KYIV -- Ukraine’s fast growing IT sector will be showcased in Las Vegas in January when 10 hardware and internet of things startups share an exhibition stand at the massive annual Consumer Electronics Show.

The industry pacesetter, the show drew 170,000 visitors drawn by 3,600 company stands spread over 22 hectares of display place.

The 10 Ukrainian startups were chosen from 80 who were vying for the all expenses paid trip to the show and participation in the Ukrainian stand. For the second year in a row, the Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association and the Western NIS Enterprise Fund will sponsor the Ukrainian delegation.

The winners were chose by a panel of investors and entrepreneurs including HP Tech Venture’s Vitaly Golomb and Ukrainian investment fund SMRK’s Andriy Dovzhenko. A place on the Ukrainian team ensures media exposure and placement of their company logos on the stand.

Here are the winners:

• Senstone: a wearable voice recorder powered by artificial intelligence. Through Kickstarter, this startup raised $302,000, six times more than the pledged amount, from 2,745 backers. First device shipments are to be in coming weeks, Markiyan Matsekh, Senstone’s co-founder told Ukraine Digital News.
• EIT Backpack: touted as “the first backpack with an LED screen.”
• Kidslox: this Ukrainian-British startup helps parents “control kids’ mobile device time.” Its technological and business development teams work in Ukraine.
• This Kray Technologies drone can apply up to 15kg of pesticides on each run (supplied)
  Kray Technologies: this US-headquartered startup with Ukrainian roots touts its product as “the world’s first drone that can be used for applying crop protection at an industrial scale for almost all crop production farms.”
  
• Kwambio: the US-based on-demand manufacturing platform uses 3D printers to make ceramic and metal objects. Founded in 2013, Kwambio secured $650,000 in 2015 at a TechStars accelerator in Boston.
• MMone: this Ukrainian-founded startup offers “the world’s first three-axis virtual reality simulator, in the form of chair attached to an industrial robot-like arm that moves in response to the action in a video game.”

• PassivDom: this Ukrainian-founded startup offers “sustainable self-learning modular houses using 3D-printing technology.”

On display in southern Kyiv, this solar powered, insulated Passiv Dom is fully portable and allows living off the electricity grid (supplied)

• Agrieye: this Ukrainian-founded, AI-powered startup is already used experimentally by farmers in the US. The company is participating in an acceleration program by Norwegian Katapult accelerator. Agrieye seeks $3.5 million to scale up on the US market.
• LaMetric, designed by Smart Atoms, a London-based startup with Ukrainian roots, presents itself as “an Internet-connected clock that makes your space unique with charming clock faces, controls smart home with a glance, tracks business metrics in real time, creates music atmosphere with the dance of pixels.”
• Discoperi, a Ukraine-founded, Madrid-based startup offers an AI-enhanced road safety control system called “Eye.”

For comments and story ideas, please contact UBJ Correspondent Mark Satter at marksatter@theubj.com

Posted Nov. 2, 2017