While Ukraine’s the biggest country in Europe geographically – for some entrepreneurs, its internal market wasn’t enough. So Ukrainian companies have gone on to make names for themselves in the US, Europe, Africa, and Asia. From food to fashion – Ukrainian products are recognized well beyond its borders.
In honor of independence day – where Ukrainians declared that they wanted to escape the isolation of the Soviet Union and become a part of the broader global community, here is a list of popular “made in Ukraine” brands that epitomize this ideal.
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Six of the companies on this list were founded in the 1990s. Some reclaimed facilities left in Ukraine following the Soviet Union’s collapse – Kernel, MHP, Nibulon.
Others built new products and services from scratch when no one else was doing it – like Nova Post’s founders – who delivered their first parcels in an old Soviet Tavria vehicle, before growing into a massive postal service delivering more than 400 million parcels a year.
Four companies, all representing IT, rose to fame after 2008, with the youngest one on the list – BetterMe – born only in 2016.
Fintech Farm became the incubator for neobanks that share similar interfaces to Ukraine’s most famous online bank, Monobank.
Ukraine is a country of pragmatic, canny, innovators – from being the birthplace of many of the developments of the space program during the Soviet Union, to becoming one of the leading countries for IT specialists today.
EBRD, Aon Launch War Risk Insurance to Cover Ukraine’s Domestic Cargo
Ukrainian Beer Company Group (UBC Group)
Estimated 2023 revenue: Hr.4,146 billion ($109.1 million)
Kyiv Post’s calculations based on Youcontrol
It’s quite possible that the refrigerator in your pub was made by a Ukrainian manufacturer based out of Vinnytsa and Kharkiv. UBC Group’s equipment is used by Pepsi, Heineken, Carlsberg and Nestlé, as well as smaller companies around the world.
UBC sells its production to the US, Eastern Europe, Canada, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Mexico. Apart from kegerators and back bar coolers, the company also sells kegs and tanks, glycol power packs, draft beer towers, drip trays, trunk lines, flash coolers, and more.
Bob Snail
Source: company’s Facebook page.
Estimated 2023 revenue: Hr.1.03 billion ($27 million)
Based on data from YouControl
Bob Snail was founded by two former fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) top managers from Danone Ukraine. The company, which started from scratch, now offers 152 products including smoothies, baby food, chilled desserts, natural marmalade, and chocolate sweets.
A sugar-free fruit roll that looks like a snail’s back is the company’s first and most prominent product. It is made from Vinnytsia fruits and delivered to supermarkets in 26 countries, with their biggest EU-based market in Poland.
Nibulon
2023 revenue: Hr.22.9 billion ($602.63 million)
Nibulon is one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural, maritime logistics companies and shipbuilders. The Mykolaiv-based company built a river agricultural supply chain from scratch. Despite having 68 percent of its assets destroyed since Russia’s full-scale invasion, Nibulon managed to increase its revenues by half from 2022 to 2023.
But the ambition of Andrii Vadaturskyy, the company’s CEO, is to build naval ships for Ukraine, stay its largest grain exporter, and pay all debts back despite the obstacles.
The company exports wheat, corn, barley, sunflower, soybeans, rapeseed, and sorghum to 75 countries in Europe, Latin America, Africa, China, India, etc. It is also a UN World Food Programme partner.
Kernel
2023 revenue: $3.5 billion
Kernel holds an 8 percent share of the world’s sunflower oil exports and delivers its products to over 70 countries. Kernel was even the largest landholder in Ukraine, owning more than 500,000 hectares, although the company sold 134,000 hectares after the invasion – perhaps changing that status.
Kernel doesn’t just grow crops – the company is adept in data driven agriculture. It uses artificial intelligence to estimate the density and quality of crops based on drone images.
Kernel’s IT allows agronomists to analyze crops directly on the fields using their own smartphone app. Big data also helps farmers to analyze soil moisture, fertilizer sufficiency, wind strength, and the potential for precipitation.
2023 revenue: $3 billion
MHP is the leading international agro-industrial group with headquarters in Ukraine.
Its main production is poultry – its chicken meat and chicken products are exported to more than 80 countries including the EU, the UK and Asia. You will find their chicken under the trademarks Qualiko, Ukrainian Chicken, Assilah, and Sultana.
Inside Ukraine, MHP – which previously bore the name “Myronivskyy khliboproduct,” leading to the hyphenation – also wants to develop ready production, such as snacks to eat on the go and even its own fast food chains.
Fashion designers
Bahinskyy
Gunia Project
Frolov
Over the past two years Ukrainian fashion designers have been seen worn by world-class celebrities like Beyonce, Sabrina Carpenter, Jennifer Lopez, and Rita Ora.
This is not the last list of talented Ukrainian designers, but markets have been hearing their names the loudest recently.
SHERP
2023 revenue: Hr.645 million ($17 million),
Based on data from Youcontrol
Kyiv-based developer and manufacturer of utility task vehicles that have been bought by, among others, Kanye West, Ukraine's rescue services, and the United Nations World Food Programme.
Sherp is created to drive everywhere, no matter what the obstacles.
For this, the brand has incorporated massive wheels in its vehicles, with an onboard system to inflate or deflate them. This allows Sherp to cross brushwood, scramble and climb up thin ice, as well as cross water.
In 2024, a Sherp vehicle was seen in the “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” television series, in episode 10 of season 2. Sherp vehicles have also appeared on Discovery Canada Daily Planet program.
2023 revenue: Hr.136 million ($3.6 million),
Based on data from Youcontrol
Lots of folks are using apps with Ukrainian origin when they clean up their electronic devices. CleanMyMac X, CleanMyPC, and Setapp were all created by MacPaw.
According to its profile on DOU, MacPaw’s products are used by some 30 million users worldwide.
It’s also gained notoriety, incidentally, for its Apple Museum.
PetCube
2023 revenue: not disclosed.
One of the key international market players among pet monitoring cameras, Petcube has already sold more than a million products to the US, Australia, and Europe.
Originally invented to help deal with the separation anxiety of a chihuahua belonging to one of the founders, PetCube is valued at $40 to $60 million dollars, according to 2017 Dealroom data.
GSC Game World
2023 revenue: not disclosed.
Meet the developers who created the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series. The first game in the series has been purchased by 15 million players around the world.
After a decade and a half of uncertainty, the company announced S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. It’s now more grounded in its Ukrainian origins, featuring Ukrainian songs alongside new game features like the absence of closed game zones, the freedom to go wherever you want, and the opportunity to go through the same quests from different perspectives
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 developers have also attempted to make their second outing feel more realistic. For example, enemy factions may behave as irrationally as humans themselves.
“Factions can change their leader. Sometimes they can break up. Sometimes they can do something that the players will think doesn’t match their ideology. Like in real life, … when moments arise that divide people into new groups,” creative director of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Mariia Grygorovych said in a video showing the game.
The company’s name “GSC” is an abbreviation of founder Sergiy Grygorovych’s name.
Ajax Systems
Ajax Systems products. Source: Ajax Systems website
2023 revenue: Hr.6.1 billion ($160.5 million)
Kyiv Post’s calculations based on Youcontrol data
The Ukraine-based wireless security system can be operated through an app and is sold in 187 countries worldwide, including Spain, Italy, France, the Netherlands, the UK, Portugal, Denmark, Germany, and Belgium.
Ajax operates two factories in Ukraine and another one in Turkey.
Ajax developers have also created an app to notify its users about air raid alerts – one now used by 20 million Ukrainians.
Grammarly
Grammarly text editor. Source: Grammarly website
2023 revenue: $125 million
Source: Dealroom, Forbes Ukraine
Checking your English writing? You can do it with Grammarly, a well-known grammar, punctuation, spelling, and style checking tool. Grammarly has operations in Ukraine, the US, and Germany.
BetterMe
Better me Health Coaching app in Ukrainian. Source: DOU
2023 revenue: not disclosed
Ukraine-born startup that develops apps for fitness, mental health, and nutrition with 50 million downloads worldwide, according to data from their ad campaign.
Fintech Farm
One of Fintech Farm’s products, neobank LeoBank. Source: LeoBank website
2023 revenue: not disclosed
The founder of the most popular Ukrainian neobank among youth, Monobank, ex-Privatbank IT mastermind and a former KMPG UK M&A director are battling for the hearts of clients in Asia.
Fintech Farm has already gained 1.1 million clients in Azerbaijan with its LeoBank product.
While Nigerian Fidobank has to be closed, the startup wants to find a place under the sun in India, Africa and Asia.
Nova Post
A brand-new Nova Post branch in London. Source: Nova Post
2023 revenue: Hr.36.5 billion ($960.5 million)
Ukrainians who fled from war in 2022, felt homesick for a lot of things in their adopted countries, one of those things being Nova Post’s ultra fast and reliable postal services.
So, according to the company’s website, Ukraine’s largest private postal logistics services provider decided to expand its business to 11 European countries.
Nova Post can provide door-to-door delivery, delivery in branches, as well as logistics services. This year the company stated that it can organize delivery to Ukraine from anywhere in the world, using its own capacities and that of its partners.
According to Nova Post, it only takes three to five days for a parcel to be delivered from another European country to Ukraine and back. Clients can also check the status of their parcel using the Nova Post app.
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