IT Arena 2024

The DOMOVA team successfully spent two productive days at IT Arena 2024 in Lviv, actively networking with potential partners and investors. The event showcased significant interest from attendees in real estate investment, particularly from small and medium-sized investors, which aligns perfectly with our business model. We are currently working on developing a transparent, user-friendly, and legally secure investment tool, which will enable a broader range of market participants to invest in real estate with minimal risks.

However, discussing the general state of the startup ecosystem in Ukraine, it’s important to acknowledge that it remains in a challenging condition. The main issue is the lack of sufficient funding. As highlighted during various panels at IT Arena, access to capital for startups is limited, and Ukrainian entrepreneurs often face investors with unrealistic expectations of 100% success — an erroneous approach. Rhonda Shrader, Executive Director of the Bay Area Node program at NSF I-Corps and Faculty at UC Berkeley, emphasized that failure is a natural part of the growth process. It’s essential to recognize that setbacks are part of learning and refining a product, and risk-taking and experimentation should be deeply embedded in startup culture.

Gigi Wang, Industry Fellow and Faculty at the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) at UC Berkeley, noted: “Innovation thrives when there is an ability to adapt to local conditions.” In Ukraine, this process has yet to reach its full potential due to the lack of financing, infrastructural challenges, and the absence of mature accelerators that could support startups at early stages. Moreover, investors are often reluctant to fund projects with long-term returns, pushing startups to pursue immediate results, which restricts the market’s potential.

At IT Arena 2024, it was emphasized that Ukraine must foster a culture that tolerates mistakes and failures, creating conditions for experimentation and long-term development. This is the key to building a successful startup ecosystem.

Despite these challenges, Ukraine’s startup ecosystem holds great potential, particularly in military and defense technologies. However, to fully unlock this potential, a shift in investment strategy is needed, focusing on long-term growth and the creation of a supportive environment for innovators.

For us, this event reaffirmed the importance of developing micro-investment solutions that will allow investors of various scales to contribute to the restoration of Ukraine’s housing sector and participate in the modernization of urban real estate. We are confident that inclusive and accessible investment opportunities will help create a new economic reality where every investor, regardless of the size of their capital, can contribute to the transformation and future development of Ukrainian cities.