For the second time in a row, Ukraine participated and presented its pavilion at Web Summit, one of the largest IT conferences in the world, which is held annually in Lisbon, Portugal. This year the event brought together more than 70,000 participants from all over the world.
The presentation of the Ukrainian sector began with a panel discussion focused on the development of business in an uncertain time. Speaking to the summit attendees, Roosh Founding Partner Sergey Tokarev noted that companies should nurture the system they grow and evolve in. That is, entrepreneurs should take greater care of their personnel, as well as society as a whole, the international community, and also pay attention to education and public infrastructure development.
Thousands of IT experts, venture capitalists and business angels, CEOs and founders of companies, politicians, media outlets, as well as opinion shapers in the IT world annually become participants in the Web Summit technology conference dedicated to the development of the IT sector and emerging technologies. In 2022, Olena Zelenska opened the event. During her speech, the First Lady of Ukraine noted that the creation of technologies should be aimed at inventing new useful things and helping humanity, and not at destroying people’s lives.
Besides Sergey Tokarev, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Oleksandr Bornyakov, Head of Product Pawa Tetyana Yaroshenko, and Deputy Chief of Party, USAID Justice for All Program Natalia Petrova were among the speakers of the Ukrainian pavilion at the conference held on November 1-4.
Their speeches were focused on how to help businesses survive in crisis situations, especially during wartime, as well as how to find ways for their development. In addition, experts discussed the impact of crises on the IT labor market in Ukraine and developing processes for startups.
In his address, Sergey Tokarev emphasized that he had always dreamed of seeing Ukraine as the largest Eastern European hub for projects created on the basis of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). That is why he, together with his partners, decided to create a full-blown tech ecosystem.
In addition to Roosh Ventures, this ecosystem includes AI HOUSE, a project that trains professionals in the field of AI and ML and helps them in creating a community, venture studio Pawa, SET University in Kyiv, as well as startups Reface and Zibra AI developed on the basis of AI technologies.
Roosh Ventures is a venture capital firm helping startups to find incentives to grow and scale up. The company’s mentors share their experience with aspiring founders and help them access the resources and funds they need to successfully boost their business.
According to Roosh Ventures founder, he took the risk of launching this project even in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and all the restrictions that followed it, because he was confident that Ukraine was able to cope with all the challenges, as it had repeatedly proved.
According to Sergey Tokarev, Ukraine has become the embodiment of bravery, strength, and will of steel and has already shown the power of cooperation to the world community. In his opinion, the war emphasized the need for entrepreneurship to nurture the system it grows and evolves in.
He also stressed that business should remain Ukrainian and work on the development of the state. According to the entrepreneur, the only way to face the challenges that the country has to cope with is by uniting.