Several startups from Ukraine were present at the fourth edition of the Ukraine Resilience Business Forum last week, highlighting their data expertise and looking for opportunities to build
bridges with Luxembourg.
As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its fifth year, the Ukrainian economy remains
both resilient and innovative. Ukraine’s deputy finance minister Olga Zykova, speaking at the
fourth edition of the Ukraine Resilience Business Forum in Luxembourg on Wednesday, noted
that after a contraction in 2022 and 2023, the country’s economy has returned to growth – and
sustained it. Real GDP growth in Ukraine came to 1.8% to 2.2% for 2025, said the International
Monetary Fund.
Ukraine’s startup scene is part of that sustained growth. According to the Ministry of Digital Transformation, there are over 2,600 startups in the country, and the value of Ukraine’s startup ecosystem last year reached $25 billion. Several companies with Ukrainian roots have become unicorns over the past few years, such as Grammarly, Preply, and Fintech-IT Group (the developer behind the neobank Monobank). UFORCE, a manufacturer of unmanned systems founded by Ukrainians and based in London, on 5 March came out of stealth mode and announced the close of its seed round and a $1 billion valuation, making it Ukraine’s first defence tech unicorn.
What Ukrainian startups have to offer
Several startups from Ukraine made the trip to Luxembourg this week to participate in the forum, which was organised by the Luxembourg-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce. Robert Liebl, business community relations manager at the LUCC, said that the idea was to give Ukrainian startups exposure to a different ecosystem and to highlight some of Luxembourg’s advantages, like its central location and support system. The grand duchy, he pointed out, has programmes like Fit4Start and Fit4Scale to help companies take off, and startups also had the opportunity to meet with experts from the House of Entrepreneurship. These companies are “born in Ukraine, but we believe that Luxembourg offers a good path because of the tech support. If they have aspirations for the EU market,” he added, “Luxembourg’s not a bad place to start.”
One of the startups that was at the conference was Input Soft. Represented by CEO Anastasiia Smyk, Input Soft is a web platform for managing resources and ground operations at airports. It aims to streamline processes, improve performance, and reduce operational costs. “Our system can work with any third-party providers inside airports: ground handling companies, fuel, catering,” she explained. The system looks at different types of resources – whether that’s check-in staff or equipment, for instance – and calculates the number of employees or units of equipment that are needed. “Then in real-time, we connect to the satellite data provider, collect data about processes on the ground, and invoice the airlines. Everything is covered in our dashboard of analytics.”
The company was founded in 2022 and landed its first client – Odesa Airport – on 23 February 2022, said Smyk. But Russia launched its full-scale war the next day, and operations at Ukrainian airports have been suspended since then; people – including the conference participants – travel to and from Ukraine by car, bus, or train. (It’s a 22-hour drive from Kyiv to Luxembourg City.) “After that, we struggled a bit, trying to understand what to do.” The industry in Ukraine doesn’t exist for the moment, so the company had to adapt and look abroad for new clients. “Now we have clients in Africa, in the US, in Spain, for example.” Luxembourg is at the centre of Europe, Smyk noted, and added that she hoped to make contacts with Cargolux, Luxair, and other logistic hubs that could benefit from Input Soft’s solution.
Generect was another data-dependent Ukrainian startup at the forum. Also founded in 2022, the company focuses on B2B data for sales. The story behind the startup? “Our founder, Andrii Kolpakov, was working in the US, and he always had a problem with finding new contacts, because people had old databases, or they weren’t working. So he decided to make a platform where people can go to find contacts,” explained marketing manager Mariia Nikolenko. Now, she added, Generect provides emails, names, numbers, or locations of people or companies. The platform allows clients to verify emails and build target lists to make more meaningful connections. Generect last June was selected by the Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund, which includes funding, mentorship, and product support.
Data, artificial intelligence, and quantum technologies are three areas of innovation that Luxembourg aims to advance to stimulate its economy, according to the government’s data strategy. The Ukrainian startup Actual Armor covers two of those points with its solution, which offers an AI platform for open-source intelligence (OSINT), narrative mapping, and coordinated responses. The company analyses data across media, social platforms, and videos, transforms it with AI, collects the metrics that clients need, suggests action, and generates reports, explained CTO Oleksandr Didus. “Dashboards are highly customisable, so clients can choose which metrics they need.” Founded about a year ago, Actual Armor’s solution can be used by journalists, OSINT researchers, fact-checkers, educators, public watchdogs, think tanks, and research institutions, as well as players in the defence and ICT domains, thus contributing to resilience and information integrity in several sectors.
Luxembourg startups also present
But exchanges at the conference were not unidirectional. Startups based in the grand duchy were also present at the LUCC forum. Ben Kim, head of business development at Data Design Engineering, highlighted the possibilities that Luxembourg offers, particularly when it comes to space initiatives and growth opportunities in Europe. Founded in South Korea in 2014, the company is now based at the Technoport in Esch-sur-Alzette. “Luxembourg is the ideal place, because the support we receive from the government, from the ecosystem here, is amazing. That’s why we decided to move the headquarters to Luxembourg.” Data Design Engineering works in the railway, defence, and manufacturing sectors – and is even setting up a robot at the National Library.
“We do offline AI, which means AI models that are compressed and lightweight. That’s the biggest differentiator compared to competitors,” said Kim, as it allows the use of smaller and cheaper chips. The startup’s drones work without GPS, he added, and they’re already being flown in factories and logistic hubs, where they’re used for inventory management and inspection. But their lightweight aspect, the fact that the drones don’t require GPS, and their decentralised nature are partly why Data Design Engineering is also working with Luxembourg’s directorate of defence on projects like the Drone Coalition, which aims to equip Ukraine’s defence industry by providing drones and components. Whilst the drones are not yet in the field in Ukraine, Kim said it’s “in progress.”
The Luxembourg-based satellite connectivity provider OQ Technology – also present with a booth at the conference – at the end of February received €25 million in venture debt financing from the European Investment Bank. Their solutions help boost resilience around the world by providing connectivity, particularly in regions with little or no coverage, explained sales & business development coordinator Jean-Baptiste Monnais. This can be especially useful in hard-to-reach areas like the open seas or in deserts, or when there’s an emergency or natural catastrophe. These are aspects that could help support defence needs and enhance satcom capabilities in battlefields, OQ Technology noted last year when members of the Ukrainian army visited the company.
Resilience: an “immune response”
Bringing together government representatives from various countries, international organisations, investors, and business leaders, the forum also covered the challenges faced by the media and energy sectors and how they’re adapting to remain resilient, issues in technology transfer and how to break down barriers, and the role that municipalities will play in Ukraine’s reconstruction.
“Over the next decade, rebuilding Ukraine will require over €500 billion in recovery and reconstruction investment. Luxembourg can play a vital role in turning that into structured projects and funding,” said Martin Boehm, senior advisor to the LUCC board. International financial institutions like the European Investment Bank have already mobilised funding for Ukraine – but more can and must be done.
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine started in 2014 with the invasion of Crimea and became a full-scale war in 2022. During that time, resilience has evolved and become almost “autoimmune,” said deputy finance minister Zykova, comparing Ukraine’s response to that of a person’s immune system fighting an infection. “The system does not merely endure shocks, but actively identifies, neutralises, and transforms them into drivers of renewal. Ukraine’s economic system, confronted with existential threat, has developed what I would call an institutional immune response.”
“The greater the pressure, the more precise the response becomes, and over time, this builds something very important for partners, donors, and investors: predictability under uncertainty, concluded Zykova. “That, ultimately, is the highest form of economic resilience.”
