What’s your work from home situation like these days? For Andriy Klen, co-founder and CFO of smart device startup Petcube, it is not only email notifications popping up on his laptop screen, but also incoming missile alerts.
He pauses our conversation to follow the rocket’s calculated trajectory, before being notified that it has disappeared from the radar. We continue our call, he from Kyiv, and I from our office in Amsterdam, where the biggest conflict of the year broke out a couple of weeks ago over a change in catering.
Klen’s laughter at the absurdity of it all as he continues to answer my questions is emblematic of the resilience of Ukrainians living under constant threat and still managing to work, volunteer, care for kids — and pets — and come up with novel ways of supporting the defence and economy of their country.
Supporting the Ukrainian defence and economy
As Ukraine celebrates its Independence Day today, August 24, we spoke to some of the tech sector doing their utmost to retain that hard-won freedom.
Klen is one of the initiators behind Spend with Ukraine, a non-profit organisation running a web platform with a directory of over 240 Ukrainian-rooted businesses. Acknowledging that people may be hesitant to provide direct aid to military efforts, its originators wanted to find other ways in which to support Ukraine and its economy.
“This is really important, because we still need this place to be productive and to flourish — to function at the core,” Klen says. “We thought that we could still bring up Ukraine’s name in a positive context, and advertise and promote Ukrainian products and services.”
One such company is Klen’s own Petcube — a startup that sells interactive pet monitoring devices including a vet chat feature. The company manufactures in China and has an international market, which has allowed it to keep growing despite domestic hardships.
Esper Bionics runs the Esper for Ukraine program, which provides prostheses to those who have lost their limbs in the war at manufacturing costs. The company also runs trainings for doctors in Ukraine on how to fit the devices.
“We connect people who need prosthetic devices with our partner clinics in Ukraine or abroad,” Believansteva says. “We provide the hand and they make these installations for free.”
Many thousands of Ukrainians will require prosthetic limbs before the end of the war. Thus far, the company has fitted 100 of its bionic hands through the project, and is planning to hit 200 before the end of the year.
Right now, the team’s focus lies in scaling its manufacturing facility in Kyiv, while expanding its market in the US and launching in Europe. However, for the future, Esper Bionics wants to move into implants that will allow people to communicate with robotic hands, laptops, lighting systems, etc., without any external sensors at all.
Safeguarding Ukrainian culture and architecture with tech
Russia’s war in Ukraine is not only a war on Ukrainian statehood, but also on Ukrainian identity. As such, cultural preservation takes on an additional dimension of defiance and resistance. Tech is helping with that too.
Balbek Bureau is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning architectural firm from Kyiv. While still working on impossibly industrial-chic spaces in hospitality, retail, and wellness, the company has turned its creative zeal toward supporting displaced Ukrainians and rebuilding efforts — while conserving national traditions.
Its social initiatives go under the project name of Re:Ukraine. Its Housing sub-project is intended to host internally displaced families in units that will serve as both shorter and longer term temporary housing, placing human needs and dignity at its core design focus.