London Tech Week remains one of the world’s most prominent tech gatherings and arguably the most influential in Europe. Since 2013, it has been a hub for shaping global trends, closing multi-million-dollar deals, and connecting visionaries from across the globe. This year’s summit ran under the banner «Europe’s Decisive Decade». Fittingly, the Ukrainian tech sector once again proved it is a critical engine of innovation for the continent.
On June 10, in partnership with the UK Government and Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, we hosted our own side event, United by Innovation: The UK-Ukraine Tech Forum at the iconic London Stock Exchange.
For the second consecutive year, Diia.City United gathered global investors, government officials, and ecosystem leaders in the heart of the world’s financial capital. Our goal was pragmatic: to remind our partners that Ukrainian tech companies are global players and highly lucrative partners for co-creating innovation.
Here are the key insights from our first panel discussion, New Tech Alliances: How Countries Build Innovation Together.
The panel featured:
- Professor Julia Sutcliffe, Chief Scientific Adviser at the UK’s Department for Business and Trade (DBT)
- Pete Benedetto, VP and Head of Europe at Endeavor Catalyst
- Rob O’Donovan, Senior Vice President at Eurasia Foundation
- Oleksandr Yaroshenko, Chief of Staff at Headway Inc.
The discussion was moderated by Priya Guha MBE, a UK business leader, board member, and venture partner in tech and innovation.
Note: The event was organised as part of the UK-Ukraine TechBridge, supported by the London Stock Exchange, and backed by the Digitalisation for Growth, Integrity and Transparency Project (UK DIGIT), implemented by Eurasia Foundation and funded by UK International Development.
Profitability from Day One: How Ukrainians Are Surprising the Venture World
Endeavor Catalyst is the investment arm of the Endeavor network, supporting founders around the world for 30 years. Today, its portfolio boasts around 100 unicorns, including Diia.CIty United members, Headway and Ajax.
Pete Benedetto works with startups everywhere — from Latin America to the Middle East and Africa. When asked what makes Ukrainian founders stand out, he didn’t hesitate. According to Bendetto,
Being profitable from the very beginning is exceedingly rare in the venture capital world. But for Ukrainians, it’s the standard.
He explained that many Ukrainian companies scale to global markets without the luxury of early-stage investor leverage.
Another unique trait that catches investors’ eyes is a borderless mindset. Peter explained
Ukrainian founders build products for the whole world right from the start. They operate in a borderless way, constantly travelling and hiring the best talent, regardless of their location.
However, the global success of Ukrainian tech remains a well-kept secret for too many. Our ecosystem’s task is straightforward: we need to tell these stories louder. After all, as Benedetto pointed out, even major investors often follow the crowd and flashy headlines.
From Resilience to Competitiveness
Emotional support is appreciated, but long-term partnerships only survive when built on mutual benefit and a shared understanding of value.
Rob O’Donovan, Senior Vice President at Eurasia Foundation, emphasised that British officials have much to learn from Ukraine. Alongside Ukrainian defence tech — where the number of drone manufacturers skyrocketed to 500 almost overnight — he highlighted the Diia app, praising its millions of users and new AI integrations.
He considers Diia’s current functionality a global benchmark for effective state-to-citizen interaction. O’Donovan asserted
Ukraine should be seen as a source of globally competitive technology.
So, what keeps these partnerships intact when the political climate shifts?
According to O’Donovan, the formula for lasting alliances is strictly pragmatic: shared interests + tangible results + a continuous architecture of contacts facilitated by platforms like the UK-Ukraine TechBridge.
«Creative Bureaucracy» and Diia.City as a Launchpad
Oleksandr Yaroshenko described the UK-Ukraine TechBridge as a «numbers game»: the more often you get into the right rooms, the higher your chances of being noticed and trusted.
The Headway representative highlighted the practical realities of a Ukrainian unicorn’s global expansion. Today, the company serves over 170 million users across 170 countries, having secured its first external funding round during the full-scale invasion.
Yaroshenko pointed to Diia.City as a major catalyst for building trust with foreign partners: the legal framework ensures predictability, provides essential tools for ventures, allows hiring flexibility, and offers a highly favourable tax model.
He also offered European governments to adopt «creative bureaucracy», another unique piece of Ukrainian know-how. As Yaroshenko concluded
During the full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian government became creative in solving real-world problems by cutting through outdated red tape. This allowed sectors like defence tech to evolve rapidly, circumventing traditional procurement constraints. This is one of the key lessons the world needs to borrow from Ukraine.
A 100-Year Partnership Already Yielding Results
Any alliance requires measurable outcomes to be viable.
Professor Julia Sutcliffe, Chief Scientific Adviser at the UK’s Department for Business and Trade, shared the initial results of the historic 100-Year Agreement between Ukraine and the UK, as well as the joint UK-Ukraine TechBridge project. She noted
We have already recorded $17 million in investment wins through startups that have undergone the training program. Furthermore, over 1,200 Ukrainians have received support to upskill in digital technologies.
The core emphasis here is on a genuinely two-way exchange. According to the Professor, it’s impossible not to admire Ukrainian defence tech. Ultimately, the UK isn’t just supporting Ukraine; it is actively learning speed, adaptability, and applied innovation directly from our ecosystem.
What’s Next?
Our tech business Association, Diia.City United, will continue building this architecture of contacts — curating platforms where Ukrainian companies can engage directly with global investors, governments, and financial institutions.
For us, it’s about ensuring the systemic presence of the Ukrainian tech sector in the very rooms where decisions are made, partnerships are forged, and new markets are unlocked.
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