When edtech firm Preply turned a unicorn earlier this 12 months, workers in its Kyiv workplace celebrated with cake — as a result of that’s what you do, even in the course of a conflict.
Within the 4 years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of their nation, Ukrainian startups have executed greater than survive: they’re nonetheless constructing and rising. Preply, as an example, will use the proceeds of its newest spherical to hire some 100 engineers throughout its world groups — together with in Ukraine, the place one-third of its engineering workers relies.
Preply is one instance amongst many. Protection tech has grabbed probably the most consideration, particularly for the pace at which improvements attain the battlefield. However the identical engineering expertise and ingenuity are rising as a standard denominators throughout sectors that additionally contribute to strengthening Ukraine.
With Ukraine going through a far bigger attacker, the nation takes a dim view of efforts to flee mobilization. Nevertheless, startups may be granted particular standing that shields key workers from the draft if they’re deemed to help the nation — and Aspichi is one in every of them, its founder, Victor Samoilenko, advised TechCrunch.
Initially created within the U.S. in 2021, the corporate fully pivoted when the conflict began. It’s now greatest recognized for Luminify, a mixed-reality platform for mental health care that has been serving to Ukrainians deal with wartime trauma. The startup collaborates straight with army items in addition to with a dozen clinics that present psychological well being help to the inhabitants.
There are troopers and veterans, bereaved households, and hundreds of thousands who’ve moved to western Ukraine or overseas. And for many who have all the time lived in Kyiv, the psychological toll isn’t any much less horrendous.
“All people is struggling,” Samoilenko mentioned. “My daughter celebrated a number of New 12 months’s and Christmas underground; so the impact is big.”
Techcrunch occasion
Boston, MA
|
June 9, 2026
In a winter marked by near-daily assaults on the ability grid, Ukraine’s capital hasn’t been spared. In accordance with Natali Trubnikova, CMO at Kyiv-based IT consultancy agency Gart Solutions, locals have tailored to energy cuts with high-capacity energy banks, gasoline stoves, and diesel turbines. However rising prices imply they nonetheless have to make use of these sparingly, usually maintaining indoor temperatures to a strict minimal.
These harsh circumstances have turned places of work into refuges from the chilly.
“Our workplace has totally different turbines so now we have electrical energy, web, and the workplace is heat and it’s open 24/7 so any Ukrainian crew member can come to the workplace at any time,” Preply CEO Kirill Bigai advised TechCrunch final month.
For smaller startups, coworking areas have additionally turn out to be havens. LIFT99 Kyiv Hub, a six-year-old venue that suffered damage from a Russian strike final August, has seen its membership numbers surge since its reopening two months in the past, its gross sales and partnership supervisor Lada Samarska wrote on LinkedIn.
Regardless of missile strikes, Kyiv is way sufficient from the frontline to stay Ukraine’s important startup hub, however it’s not the one one. Lviv, the biggest metropolis in western Ukraine, has drawn many displaced Ukrainians — tech employees amongst them. LEM Station, a renovated tram depot turned artistic area, is a logo of its rising ecosystem, which has additionally benefited from its proximity to the Polish border.
International guests have been fewer, however with Lviv nonetheless reachable by practice, tech convention IT Enviornment 2025 brought 6,450 participants from greater than 40 nations to town. Protection tech had its personal stage, however the occasion additionally showcased help for a wider vary of startups. Regardless of the conflict, VC corporations stay energetic within the nation, together with 1991, Flyer One Ventures, and SMRK.
Regardless of the lengthy journey, Ukrainians are nonetheless making the journey to tech conferences overseas too. At Techarena in Stockholm earlier this month, members of a Ukrainian delegation advised TechCrunch they had been drained and ready for the spring. However earlier than saying goodbye, they began itemizing Ukraine’s unicorns — as a result of that’s what you do, even in the course of a conflict.
