The Business Week for the week of May 11-17, 2020

The Business Week for the week of May 11-17, 2020

RETAIL

UkraineInvest if pleased to welcome the IKEA online store in Ukraine!

Swedish IKEA enters Ukraine’s marketplace with its online retail store, where starting from today the customers can order the products online. IKEA offers well-designed, functional and affordable, high-quality home furnishing, produced with care for the environment.

IKEA is the world’s largest home furnishing retailer and its arrival in Ukraine gives a strong signal as the company is well-known for its strict anti-corruption policy and strong company culture. UkraineInvest team was happy to assist and lead IKEA through the process of entering Ukraine and delighted to see the company’s official online store, where Ukrainian customers are able to buy high-quality products for the convenient prices. 

“I am very pleased to share the news that IKEA’s retail website is going live today, confirming our long-time commitment to bringing home furnishing products of great design, function, form and price closer to the many people in Ukraine. This marks the official start of IKEA business in the country – a huge milestone for our company. This would not be possible without the invaluable support our team has been receiving from UkraineInvest on every step of our journey, ” says Florian Mellet Market Manager IKEA Ukraine.


INVESTMENT

Chinese ZTE Corporation to become the first resident of the next-gen multi-industry business park “Ecopolis HTZ” in Kharkiv

🤝 DCH and Chinese ZTE Corporation signed the Memorandum of Cooperationunder the Ecopolis HTZ project. Chinese ZTE Corporation has become the first business resident of the Ecopolis HTZ industrial and technology park in Kharkiv. The company is planning to establish its office, R&D center, and production site on the base of Ecopolis HTZ. 


Ukraine offers a massive labor pool of highly skilled and talented tech workers as well as a wide industrial and scientific base, which allows companies to boost innovation and productivity. “It is a great honor for ZTE to become a part of the Ecopolis HTZ innovative business ecosystem. The key idea of this initiative is efficiency and high-tech development. And it is in tune with the ZTE’s main tasks in Ukraine and in the global market,” says Xue Bin, the Vice President of ZTE Corporation. 


ZTE Corporation provides advanced telecommunications systems, mobile devices and tech solutions to consumers, telecom operators worldwide. The company’s products and services are used by more than 500 operators in more than 160 countries. Ecopolis HTZ is the next-gen multi-industry business park and a long-term investment project of DCH, aimed at developing a new innovative world-class ecosystem for business development and research. 


INNOVATION TECHNOLOGIES

Grammarly invested in US startup Docugami


Ukrainian unicorn Grammarly invested in the Seattle-based company Docugami. Docugami uses an array of AI techniques to end the document dysfunction and help businesses of all sizes create critical business documents with greater precision and efficiency so they can derive greater productivity, compliance, and insight from their documents and business processes, Grammarly’s press release reads. This is the first Grammarly investment in another company. Grammarly is using an AI-powered writing assistant to help its users to improve their English writing. In 2019 the company attracted $90 million, was evaluated at more than $1 billion and became the unicorn.

How to open an R&D center in Ukraine


Ukraine possesses a massive labor pool of educated and talented IT workers. By opening an R&D division in Ukraine, companies in any vertical can give themselves a major boost in innovation and productivity. More than 100 global players have located their R&D facilities in Ukraine. Ciklum, Microsoft, Amazon`s Ring, EPAM, Intetics, Luxoft, Softjourn, TEAM International Services, Boeing, Siemens, Samsung, Ericsson, Rakuten, Snapchat, Masseeds – all have established R&D centers in Ukraine. TechUkraine explains how to open an R&D center in Ukraine.


FINANCE&BANKING

Ukrainian Parliament passed the banking sector law


The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the bill No. 2571-d “On amendments to the legislative acts of Ukraine on improving some mechanisms for regulation of banking activities” with a majority of votes. The introduced law stipulates changes to the procedure of nationalizing and liquidating banks. It also defines the prerequisites and procedure of compensation for lost profits for the previous owners if the liquidation or nationalization is declared illegal. Such a step brings transparency, economic stability and increases the reliability of the banking sector of Ukraine as well as secures cooperation with the international financial institutions and international partners. The law was a key requirement for Ukraine in order to receive financial assistance from the IMF. 

Central Bank published its annual report for 2019 


The National Bank of Ukraine has published its annual report for 2019 that shows how the economy and financial system of Ukraine changed. Among the key developments in 2019 were:
🔹The lowest inflation rate during the past six years – 4.1%
🔹Ukraine’s international reserves reached a seven-year high
🔹NBU cut its key policy rate five times to 13.5% 
🔹The central bank lifted nearly 40 foreign exchange regulations and restrictions
🔹Non-cash payments became more popular

💰 Ukraine sells more than UAH 19 billion worth of government bonds


The Ukrainian government had a few successful weeks in auctioning bonds after a long break. On May 12, the Ministry of Finance sold UAH 13 billion worth of 3-month hryvnia bonds with an average weighted yield at 11,26% and UAH 6,3 billion worth of 6-month bonds at 11,28%. Overall, the Ukrainian government has attracted more than UAH 19 billion, which is twice more than the previous week.


AEROSPACE

The State Space Agency of Ukraine is launching an online program for startups in aerospace

The State Space Agency of Ukraine is launching the online program Yangel Big Bang for the startups with the focus on aerospace technologies. The platform is aimed at helping to prepare the startups for Yangel Accelerator planned to start this autumn. The selected teams will get a chance to learn how to pitch their product, choose the best business model, and test their product hypothesis. The best projects will gain the opportunity to participate in a 12-week accelerator program in Kyiv. 
💡 Yangel Big Bang is looking for space tech ideas in:
▪️manufacturing and launching of satellites, space data and its analysis
▪️design and construction of spacecraft, use of new materials and energy, cargo delivery and training of astronauts
▪️spaceports, ground stations for signal reception, as well as everything related to the transmission, encryption and storage of information from space
▪️popular science and educational projects, as well as the future of space exploration: colonization, resource extraction, tourism and robotics.


AVIATION

Kyiv Boryspil International Airport is among the best airports in Eastern Europe


Kyiv Boryspil Airport is ranked 4th place in the category of best airports in Eastern Europe, according to the 2020 World Airports Awards published by Skytrax. Budapest, Bucharest and Tallinn airports are among the leaders in Eastern Europe. The survey evaluates traveler experiences across different airport service and product key performance indicators – from check-in, arrivals, transfers, shopping, security and immigration through to departure at the gate. Earlier Boryspil Airport was listed among the top 40 largest airports in Europe under quarantine amid COVID-19.


DELIVERY

Food delivery services keep expanding in Ukraine


While quarantine measures amid COVID-19 extend, food delivery services keep enlarging. Food delivery service Glovo has launched in Kryvyi Rih as it continues to gradually expand across Ukraine. Spanish Glovo entered the Ukrainian market in 2018 and Kryvyi Rih became the 20th Ukrainian city to host the service. Currently, more than 40 thousand couriers are connected to the platform and over 3 thousand places are available for orders and online delivery. Another Ukrainian online food delivery service Raketa also starts operating in Kryvyi Rih. Kryvyi Rih is going to be the 11th Ukrainian city for Raketa, which has been operating in Ukraine since March 2018. The company will deliver the orders for free during the first month of its work.