Four Ukrainian Startups Hit the TOP 50 at Startup Grind Global 2020
Startup Grind Global 2020 is a reputable yearly conference where startups have the opportunity to demonstrate their solutions and ideas for the audience as of around ten thousand guests. Such an event usually takes place on ten stages in Silicon Valley. The last is considered the heart of the world startup ecosystem and the homeland for venture capital firms.
The community for entrepreneurs called Startup Grind Kyiv organizes regular events to select the participants for the global conference in Kyiv since 2014. So, let’s discover how all those things happened in 2020.
Achievements of Ukraine in the Conference
In total, Ukraine has introduced thirteen startups at the global event for entrepreneurs and investors Startup Grind Global 2020 in February 2020. We are really proud that four (!) Ukrainian projects hit the Top 50 at the restricted program called Accelerate .
According to the info got at the interviews, the participants of the event commented that the Accelerate program set up this conference. The program was organized specifically for the most revolutionary startups from nineteen countries. The participants were selected from around four thousand applications received from one hundred thirty-three countries.
Besides four Ukrainian startup winners (we’ll reveal the info on that further in the article), it is worth mentioning that the representatives of the Ukrainian delegation received a significant award called Startup Program Heroes. As a rule, such an award is given to the participants of the global conference with the most fundamental preparatory arrangements. So, this year, a 2 millionth network of tech entrepreneurs and venture investors Startup Grind acknowledged Ukraine to be prepared for the event at the strongest level among other ninety-six countries!
Besides, at the event, there occurred more than one hundred and fifty meetings among all the participants, where they had a chance to share their best practices as well as find investors for their projects. Such investment funds as Spark Capital, Accel Capital, General Catalyst, Craft Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz were ready to allocate substantial sums to the most impressive solutions.
How the Ukrainian Projects were Chosen for the Conference
The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine in cooperation with Startup Grind Kyiv (with the support of USAID's Competitive Economy of Ukraine) has conducted the search for the most breathtaking startups to represent our country at the event. The Ministry of Digital Transformation approved fifteen out of the total number as of more than one hundred sixty technology startups.
To understand how much was done for the startups from Ukraine to prepare for the event, let’s consider the official commentary left by Danylo Tonkopyy, a partner of the Ukrainian national electric bike Delfast startup (one of the four winners). He says that they got truly colossal support from the vice president of Facebook, several coaches, and around ten (!) representatives of venture funds. Moreover, the engineering team was trained in a wide range of cases, starting from the ways to hire a product manager to perfect pitching .
Additionally, the team experienced great networking practices. According to Tonkopyy, the last is essential because more than fifty investors noticed their solutions. So, the startup got on their radars! Danylo also focused on great support from the Oracle company which had provided the team with the services for the sum as of four thousand US dollars.
According to Startup Grind Kyiv Chapter Co-Director Hannah Zenn, Ukrainian startups included in the list of delegates possess tremendous potential to attract investments of Seed and A-rounds. They have the appropriate background to find clients among such American businesses as Facebook, Target, Deloitte, CISCO, BMW, as well as partners for further growth.
Meet Four Ukrainian Winners!
The best part is the end. Who are the triumphant?
At Startup Grind Global 2020, among Top 50 there are the following startups:
· AXDRAFT;
· Let’s Enhance;
· Delfast Bikes;
· Kray Technologies.
Let’s get acquainted with their solutions in more detail!
About AXDRAFT
The startup AXDRAFT entered the Ukrainian IT market in 2017. AXDRAFT service is a perfect assistant when it comes to automating work with legal documents. Users have the opportunity to draft legal documents ten times faster and avoid various kinds of mistakes. The solution increases the efficiency of the legal department by twenty-five percent, delegating some of the legal work to "non-lawyers" without risks.
The solution may be set on regular computers as well as any mobile device.
The founders of the startup are Oleh and Yuriy Zaremba from Lviv. The company’s head office is located in Kyiv.
AI-based Solution by Let’s Enhance
AI-based online service Let’s Enhance is the real magic wand for specialists in photography! The solution allows “zooming in” certain sections of a photo and optimizes it as a whole without any quality loss.
The engineering team implemented super-resolution machine learning technology. A neural network was trained on many real photos. The program restores details and guarantees clear lines and contours. That is based on its awareness of typical textures and objects found in real life.
Multi-purpose Delfast Bikes
The Ukrainian brand of electric bicycles Delfast was founded by Danylo Tonkopyy and Serhyy Denysenko.
Their creation, Delfast Trike, is a three-wheeled electric vehicle developed for small/medium businesses as well as individual entrepreneurs. The solution possesses a loading platform used to store boxes. It may be converted into a cozy trailer or a compact kiosk for coffee, ice cream or any other display type to sell street goods. The model may also be implemented as an advertising platform and as a tourist transport.
Kray Technologies and their Agrodron
The first industrial agrodron Kray was designed as a tandem of a copter and an airplane. Its goal is to service farms with sown areas from three hundred up to five hundred hectares per day.
Kray Technologies is a vertical take-off device. The drone flies at a speed up to one hundred and ten kilometers per hour due to its traction propeller and a wide wing. The drone flies at low altitudes (two meters). Its terrain recognition system helps to avoid accidents.