In September, a European tech company with a German banking license Solarisbank opened a tech center in Ukraine. This is not the first news of this kind: in Ukraine, developers are recruiting Glovo, BlaBlaCar, Lyft, Revolut, and so on. Dumitru Condrea, CEO of Solaris Tech in Ukraine, comments on the possible reasons.
An R&D center is a branch of a company located in another country, which allows the business to gain access to a larger number of highly qualified personnel who can bring new approaches and solutions to the company. In the case of tech companies driven by innovation, the R&D centers are primarily tech hubs, where developers and engineers become investing-in-ukraine/service-for-investors/business-consultant/" rel="dofollow">Researchers.
Research centers are quite a long-standing trend. The first one appeared in Europe when the American company IBM came on the market. Gradually, this trend gained momentum and by the 90s a company could not be considered serious if it did not have a research center. Globalization has become a necessity as product life is constantly shrinking. Companies realized that they had to locate their hubs close to sources of new technology know-how.
It is also an opportunity to scale the business. A research center or technology hub is an effective tool that provides access not only to new technologies, but also to talent that is suitable for a particular company. It is for the sake of attracting new specialists that R&D centers are opening large companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft and other tech giants. Europe is home to approximately 20% of tech hubs dedicated to artificial intelligence.
Ukraine is especially interesting for tech-oriented international companies. According to AIN and a report from tech company Beetroot, there are currently over 200,000 software developers in Ukraine, and the number is expected to reach 250.000 by 2025. The government's Technology Ecosystem Guide list counts 1.142 product companies and 858 service providers in Ukraine.
The IT market in Ukraine is growing by 20-25% annually, and the technological sector makes up 40% of the overall export of services. Moreover, most modern companies are focused on innovation. Several R&D centers of world-famous companies are already operating in Ukraine: Samsung, Google, Aricent, Ubisoft, Reddit, Wargaming, Amazon, Boeing and many others.
This thriving ecosystem has reinforced Solarisbank's conviction to expand its presence in Ukraine and create a dedicated tech center to attract even more talent. Engineers in Ukraine contribute to the development of the Solarisbank product and the entire technical platform, making up an integral part of the team. In the near future, Solarisbank plans to continue expanding its presence in the local market.
