Author: Nataliia Natalina, Kyiv-based PR Consultant at Black Unicorn PR
The full-scale war in Ukraine has been going on for more than seven months. The whole world is amazed at Ukraine’s bravery on the battlefield, as well as the resilience of the Ukrainian startup ecosystem that not only survives but succeeds in such unrealistically difficult conditions. Inspired by the enthusiasm and courage of Ukrainians, VCs are boosting investment in central and eastern Europe even as the war progresses. In the first half of this year, investments in the region have increased from $1.4bn to $3.2bn compared to the first half of 2021.
Ukrainian startups are in the spotlight now more than ever. We wrote about what they were doing during wartime and how to help. We have now prepared a list of local Ukrainian startup media worth subscribing to if you want to keep up to date with what is happening in the startup ecosystem.
Like any business in Ukraine, startup outlets need support. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, the local media market has suffered a sharp drop in revenues. According to the IAB Ukraine research, almost 70% of advertisers have stopped their activities since the beginning of the war. It puts editorial offices in front of a difficult challenge. We’ve also put together the information below on how to support these brave teams.
Visits per month (Similarweb, Aug’22) – 915k
Editor-in-chief: Illya Kabachynskyi LinkedIn
Founded: 1999
Languages: UA, ENG, RU
AIN.UA is a well-known and popular Ukrainian online magazine about tech business, startups, innovations and entrepreneurship. The outlet covers the news of the UA startup community and investors, publishes founders’ interviews and blogs, as well as a video podcast, “Power of Business”, dedicated to the entrepreneurs volunteering during the war.
Don’t forget to check the English-language page AIN.Capital. They cover the latest news from startups in Ukraine and Central and Eastern Europe. We have identified a broadening of their coverage, with more countries covered as well as more in-depth coverage. And do check out our interview with AIN.Capital Editor-in-Chief Lysa Palchynska here.
How to support: The editorial team is asking to help the “Come back alive” and Kolo charitable foundations supporting the Ukrainian army.
Follow on social media (ENG): Twitter, Facebook
Visits per month (Similarweb, Aug’22) – 690k
Editor-in-chief: Timur Vorona LinkedIn
Founded: 2017
Languages: UA, RU
The MC.Today speaks of itself as a publication for those who create. They aim to cover Ukrainian business news, the tech scene, innovation and entrepreneurial case studies. The editorial team features emigration guides, opinions, and valuable tips. Founders, entrepreneurs, marketers, PR specialists, and other thought leaders share their stories on MC.Today’s blogging platform.
The outlet is run by a married couple of Ukrainian journalists, Vera Chernysh and Timur Vorona, who moved to Portugal before the war and actively shared their experiences as digital nomads. Their publishing group includes Highload (media for developers) and ITC.ua (about IT for users and enthusiasts).
Team MC.today and Highload. Photo from website MC.Today
How to support: MC.Today highlights individual targeted projects for which they collect donations. For example, they are raising money for a drone for UA troops in the Mykolaiv region (more details here).
Follow on social media (UA): Telegram, Facebook
Visits per month (Similarweb, Aug’22) – 385k
Editor-in-chief: Stas Yurasov Facebook
Founded: 2021
Languages: UA, RU
Dev.ua writes not only about Ukrainian startups and investors but also focuses on a broader agenda of interest to tech people. Of course, they publish much about the war, giving helpful instructions and relevant news. A bunch of interviews and podcasts about the Ukrainian tech scene can be found on the project’s YouTube channel.
The editor-in-chief is Stas Yurasov, a well-known Ukrainian journalist who has been writing about tech and the telco industry since 2006. Stas describes himself as a “very old journalist” who started “when some of today’s tech people weren’t even born yet”.
Dev.ua team, photo from their website
How to support: Journalists share a set of stories on how to help internally displaced people from Ukraine in different countries.
Follow on social media (UA): LinkedIn, Twitter, Telegram
Visits per month (Similarweb, Aug’22) – 164k
Editor-in-chief: Yelyzaveta Bordunova LinkedIn Twitter
Founded: 2018
Language: UA
Vector.media presents itself as a non-boring publication about the creative economy. The editorial team writes stylishly about startup and technology news, featuring interesting interviews and tips from the creative industry and the startup ecosystem. Now they are covering primarily the adaptation of tech and innovative business to the war in Ukraine.
An interesting fact is that Dasha Zarivnaya, the founder of Vector.media, became communications adviser to the Office of President Vladimir Zelenskiy in February 2020.
Vector.media team. Photo from Twitter
How to support: The Vector team ask for support through a monthly subscription to Patreon, direct assistance or ordering advertising (all the details of how to do this are here)
Follow on social media (UA): Twitter, Facebook, Telegram
Visits per month (Similarweb, Aug’22) – 110k
Editor-in-chief: Roman Sudolsky LinkedIn
Founded: 2021
Language: UA
Speka.media is still a new but promising Ukrainian media outlet about startups, innovation, and tech industry news. Founder Kateryna Venzhyk is a well-known business journalist in Ukraine with more than 20 years of experience in local business publications. Editor-in-chief Roman Sudolskyi previously was editor-in-chief of AIN.UA and also worked for Wargaming and UNIT.City on corporate media.
In addition to news, the outlet writes on topics applicable to the startup ecosystem in a unique and non-trivial style. Tips on Work-War balance or a compilation of values of the Ukrainian tech industry in wartime can be found on its pages. The editorial team invites readers to join their community and run your blog. It means that tech entrepreneurs and startup founders could create their profiles and add opinions themselves on Speka’s UGC platform. Blogs are not moderated but are only checked by a literary editor for errors and whether the title matches the format of the publication.
Kateryna Venzhyk, Roman Sudolsky, Yulia Danylenko. Photo: Kateryna Venzhyk
How to support: There is a “Thank the author” button under each article on the website. The Speka.media team is also calling for a Russian warship to be sent in the direction known to all and for money to be donated to the Come back alive foundation.
Follow on social media (UA): LinkedIn, Twitter Telegram
If you are a Ukrainian startup and need help with international PR, please write to us, and our BUPR team will try to help you as part of our pro-bono programme.
More blog posts on Ukraine 💛💙
What Ukrainian startups are doing with the war, and how to help (May 2022)
Journalists on the ground in Ukraine to follow and support (March 2022)
