from offline to online to improve their competitiveness
- PeopleForce – HR software for companies to manage employee performance
- Pricer24 – A platform providing brands, distributors and online stores with market analytics
- RECEPTOR.AI – An AI platform enabling pharma and biotech companies to design new drugs more easily
- Sorbsys – Sustainable, low-cost and environmentally friendly carbon battery producer
- Stape – A tool helping website owners and marketers to track customer behavior
- Wantent – An AI-powered platform to measure audience engagement and test video content at all stages of production and distribution
- Workee – A simple personal website builder designed for private tutors and freelancers
- YouControl – Online service for compliance, market analysis, business intelligence and investigation of legal entities
The 33 recipients from the first and second cohorts of the Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund have used the funding and support to expand their businesses and make a tangible impact. Startups like Releaf Paper and VanOnGo expanded to new countries; mental health app Mindly grew its monthly revenue by over 300%; and Esper Bionics was selected as one of the top 200 inventions of 2022 by TIME (with Esper Hand on the cover!).
