Although the cities of Transcarpathia are not a symbol of the IT business, in fact, many technological projects were born in the region, which we should be proud of. For example, about 20 IT companies have their offices in Uzhgorod. The digital sphere in the city is actively and constantly developing: projects for startups from the USA, Australia, France, and other countries are being developed here, and many companies are outsourcing.
We've gathered several inspiring stories of people and companies located in Uzhhorod or other cities of Transcarpathia:
6 years ago, Oleg Ostroverkh and three co-founders created an IT company in Uzhhorod. We started with a minimal team, a small office, and one client. Today, the company employs more than 130 specialists, and partners in 20 countries of the world, and key clients are in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Great Britain, and the USA. The team has more than 130 members. We have two main locations in Uzhhorod, in addition, we have an office in Drohobych.
They are proud of the fact that by creating vacancies in Uzhhorod, Khust, and Drohobych, they have a social effect and contribute to the development of the region.
In 2002, Vitaliy Sedler and Mykhailo Puzrakov founded the company Intellias in Lviv. They've started together and wrote the code themselves for the first customers. To find clients, they often traveled by car to Austria and Switzerland, covering up to 7,000 km at a time. This year, they also opened an office in Uzhhorod:
The opening of a new office is an opportunity to provide our specialists with a comfortable and safe place of work. And, in addition, in the future, we plan to create conditions for the work of other internally displaced persons here. We also believe that the IT industry in Transcarpathia will actively develop, so we want to become one of the drivers of this process
— noted Intellias CEO and co-founder Vitaly Sadler.
The SQUAD company also chose Transcarpathia as the location for its next office. SQUAD is the Ukrainian development office of the American developer of digital doorbells with the function of recognizing objects on video. The total amount of investment is $209.2 million from Goldman Sachs, Virgin Group, Qualcomm Ventures, and Amazon Alexa Fund. In 2017, Amazon was bought to gain a ready place in the Home Security market.
There is another IT company Astound Commerce that moved a large number of its employees from north, south, central and eastern Ukraine to Uzhgorod to the new office in Uzhgorod. Astound Commerce is one of the world's largest e-commerce companies headquartered in San Francisco with offices in London and Munich.
The company also chose Uzhhorod and opened a new office there. Sigma Software is a Swedish company with Ukrainian roots. In 2006, it became part of the Sigma Group - one of the largest Scandinavian IT corporations, which has about 3,700 employees worldwide. In Ukraine, the Sigma Software team consists of more than 850 specialists.
The AZinec company was established in 2014 and actively started working in Uzhhorod. The company was founded by four residents of Uzhhorod - 2 classmates and 2 fellow students. It is a young and creative team, which in 4 years was able to prove to European aviation corporations and specialists in other fields that their projects are professional and innovative.
Barges Technologies was founded in Uzhhorod. Works on platforms for online consultations: on the one hand - people who provide consultations, on the other - those who need them. A year ago, Barges Technologies was bought out and now the main office is in San Francisco, and the management is in Tel Aviv. The Uzhhorod office employs specialists who develop five IT products.
Also, many large companies relocated to Transcarpathia this year: SoftServe, the largest IT company with Ukrainian roots, opened a new office space in Uzhhorod at the end of 2021. SoftServe is one of the largest software development companies in Central and Eastern Europe and is included in the list of the largest IT service companies in Ukraine.
In March 2022, the IT company EPAM opened a new branch in Uzhhorod as well. It includes a co-working space where more than 50 people can work at the same time, as well as a shelter for 40 places for ERAM employees and their families who were forced to leave their homes due to hostilities.
Transcarpathia is a promising region for the development of the IT industry. We are sure that soon we will hear many stories about the establishment of successful startups in Uzhgorod, Mukachevo, and other Transcarpathian cities.