Ukraine has become a major player in the global tech arena. The IT talent pool in Ukraine is approaching 200,000 software developers, tech startups are booming, the flow of investments is increasing, and the number of companies that partner with Ukrainian software development service providers is growing.
The quality of Ukrainian tech skills is recognized across the world and acknowledged by many industry awards. The country is in the top 20 in the A. T. Kearney Services Location Index; it was named Offshoring Destination of the year by GSA; more and more Ukrainian IT outsourcing companies are listed in Global Outsourcing 100 by IAOP; a lot of vendors are included in Software 500, Inc. 5000, and other industry ratings.
So what is happening in the Ukrainian IT market today? What are the key forces driving Ukraine to the foreground of the global tech scene? Discover this and more about 'the country that codes' in a special report prepared by N-iX.
N-iX is a leading Eastern European software development service company with over 1,000 tech experts. Founded and based in Ukraine, we have always taken an active part in the promotion and development of the Ukrainian IT industry, investing in education, tech communities, infrastructure projects, and more. Contact us, if you would like to partner with a Ukrainian tech company or have any questions not covered in this research.
About this report
The main goal of our research was to bring together all the available information about the Ukrainian software development market to help various market players make informed business decisions. It should be of use to:
- investors;
- companies that are looking to build development centres in the country;
- organizations that are searching for IT partners to boost their development capabilities;
- Ukrainian tech businesses;
- other market players.
The report gathers the information and stats from almost 100 sources. It is based on the research provided by Ukrainian and international advisory firms, media, business associations, and other reputable sources. It includes findings by PwC, Gartner, CBInsights, StackOverflow, The World Bank, Bloomberg, A.T. Kerney, DOU, EBA, IT Ukraine Association, and others.
What this report covers
Part 1. Ukraine: Country Overview
Country Overview: a quick look at the workforce, population, education, and other key aspects characterizing Ukraine.
Business Climate: analyzing the state of the economy, reforms, legislation, information security standards, and other important factors that impact doing business in the country.
Infrastructure: an overview of infrastructure essential for doing business in Ukraine, such as transport, flights, real estate, hotels, etc.
Part 2. Ukrainian IT Industry Overview/p>
Ukrainian Software Development Market: industry growth dynamics and trends that determine its development, its role in the country’s economy, IT infrastructure; comparison with other tech markets in CEE.
Tech Talent Pool: a detailed profile of the Ukrainian software developer; key technologies used, STEM education in the country, top universities, innovative educational programs, English proficiency, and more.
IT Cities: an overview of major Ukrainian software development hubs and their capacity - Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Odesa.
Part 3. Ukrainian Tech Companies
Ukrainian Software Development Companies: types of IT businesses, their industry focus, services, etc.
Startup Ecosystem: notable Ukrainian tech startups that attracted a lot of investments and got traction on the global tech scene.
Ukrainian IT Service Companies: services provided by the market leaders; key industries they focus on; a look at the Ukrainian IT outsourcing market, key market players, etc.
Part 1. Ukraine: Country Overview
Much of Ukraine’s success stems from its ample resources. It is the largest country that lies entirely in Europe with a population of nearly 43 million and a workforce of 20 million people. The country has a favourable geographical position as it borders Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Moldova in the west; Belarus and Russia to the north and east; Bulgaria, Georgia, and Turkey to the south over the Black Sea. For European businesses, geographical location and time zone proximity significantly simplify collaboration. Moreover, the European mindset and a similar business culture remove communication bottlenecks.
Ukraine is a member of the IMF, the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and other financial institutions. In 2008, Ukraine joined the World Trade Organization, it has a free trade agreement (DCFTA) with the EU and with EFTA. The country is a member of many other international associations, including the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, and others.
In 2017, Ukraine entered the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement and published a plan of measures for its effective implementation. The country is showing signs of stabilization and prosperity. Its GDP grew by 3.5% in 2018 hitting the target of $391.53 billion, inflation is slowly but surely going down, and it is estimated to normalize at around 6% in 2019. Moreover, Ukraine has gone up 23 positions over the last 3 years in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2018 (76 places higher compared to 2012).
Since 2014, the state has focused greatly on improving the business climate in Ukraine, and it has taken many measures in that direction. As a result of the continued effort, Ukraine has become an investment hot spot. Foreign direct investment in Ukraine in 2018 exceeded $2,490 million.
As an emerging economy, Ukraine has a quite low cost of living. It has the world’s second-lowest Big Mac price of $1.64. The cost of living in Ukraine is 58.29% lower than in the United States. Rent in Ukraine is 74.78% lower than in the United States, and a one-bedroom apartment monthly rent is around $200. [5] At the same time, the country ranks 50th out of 157 countries on the Human Capital Index, which assesses the knowledge, skills, abilities, and health of the population. [4]
Ukraine is one of the countries with the highest literacy rate reaching 100%. The adult literacy rate in Ukraine has increased from 99.4% in 2001 to 99.8% in 2015. [4], [5] Furthermore, over 70% of Ukrainians have a secondary or higher education. [10]
Part 2. Ukrainian IT Industry Overview
Ukrainian IT market dynamics
The Ukrainian software development market has enjoyed impressive growth in recent years and became one of the key sectors contributing to the country’s economy. The statistics by the World Bank, PwC, IT Ukraine Association, and State Statistics Service of Ukraine demonstrate the steep growth of the sector. Interestingly, the industry has accelerated since the beginning of the 2014 political crisis when the prices for Ukrainian IT services became even more attractive for investors due to inflation.
Here are a few facts that reflect the growth of the Ukrainian IT market:
- ICT became the 3rd largest export service industry, amounting to more than 20% of all Ukrainian service exports; [30]
- Ukrainian IT industry is growing at a 26% rate;
- There are currently more than 4,000 tech companies operating on the market;
- There are over 1,600 software development service companies in Ukraine; [28]
- There are over 185,000 software developers in Ukraine; [31]
- Ukraine ranks 20th on 2019 A. T. Kearney Global Services Location Index of the most attractive outsourcing destinations; [26]
- More than 100 companies on the Fortune 500 list are clients of Ukrainian IT firms.
This research further covers different aspects of the Ukrainian tech market, such as the IT talent pool, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, popular technologies, major software development companies, to name a few.
IT outsourcing in Ukraine
IT outsourcing companies constitute the largest share of the Ukrainian IT service market. Although the number of startups (over 2,000 companies) and international R&D centres (over 100 companies) is growing, IT outsourcing companies employ more than 60% of all engineers who live in Ukraine.
The USA and Western European countries remain the largest target markets of the Ukrainian IT service companies.
If we look at the businesses that outsource software development to Ukraine, they range from growing startups to established ISVs to massive enterprises. Cisco, IBM, Atlassian, Travelport, OpenText, Fluke Corporation and a lot of other global companies have partnered with Ukrainian software development providers to bring their digital solutions to life.
Many such partnerships last for years and small outsourced teams grow into large development centres located in Ukraine. For instance, Anoto worked with N-iX, a Ukrainian IT company, for over 12 years. While Lebara, a UK telecom enterprise, expanded its development team at N-iX from 5 to over 100 software engineers. Therefore, market leaders from different industries across the globe have taken advantage of outsourcing software development to Ukrainian engineers.
Download N-iX report to learn more about the growth of the IT market in Ukraine. Or contact us for more information.
Ukrainian tech talent pool
The biggest asset of the Ukrainian software development market is a vast pool of IT professionals unmatched by the quality of skills. As of Q1 2019, it comprises over 184,700 specialists, and experts forecast it will surpass 200,000 by 2020. Most sources suggest that approximately 60% of Ukrainian software developers are currently employed in IT outsourcing companies. However, there is a decent share of captive centres in the country, and the number of tech startups is growing year by year.
Key technologies used by Ukrainian developers
Ukrainian software developers specialize in a wide range of programming languages, technologies, and tools. Since over 60% of Ukrainian engineers work in IT service companies, they work on many different projects and thus possess versatile tech expertise. Not only do Ukrainian developers have hands-on knowledge of many technologies but they also know how to use them in various domains.
According to HackerRank, Ukraine ranks 11th with an overall score of 88,7 points out of 100 among the top 50 countries with the best software developers in the world. [59] Also, it is 6th on the TopCoder rating of the best programmers. [53]
The annual survey of Ukrainian software engineers by DOU shows that Java is the most popular programming language in Ukraine, followed by JavaScript, C#, PHP, and Python. Go and Typescript made it to the top 10 for the first time in 2018. [56]
When asked which programming language Ukrainian software developers are planning to learn, 52% of them want to learn one. They are primarily interested in mastering Python, JavaScript, Go, Java, Kotlin, and Typescript. [71] As for the languages Ukrainian programmers use as supplementary ones, the leaders are JavaScript, Unix Shell, Python, Java, SQL (PL-SQL и T-SQL), and TypeScript. [71]
Big IT cities in Ukraine
Surveys of the Ukrainian IT professionals demonstrate that 67% of Ukrainian software developers live in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Lviv.
According to Stack Overflow, there are around 68,500 software developers in Kyiv. [35] All major Ukrainian IT companies, including N-iX, GlobalLogic, Ciklum, SoftServe, Epam, and many others, have large development centres in Kyiv. Also, there are more than 50 international R&D offices of large enterprises, such as Samsung, Huawei, Ericsson, NetCracker, etc. Many IT startups have offices in the capital, including Grammarly, Petcube, Terrasoft, Augmented Pixels, La Metric, etc.
Lviv is the second largest IT hub in Ukraine. There are over 20,000 IT professionals working in the city and around 317 IT companies, most of which provide software outsourcing services to clients in the USA, Western Europe, the UK, the Nordic countries, and other locations. In 2018, about 14,000 students studied at universities with tech programs, so the industry has a constant inflow of fresh talent.
14% of the Ukrainian IT talent live in Kharkiv, 12,000 IT specialists are located in Dnipro, and over 10,000 live and work in Odesa.
N-iX has large development centers in Kyiv and Lviv - over 1,000 software engineers work there building innovative solutions for our global partners. We can help you expand your development capabilities with top IT talent, build a software product from scratch or deliver a solution for your business. Learn more about our services.
Part 3. Ukrainian Software Development Companies
Ukrainian tech companies employ a lion’s share of the country’s IT talent. The market primarily constitutes IT outsourcing companies, IT product companies, and captive centres of global businesses. However, over 60% of Ukrainian IT professionals work in IT outsourcing companies.
In 2017-2018, the number of employees in the 50 biggest Ukrainian software development companies grew by around 35% - from 43,000 to 58,000 specialists. Also, two companies surpassed 6,000 professionals. 25 biggest Ukrainian IT firms have demonstrated a record growth rate in the last 5 years.
Startup ecosystem in Ukraine
Ukraine houses a wide range of top-notch IT product companies including Grammarly, Readdle, Jooble, Depositphotos, TemplateMonster, GitLab, and others. The Ukrainian startup ecosystem is growing by 500 new entrepreneurs each month. Startup investments are growing too. In 2017, there were 44 deals with the total investment volume of $265 million. [60]
A lot of Ukrainian startups expanded to global markets and moved their headquarters to world business centres and the Silicon Valley, others were acquired by tech giants. For instance, Google bought Viewdle, while Looksery was acquired by Snapchat for around $150 million.
Ukrainian IT Service Companies
There are currently over 1,600 software development service companies in Ukraine, and most of them provide software development services to customers around the globe [41]. Therefore, businesses that look for an IT partner in Ukraine come up against the challenge of choosing among a variety of vendors. The selection criteria often include the company’s size, years on the market, a track record of similar projects, references, experience in certain technologies and industry verticals, security practices, etc.
Ukrainian software development companies stand out among the global competition thanks to the convenient geographical location, cultural closeness, good communication, highly skilled talent and, of course, competitive prices. Therefore, these factors play a decisive role.
N-iX - Trusted Software Development Partner Since 2002
N-iX is an Eastern European software development service company with over 1,000 tech experts. We help businesses across the globe to expand their engineering capabilities and build successful software products. Since 2002, we have formed strategic partnerships with a variety of global industry leaders, including Lebara, Currencycloud, Fluke Corporation, Gogo, TuneIn, Travelport, Fortune 500 companies, and over 100 other medium and large-scale businesses.
With development centers across Eastern Europe, we provide quality software engineering and deep domain expertise in Telecom, Fintech, Manufacturing, Logistics & Supply Chain, Retail, Automotive, Agritech, Energy, other domains. If you would like to learn more about software development in Ukraine, don't hesitate to contact our experts.
