You should work with Ukrainian development teams in 2022 and here’s why

In 2022 many of the industries faced unparalleled challenges, and IT is maybe one of those that has fallen under the biggest impact. With global crisis raging around the world, and full-fledged Russian invasion of Ukraine, business risks & anxiety grew bigger than ever. 

LANARS, as a company with Ukrainian roots and with one of the headquarters in Ukraine, understands each and every concerns that business community has towards cooperation with Ukraine. Despite challenges and complex decisions that appeared, our company continued working even in the hardest of times, and is working in full swing right now. The team in Ukraine had to adapt to the new reality, re-organize their routines, relocate to headquarters in other countries, and now their motivation to drive innovations is the most powerful than it has ever been. 

Today we prepared top 6 reasons to hire Ukrainian development teams and why it can be worth it and beneficial for your business. Let’s dive in!

1. Large Talent Pool 

According to the research by Lviv IT Cluster, the general number of developers in Ukraine is 285k people (as of December 2021). Additionally, each year there are ~20k graduates from universities in IT specialties. It proves the point that Ukraine has a large talent pool to offer Europe and this trend does not seem to stop even now, with more and more people switching their careers to IT since this industry is one of the most flexible and promising nowadays.

2. Booming IT Ecosystem 

Ukraine tends to be called the new rock star in IT industry. There are IT clusters in almost every Ukrainian city (Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Uzhhorod, Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Ternopil, Poltava). By the way, the most comfortable city for a Ukrainian developer is Ivano-Frankivsk (the West of Ukraine), according to the 2021 research by DOU. The second point here is that there is a huge number of unicorn companies from Ukraine – e.g. Grammarly, MacPaw, Genesis. From this, it is clear that Ukrainian IT industry is blooming and producing such pioneering companies that are in the forefront of innovations. 

3. Western Values

Orientation towards Europe and standards of western business conduct & ethics allow Ukrainian companies to get along well and understand all nuances in cooperation with other European countries. The specialists are more than familiar with the western values maintained in the business world, and since Ukraine is on its path to the integration to the EU, they are doing their best to integrate proven European practices and tactics in their day-to-day work. 

4. High-Quality STEM Education 

11 Ukrainian universities are listed in the World University Ranking for year 2023. Young specialists receive the best education from industry experts, since Ukraine is a proven leader in many technological fields and production industries. For example, LANARS hardware development department is formed from specialists with the background in spacecraft engineering, because Dnipro is the heart of this industry in Europe. 

5. Developed IT Industry 

During the first quarter of 2022, the IT industry generated the record $2 billion of export income during the wartime (it’s 28% growth compared to the previous year). In March 2022, the Ukrainian IT industry had 96% share of computer services export, and it only proved its resilience in the time of instability and increased risks. Generally, 52% of IT companies in Ukraine kept 100% of their customers, despite the risks that were outlined by many of the European clients. (Source: IT Ukraine Association report). Ukraine also attracts foreign investment, and thus technological giants like Microsoft (at Web Summit 2022, just this week Microsoft pledged another $100 million support to Ukraine), Oracle, Samsung, and Siemens have their R&D centers there. 

6. Affordable Price 

High-quality development services for a modest price — sounds like a perfect deal, and you can get it by cooperating with Ukrainian specialists. According to Statista, average yearly American and European developers salaries (~$110 in the USA and between $90k and $40k — varies from the country) are way higher than average developers salaries in Ukraine which is approx. $20k per year. Considering hourly rates, they may vary $20-$60 per hour, depending on the technology you need or the level of proficiency and experience. 

Summary

All in all, with Ukraine being a flourishing IT area now and in the future (with booming ecosystem, development of unicorn companies, and a huge talent pool), it has become apparent that specialists from Ukraine are surely the ones with the biggest expertise and experience. 

The wartime risks undoubtedly make you question whether such cooperation is worth it. But when Ukrainian companies show unseen resilience and confidence in their success in times of the full-fledged war, you may actually wonder — maybe it’s a chance worth taking, and you will discover a huge and powerful country of brave people that will provide you with best service and share innovative ideas for bringing your business to success.