By now, the Ukraine crisis has gotten everyone's attention. From world leaders to concerned individuals, everyone is praying for peace while Russia's full-scale invasion brings chaos and casualties in Ukraine. World leaders and global organisations have advocated for peace and restraint, so as to further lives are not lost in the conflict. Social media is flooded with videos and photos of the devastation in Ukraine, and people from around the world are sending their prayers. If you are reflecting on the Ukraine situation from a humanitarian standpoint, there's more the country has given the world than one might realise.
Some of the world's most successful and used technologies and products have Ukrainian roots. From WhatsApp to PayPal, and Grammarly and beyond, all these services we so love and use today are one way or another linked to Ukraine. Let's see how.
WhatsApp was founded by Jan Koum as most of you may know. Did you know is a Ukrainian emigrant, born in Fastiv, which is sadly being ravaged by Russian forces. Facebook bought WhatsApp for $22 billion in case and stock in 2014. Koum donated $1.15 billion of Facebook stock to charity, including his Koum Family Foundation.
PayPal
PayPal is synonymous with payments. Did you know it was co-founded by Max Levchin, also a Ukrainian emigrant. He is now the CEO of Affirm, a financial tech company that offers instalment loans to customers at PoS founded by him.
Grammarly
From social media users to copy editors, Grammarly has time and again saved users from embarrassing moments. The billion-dollar-company was actually founded by three Ukrainians, Max Lytvyn, Alex Shevchenko, and Dmytro Lider. The software company's HQ may be California, its largest developers office is in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Clean My Mac
Apple Mac users understand the importance of Clean My Mac app, which deletes megatons of junk, malware while making your Mac faster and more organised. The useful app is the brainchild of MacPaw, a bootstrapped company from Ukraine, operating mainly from Kyiv. MacPaw was founded by Oleksandr Kosovan, a Ukrainian developer who started the company while he was a student.
People.ai
The sales teams must be well aware of this software, which automates manual data entry and increases productivity. People.ai was founded by Oleg Rogynskyy, who is also the company's CEO. Rogynskyy is considered among Ukraine's most successfully Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.
RevolutApp
Finance wizards trading in different currencies must have come across RevolutApp, which offers banking services including GBP and EUR bank accounts, debit cards, fee-free currency exchange, stock trading, cryptocurrency exchange and peer-to-peer payments. Well, RevolutApp too has a Ukrainian connection as its co-founder and CTO Vlad Yatsenko is a skilled developer from the land being invaded by Russia.
Snapchat
You will be surprised by Snapchat's connection to Ukraine. The company had acquired a firm called Looksery in 2015 to utilise its masking technology into its filters. The Looksery team is mostly based in Odessa and led by Yuri Monastyrshin, who was the co-founder of the startup. In addition to that, Snap has a huge office in Kyiv and Zaporizha.
SparkMail
SparkMail app is a popular personal email client developed by Readdle, which is co-founded by another Ukrainian national Igor Zhadanov, who is also the CEO.
