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Why Is Ukraine a Hotbed of HR Tech?
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In researching HR tech, I keep coming across startups founded in Ukraine. There are companies like Party.Space (which creates 3D virtual events), Skyworker (an app to help tech workers effortlessly get their next job), NuWork (which helps companies improve the screening process for blue-collar jobs), and PeopleForce (an all-in-one HRIS suite). Other companies are listed at the end of this article.
Meanwhile, outside of HR, there are the more famous Ukrainian tech startups such as GitLab, People.ai, and Grammarly.
Why are there so many tech startups in Ukraine?
Great depth of technical tale. One thing the old Soviet system excelled at was good technical education. Ukraine has kept that educational excellence and generated a lot of technical talent. According to research by Skyworker, there are 220,000 tech professionals in Ukraine, and the number is growing by about 10,000 each year. Furthermore, English fluency is good; 57% of candidates in the Skyworker system have upper-intermediate fluency in English. As a result, it’s relatively easy to assemble the talent you need to launch technology startups.
The processes for hiring technical talent need to be improved. Around the world, both companies and tech workers find the hiring process frustrating. This creates a need for solutions in an area that technology entrepreneurs are familiar with and eager to fill. Many of the HR tech startups in Ukraine focus on improving the process of hiring technical talent.
Motivation. The economy of Ukraine is not that big or that strong. Entrepreneurs located there are eager to develop businesses that can evolve to play in the global marketplace. That said, companies can do very well in the regional market. PeopleForce founder Andrew Cetinic moved from Australia to Ukraine to launch an HRIS company aimed at meeting the needs of the CIS countries (essentially, ex-USSR countries).
The evolution of a start-up ecosystem. A start-up ecosystem has evolved in Ukraine to support new businesses. For example, a few years ago the Ukrainian Startup Fund was established to support pre-seed and seed startups with grants. In 2021 Ukraine hosted a pavilion at the WebSummit tech conference. And there are dozens of local tech communities like Silicon Drinkabout Kyiv. Also, the tax and regulatory regimes in Ukraine make it easy to launch a startup. And finally, there is excellent support from the nation’s universities.
Finally, the HR tech field in Ukraine is more broadly a reminder of how global the world is and how much entrepreneurial capability exists outside of the familiar places like the U.S., Japan, Germany, the U.K., and Canada. It’s a great thing to see so much talent flowering around the world, that’s worthy of celebration.
| Company | Description |
| 4HIRES | Provides job-seekers with a personal career agent who takes care of all the tasks associated with finding a job |
| Casers | A unique service where individuals can work on real problems for companies to build their work experience |
| Hirio | Automates core parts of recruitment, including screening, coordinating, and assessment of candidates with the help of advanced AI technologies |
| Hurma | Automates HR processing and recruitment |
| Morbax HR | Automatically sources, pre-selects, and evaluates candidates before an interview and shortlists the best-matched candidates |
| Nuwork | Automates routine recruitment processes |
| Party.Space | Hosts stunning online team parties or full-fledged corporate celebrations with virtual 3D party spaces |
| PeopleForce | Provides all-in-one HRM software |
| Skyworker | Makes tech hiring faster by creating a happy place for tech candidates |
| StudyDive | A platform for employee development plans |
| Talantly | Helps hi-tech employers scale up their recruitment by relocating candidates from Eastern Europe and helps east-European tech professionals find the best job opportunities in Europe |