The stories emanating from war-torn Ukraine are now legendary, and 4,700 miles away, eight Ukrainian startups, all selected by the Ukrainian Technology Ecosystem, displayed their concepts and innovations 鈥� as well as the nation鈥檚 resilience 鈥� at the Ukrainian Partner Startup Pavilion at the Collision Conference in downtown Toronto.
Delegation Chairperson Ievgenlia Bespalova said 300 companies applied for the chance, and eight were picked 鈥渢o demonstrate the nature of Ukrainian technology.鈥� Organized by a coalition of Ukrainian groups, the delegation helped to arrange travel; secure the exhibit space; and assist with pitches, case studies and presentations to investors. 鈥淥bviously, with a war going on, the Ukrainian government can鈥檛 give money to our startup community 鈥� not when we need to purchase weapons for defense 鈥� and that鈥檚 where our organization steps in to provide support and funding,鈥� Bespalova said.
The path to Canada was no simple feat. 鈥淭here are many places in Ukraine where companies are working with laptops in the dark, even as bombs are falling nearby,鈥� Bespalova said. 鈥淏ut we accept this challenge and keep on working.鈥�
Olga Sushchenko, director of business development for Effa, producers of the world鈥檚 first recyclable and renewable toothbrush made from paper, said her company is 鈥渟till pretty much able to function as though it’s business as usual.鈥� She acknowledged, however, that they鈥檙e having production delays and difficulty getting domestic investments. 鈥淪o that鈥檚 a major reason why we鈥檙e here.鈥�
Despite the problems at home, she said, 鈥淲e have a mission to combat global pollution with disposable plastic, and to us, it鈥檚 a great product that we want to share with the world. At the moment, we鈥檙e still surviving and we鈥檙e still alive, so this is right where we want to be.鈥�
Irina Andriushchenko is the CEO of Handy.ai, an entity that allows companies to automate and improve interaction with people in real time, deploying a language to which each individual can relate through styles and channels of communication that are most convenient to the end user. 鈥淐ollision is such a great place to be for us, especially considering the situation in our country right now,鈥� she said. 鈥淔or us, being here reminds us that we are really a part of global startup community. You cannot possibly imagine what it means for us because it allows us to feel that we are a part of this worldwide growth.
She said the company has gotten feedback from people, including the deputy mayor of Toronto, 鈥渨ho tells us that we have a product that鈥檚 really interesting. Our platform is designed to help workers, and employers but also homeless people, immigrants and others effectively communicate without desks, without computers, in a language that works for them.鈥�
In addition to Effa and Handy.ai, other companies exhibiting in the Ukrainian startup alley include:
- ImageryWard 鈥� a digital image copyright platform based on blockchain and artificial intelligence.
- NanitRobot 鈥� an educational robot for children that can replace 100 toys and 50 kilograms of plastic. It was developed on Scratch and C.
- zeely.app 鈥� a mobile application for business promotion with convenient marketing tools for non-marketers.
- Elai.io 鈥� a text-to-video conversion platform that allows companies to generate educational and marketing video content with human speakers from a single text.
- Jiffsy Platform 鈥� a TikTok-style showcase for online clothing stores built specifically for mobile devices, which doubles sales from mobile phones.
- Harmix 鈥� an intelligent service that automatically selects music to video.
鈥淲ith 3,000 startups in our country, it鈥檚 really important that we are here because we have a really strong emerging market,鈥� Bespalova said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an ecosystem that was growing very quickly and very impressively before the war. Now, we have to keep it going so we can continue that growth once the war is over.
鈥淚n the meantime, we鈥檙e here (in Toronto) to help understand how Ukraine can he useful to the world.鈥�
How鈥檚 that for resilience?
Steve Winter and Kenny Fried are 草莓传媒 contributors who work for, a division of Sage Communications.
