On February 6th, we marked the fourth anniversary of the Diia.City special legal space with an event co-hosted with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. A perfect moment to reflect on how Ukrainian tech companies continue to scale, compete, and lead despite war, an energy crisis, a shrinking talent pool, and global uncertainty.
Nataliya Mykolska, Executive Director of Diia.City United, sat down with Mykhailo Rogalskiy, co-founder of monobank (Fintech-IT Group) and Anton Pavlovsky, founder and CEO of Headway. The discussion unpacked their respective strategies for product development and scaling — both within Ukraine and on the global stage.
Check the key takeaways from the panel.
Growth as a Strategy
In any crisis, stagnation is the most dangerous position. For both monobank and Headway, aggressive growth has become a form of defence.
Anton Pavlovsky:
When operating on a global stage, you simply do not have the luxury of ‘waiting it out.’ Your competitors in the US or the UK aren’t managing a war; they are sprinting. The only viable option is to run twice as fast, regardless of the circumstances.
Mykhailo Rogalskiy:
We have mastered the operational art of launching products in environments of absolute uncertainty. By the time we entered the UK market with our neobank, we were already inoculated by multiple Ukrainian crises. It breeds a specific type of operational fearlessness that is rarely seen in Western founders.
Product as a Core of Belief System
Even in severe economic downturns, market dominance belongs to those whose products cure real, acute customer pain points.
- monobank’s rise is inseparable from an almost obsessive commitment to UX/UI excellence and end-to-end customer experience. The lesson: in times of crisis, customers don’t become more forgiving — they become more demanding.
- Headway’s trajectory tells a complementary story. In periods of instability, people invest in themselves. Personal development becomes a way to reclaim agency and control. Building a product that speaks to that need is both a business model and a social contract.
Human Capital: From “Resources” to “Community”
Both leaders were candid: Ukraine’s labour market is the most challenging it has ever been. Yet talent remains the single most critical driver of sustained growth.
- A Culture of Challenge: The strongest talents gravitate toward ambitious missions. If you’re building a global category leader, top performers will show up — even during blackouts.
- Radical Honesty: Retention goes beyond mission and requires total transparency. Trust, once lost in a crisis, is nearly impossible to rebuild. Leadership that communicates directly and honestly earns the loyalty that scales despite storms.
Global Expansion as Risk Diversification
A business anchored to a single market is inherently fragile. Both companies have structured themselves against that risk from the outset.
- Headway was designed as a global-first company. That strategic decision has allowed it to diversify revenue streams, generate foreign currency income, and sustain its Ukrainian operations.
- monobank leverages its international expansion to validate new product hypotheses and export Ukrainian fintech expertise to mature markets.
Both panellists acknowledged the structural role Diia.City has played in enabling these outcomes. Over four years, the framework has evolved into a foundational bedrock for Ukrainian tech — allowing companies to scale, attract investment, and engage international partners.
The perfect storm is not ending soon. But for Ukrainian tech companies, it brings something unique — the capacity not just to withstand disruption, but to grow stronger because of it.
Three imperatives for business leaders to navigate this aggressive environment:
- Scale faster than new challenges emerge. Larger, more diversified businesses have the resources and agility to manoeuvre when the next wave hits.
- Invest in an employer brand — relentlessly. In an extremely competitive market, people, culture and reputation are the only advantages that cannot be replicated.
- Leverage Diia.City as a gateway to global markets. It is a strategic platform forging your international growth, partnership, and investment access.
The event was supported by IT SmartFlex and HPE, operated by Sophela. Many thanks to our partners!
