Tech apps born in Ukraine

As Russia encircles and invades Ukraine as part of its ostensible demilitarisation efforts, Forbes Ukraine’s tech editor, Mike Sapiton, took it upon himself to showcase how Ukrainians have contributed to technology that is now mainstream and widely utilized.

Users all across the world are acquainted with apps like PayPal, Grammarly, and WhatsApp, and they use them on a regular basis, unaware that the products originated in Ukraine and were developed by Ukrainian entrepreneurs. Ukraine is also home to companies like Gitlab, MacPaw, and Ajax Systems. Anna Karenina, a Kyiv-based designer, was the first NFT fashion coin inventor of the Proof-of-Love Fashion Metaverse.

Here are the most well-known companies started by Ukrainians, ranging from WhatsApp to Grammarly.

WhatsApp

Jan Koum, a Ukrainian emigrant, founded Whatsapp. He was born to a Jewish household in Fastiv in 1976, where Russia is currently conducting military operations. He co-founded WhatsApp, which Facebook bought for $19.3 billion in 2014.

PayPal

A Ukrainian-American software engineer named Maksymilian Rafailovych “Max” Levchin co-founded the firm that became PayPal. One of the first ways to make digital payments was through the worldwide payment service. In addition to Yelp, Levchin produced the film Thank You for Smoking.

CleanMyMac

MacPaw, a Kyiv-based startup, developed CleanMyMac, an all-in-one Mac cleaner that removes gigabytes of unwanted rubbish and spyware. According to McPaw, after the invasion of the country, , “For our users and all our products will work without fail. We’ve been preparing for these circumstances and ensured no disruptions in the support and development of our products”.

Snapchat

Looksery, a firm based in Odessa, Ukraine, developed the masking technology utilized in Snapchat. Yurii Monastyrshin was the driving force behind it, and the company now has offices in both the United States and Ukraine. Do you enjoy using Snapchat filters? You may thank Looksery for that.

Grammarly

Grammarly, a programme dedicated to assisting users with generating grammatically correct and error-free content, is used by the majority of people who deal with words on a regular basis. Grammarly was created by three Ukrainians, Max Lytvyn, Alex Shevchenko, and Dmytro Lider, and is today worth $13 billion.