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Russia’s war with Ukraine has taken a toll across the global economy, including in tech.Startup founders have posted online that they are halting their operations in Russia.Many VCs are also organizing large donation drives to help Ukrainians who have fled.
For startups and the venture capitalists who fund them, the conflict in Ukraine can feel close to home.
Ukraine has around 200,000 IT workers, and many of them work for US companies.Two weeks ago, when Russia’s military assault began, some startups called for the evacuation of their employees in Ukraine.
But after the Ukrainian government banned men ages 18 to 64 from leaving the country, those firms looked for ways to support refugees and show that they do not support the war.
Some are reexamining their Russian operations.Tech giants like Airbnb have suspended business in Russia and Belarus, while others like Meta , Twitter, and Instagram were forced to shut down by the Russian government.
Insider rounded up some of the key initiatives being led by US startups and their investors to increase pressure on Russia and offer support to the Ukrainian people.
Here are some of the tech firms sending aid to Ukraine.
A protester in London holds a sign during the demonstration at Trafalgar Square to protest the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Hesther Ng/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images GeoZilla The San Francisco location-services startup, GeoZilla, wants to reunite families by providing its geo-locator app services for free to anyone based in Ukraine.This also applies to relatives in other countries wanting to locate family in Ukraine.
The team recently lost GeoZilla’s accountant and her two children to an attack outside of Kyiv.
“Her husband managed to track her and learned of the death as the geo-locator pinned her as being in a hospital,” Joanne Sawicki, GeoZilla’s public relations advisor, told Insider.
The team has 25 colleagues remaining in Ukraine and is now in the process of organizing an evacuation.
Grammarly The AI startup and San Francisco-based unicorn Grammarly will offer free services in Ukraine and will donate all of its net revenue — totaling over $5 million — earned from Russia and Belarus since Russia invaded Crimea in 2014 to causes supporting Ukraine, a representative told Insider.
One Way Ventures Semyon Dukach, managing partner and founder of One Way Ventures, and his wife Natasha, set up Cash for Refugees .The donations are given to refugees, cash in hand, once they’ve crossed out of Ukraine.
“This allows them the freedom to meet their own basic needs with a sense of agency,” he told Insider in an email shortly before heading back to the Ukrainian-Romanian border.
Natasha was born in Ukraine and Semyon was a refugee from the Soviet Union as a child in 1979.
—Semyon Dukach (@SemyonDukach) February 28, 2022
Social Capital The CEO of Social Capital, Chamath Palihapitiya, tweeted that he sponsored a plane full of humanitarian relief supplies through Flexport, a US-based shipping company that is working with organizations such as UNICEF and Project Hope to determine what is needed most and where.
True Global Ventures True Global Ventures, donated $200,000 to the crypto-currency project made by blockchain activists, Unchain Ukraine.
“True Global Ventures is standing firm on its anti-war position and promoting the humanitarian side of the world,” the firm wrote in a blog post .
2048 Ventures The founder and managing partner of 2048 Ventures, Alex Iskold, was born in Ukraine and left at the age of 19.
“I still have family and many close friends there,” he told Insider.
So when Russia invaded Ukraine, Iskold was devastated.
“I don’t remember feeling like this.Having emotions like this,” he said in a tweet.”I am shaken and at the same time I am more inspired than ever.”
Inspired by the resilience shown within his native country, Iskold started the $1K Project, a fund focused on giving money directly to families.As of Wednesday, he’s received over 10,000 families asking for support from the fund.
Venture capitalists Dan Teran, the cofounder and managing partner at Gutter Capital; Dan Abelon, partner at Two Sigma Ventures; and Fred Wilson, managing partner at Union Square Ventures, have supported families with their personal funds through Iskold’s project.
—Alex Iskold💡2048 Ventures (@alexiskold) March 9, 2022 And these are the tech firms pulling out of Russia.
Police officers detain a demonstrator with a poster that reads, “I’m against the war,” in Moscow, Russia.AP Photo/Denis Kaminev Grammarly Grammarly, which was founded by three Ukrainian university students, has announced that it is halting all business operations in Russia and Belarus indefinitely.
Bitmovin The video processing and streaming company Bitmovin, which hosts media companies such as the BBC and The New York Times, has also shuttered its operations in Russia.
“We don’t believe we can stand in solidarity with Ukraine and our Ukrainian colleagues while conducting business there,” said Stefan Lederer, the CEO and cofounder of Bitmovin.
Reddit The social media site, Reddit, has banned all links to Russia’s state-sponsored news outlets, RT and Sputnik.
“The conflict in Ukraine has been shocking and upsetting,” reads a statement released by Reddit.
It has designated Ukrainian and Russian translators to assist teams to monitor forums around the conflict and won’t accept government or private advertisements from Russia.
Not all tech firms with Russian operations are leaving.
Russian police and National Guard servicemen patrol Red Square in Moscow in October 2021.ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images The web infrastructure startup Cloudflare made the decision to remain in Russia.
In a recent blog post , the company’s CEO, Matthew Prince, said that stopping their services in Russia would be a mistake.
This came in response to cybersecurity startup, SOC Prime’s call for companies to collectively act against Russian cyber-attacks.
“Terminating service would do little to harm the Russian government,” Prince wrote.
“But would both limit access to information outside the country, and make significantly more vulnerable those who have used us to shield themselves as they have criticized the government.”.
