Unicorns are companies that have reached a valuation of $1 billion or more. Recently, Unicorns have been emerging out of rapidly growing and developing industries such as the IT industry. Most Unicorns are trendsetters in their field, are consumer-oriented, and are targeting the international market.
The Ucluster team compiled a list of Ukrainian Unicorns as of October 2021. We analyzed fast-growing startups and divided them into four groups: Active Unicorns, Future Unicorns, Past Unicorns, and Foreign Unicorns with Ukrainian Roots. Our primary evaluation criteria included the birthplace of the founder, the location of R&D, the last valuation of the startup, and the startup lifecycle stage.
Startups in our four rankings
Active Unicorns: GitLab, Grammarly, Genesis, People.ai, Firefly Aerospace.
Future Unicorns: Monobank, Preply, Restream, Reface, Rozetka, Letyshops, Rocket, Ajax Systems.
Former Unicorns: Ring, Looksery.
Foreign Unicorns with Ukrainian Roots: Affirm, Sila Nanotechnologies, BitFury, Revolut, PandaDoc.
🌈Active Unicorns🌈
| Company name Website Founded Valuation $ Billion | Product Description | Financing Rounds |
|---|---|---|
| Firefly Aerospace firefly.com 2014 > $1B | Firefly Aerospace is a provider of economical and dependable launch vehicles, spacecraft, and in-space services for small payloads. | Seed Round (Mar 2014) SK Ventures, Dylan Taylor, Venture Round, $2M (Apr 2014) Various, Seed Round, $463K (Sep 2014) SeedInvest, Tank Stream Ventures, Series A Round, $19.1M (Jun 2016) DADA Holdings, Raven Ventures Australia, XBTO Group…, Series A Round (May 2021) DADA Holdings, Raven Ventures Australia, XBTO Group…, Secondary Market, $100M (May 2021) |
| Genesis gen.tech 2008 $1B | Genesis is a portfolio company developing products for the African and Asian markets in digital media, mobile apps, classifieds, and games. They own Jiji.ng, AmoMedia, BetterMe, legit.ng, tuko.co.ke, yen.com.gh and others. | Horizon Capital (2016) |
| GitLab gitlab.com 2011 $11B | GitLab is a DevOps platform built as a single data warehouse for software development and workflow integration to ensure product quality. Ucluster review | Y Combinator, Seed Round (Mar 2015) Khosla Ventures, 500 Startups, FundersClub…, Seed Round, $1.7M (Jul 2015) Khosla Ventures, Series A Round, $4.5M (Sep 2015) Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, August Capital…, Series B Round, $20M (Sep 2016) GV, Telstra Ventures, INKEF Capital…, Series C Round, $20M (Oct 2017) Khosla Ventures, GS Growth, ICONIQ Capital, Series D Round, $110M (Sep 2018) Khosla Ventures, Google Ventures, Y Combinator…, Series E Round, $268M (Sep 2019) Secondary Market, $195M (Nov 2020) Initial Public Offering, $650M at $11B valuation (Oct 2021) |
| Grammarly grammarly.com 2009 $2.5B | Grammarly is a service that tracks grammatical and stylistic errors in real-time and tells users how to avoid repeating errors in the future. Ucluster review | General Catalyst, Spark Capital, IVP…, Venture Round, $110M (May 2017) General Catalyst, IVP, Sozo Ventures, Venture Round, $90M (Oct 2019) |
| People.ai people.ai 2016 $1.1B | People.ai is a CRM application that helps companies increase sales by finding examples of successful interactions with customers. Ucluster review | Seed Round, $1M (Jul 2016) Y Combinator, SV Angel, Zillionize…, Seed Round, $2M (Aug 2016) Lightspeed Venture Partners, Y Combinator, SV Angel…, Series A Round, $7M (May 2017) Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Y Combinator…, Series B Round, $30M (Oct 2018) Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Y Combinator…, Series C Round, $60M (May 2019) Alexander Rugaev, Secondary Market (Apr 2021) Akkadian Ventures, Mubadala Capital Ventures US,Series D Round, $100M (Aug 2021) |
🌈Future Unicorns🌈
| Company name Website Founded Valuation $ Billion | Product Description | Financing Rounds |
|---|---|---|
| Ajax Systems ajax.systems 2011 $0.1B | Ajax Systems manufacturs wireless security cameras and systems for the home market. Ucluster review | SMRK VC Fund, Seed Round, $1M (Jun 2015) Horizon Capital, Series A Round, $10M (Mar 2019) |
| Letyshops letyshops.com 2014 $0.1B | Letyshops ia an international shopping platform that rewards users for online purchases. | Admitad Invest, Seed Round (Oct 2016) Admitad Invest, Series A, $3M (Jul 2020) |
| Monobank monobank.ua 2017 $0.5 – 1B | Monobank is the first internet bank in Ukraine. | Fintech Band, $5M Sergey Tigipko, $4M Universal Bank, $11M iBox Bank |
| Preply preply.com 2012 $0.17B | Preply is a language learning platform that allows for personalized learning driven by data. Ucluster review | Eastlabs, Semyon Dukach, Vostok Ventures…, Convertible Note (Aug 2012) Techstars, Techstars Berlin Accelerator, Seed Round, $120 K (Jun 2015) Hedgehog Fund, Mariusz Gralewski, Przemyslaw Gacek, Seed Round, $ 1.3 M (Jun 2016) Point Nine, One Way Ventures, RTAventures VC…, Seed Round, $4M (Jul 2018) Point Nine, The Family, Hoxton Venture…, Series A, $10M (Mar 2020) Inovo Venture Partners, Series A (Jun 2020) Full In Partners, Owl Ventures, Series B, $35M (Mar 2021) |
| Reface hey.reface.ai 2018 $0.2B | Reface is an AI-powered app where people can swap faces in videos, GIFs and images in just a few seconds. | Sergey Tokarev, Angel Round (Sep 2018) Sergey Tokarev, Adventures Lab, Pre Seed Round (Dec 2019) Andreessen Horowitz, TQ Ventures, Seed Round, $5.5M (Dec 2020) |
| Restream restream.io 2014 > $0.25B | Restream is a multi-streaming solution that allows producers to analyze and interact with their viewers across platforms. | Iskra Ventures, Convertible Note (Jun 2015) International Accelerator, Convertible Note (Feb 2016) Silverton Partners, Kakao Ventures, 7percent Ventures…, Seed Round, $3.4M (Jan 2018) Insight Partners, Sapphire, Liquid 2 Ventures…, Series A, $50M (Aug 2020) |
| Rocket rocket.delivery 2018 $0.1B | Rocket is a Ukrainian food delivery service. | Igor Rokhlin |
| Rozetka rozetka.ua 2006 > $0.2B | Rozetka is Ukraine’s largest e-commerce retailer. | Horizon Capital, Private Equity (May 2016) |
🌈Former Unicorns🌈
| Company name Website Founded Valuation $ Billion | Product Description | Exit Event |
|---|---|---|
| Looksery looksery.com (this webpage is not available) 2013 $0.15B | Looksery is a subsidiary of Snap and provides face tracking and modifying technologies for real-time video. It’s technology was used to launch Snap Lenses. | Company was bought by Snap in 2015 for $150M |
| Ring ring.com 2012 $1.2B | Ring is a subsidiary of Amazon and manufactures a line of outdoor security doorbells and cameras. Ucluster review | Company was purschased by Amazon for more than a $1 billion in 2018. It still has a large R&D office in Ukraine. |
🌈Foreign Unicorns with Ukrainian Roots🌈
| Company name Website Founded Valuation $ Billion | Product Description | Connection to Ukraine |
|---|---|---|
| Affirm affirm.com 2012 $2.9B | Affirm offers installment loans to consumers at the point of sale. | Company has a Ukrainian founder (Max Levchin), but no R&D in Ukraine. |
| BitFury bitfury.com 2011 $1B | BitFury is a blockchain technology company. | Company has a large R&D office in Ukraine (estimated to host 80 to 200 employees) but employs the the majority of its workforce (>250 people) elsewhere. |
| PandaDoc pandadoc.com 2011 $1B | Provides an all-in-one document workflow automation platform that helps fast scaling teams accelerate the ability to create, manage, and sign digital documents. | Company has a large R&D office in Ukraine (estimated to host 145 employees) but employs the the majority of its workforce (>491 people) elsewhere. |
| Revolut revolut.com 2015 $33B | Revolut is a neobank based in the UK. | Company has a Ukrainian founder (Vlad Yatsenko), but no R&D in Ukraine. |
| Sila Nanotechnologies silanano.com 2011 $3.3B | Sila Nanotechnologies manufactures high energy-density lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. | Company has a Ukrainian founder (Gene Berdichevsky), but no R&D in Ukraine. |
Read more about Ukrainian Unicorns
Successful Ukrainian Startups: GitLab — a Modern DevOps Toolkit for Developers
People.ai: How to find an investor at Burning Man and raise sales by 40%
How Top Ukrainian Startups Found Success: Ring — a Smart Home and Security System
Ajax Systems: a Professional Wireless Security System
How Top Ukrainian Startups Found Success: The Case of Preply — a Platform For Finding Tutors
Successful Ukrainian startups: The case of Grammarly — an online grammar checker