u.ventures

Mate Academy, founded in 2015 by a former Google employee, is an educational technology institution based in Kyiv, Ukraine. It specializes in teaching computer science subjects, including Python, Java, Frontend, UX, and Ruby, offering these courses at no cost to students. The academy aims to facilitate job placements for graduates, who then repay a portion of their salaries over a period of two to three years. This model not only provides valuable technical skills to students but also enables them to enter the job market without upfront tuition fees.

Pufetto is a Ukrainian company that specializes in selling upholstery and home furnishing products online. It focuses on creating furniture that embodies coziness and comfort, offering a range of customizable options, including sofas, armchairs, and beds. Pufetto aims to simplify the selection and purchasing process, ensuring that customers have a pleasant experience when choosing quality furniture. The company combines classic and modern design elements, catering to consumers who value aesthetics and functionality in their living spaces. With a commitment to reliability and long-lasting satisfaction, Pufetto strives to enhance everyday life by providing beautifully designed furniture that meets diverse needs.

Renetti is transforming the extremely conservative 15b European upholstery market, by introducing the best digital practices to create the best shopping experience for end customer. They offer a great way to buy personalized sofa or bed, with convenient online research/configuration tools, and tech-driven retail format, supported by excellent customer service. These are three references of what they currently do in Germany and Ukraine. They achieve this by integrating key players along the value chain, working under their umbrella brand. These players are: product designers, suppliers, manufacturers, logistics and retailers, and they coordinate their interactions through their IT platform. Products are designed by Italian architects, and produced-to-order by small size manufacturers in Europe, what allows to offer many customization options while keeping 5-6 week lead time and high quality for great price. Purchases for essential components (i.e. fabrics) are consolidated, as well as logistics. The platform is driven by proprietary technology: in-store visualization/sales tools, including AR and VR, full integration with resellers, suppliers and manufacturers, ERP/CRM and DMP which is able to match online and offline parts of customer journey for efficient marketing spend. With offices in Berlin and Kyiv, Renetti takes advantage of Germany’s 5b upholstery market, and Ukraine’s IT talent as well as low labor costs. They have served over 20.000 highly satisfied customers in Germany and Ukraine. Renetti is currently running benchmark showrooms in Germany and Ukraine. They are opening their products, service and tech stack to upholstery retail partners across Europe, giving small and medium size furniture retailers a ready-to-use packaged product, with 3x market average revenue per square meter, fast breakeven and low switching costs. They will scale by launching 250 new retail locations in Europe with local stores using revenue sharing model.

IO Technologies, Inc. specializes in developing content performance analysis tools designed for media brands. Founded in 2014 and based in Wilmington, Delaware, with an additional office in Kyiv, Ukraine, the company provides a range of services, including editorial analytics for both historical and real-time content performance, multimedia analytics, homepage optimization solutions, and insights delivery tools. Their platform aims to make analytics accessible to non-analysts, thereby enhancing organizational performance. IO Technologies partners with numerous media companies globally, including DMG Media and Times Internet, among others. Their tools focus on improving the reader experience and facilitating business growth by delivering ready-to-use dashboards that help teams track projects and ongoing work effectively.