Millions are using it: Here are the technology applications from Ukraine

As the world is shaken by the Russia-Ukraine war, Forbes Ukraine Editor-in-Chief Mike Sapiton said, “This war is not about Ukraine. It’s about all of you.” He reminded the important technologies of Ukrainian origin, which are used in many parts of the world.

Here are the technologies that Ukraine under Russian occupation brought to the world of technology:

1. WhatsApp

WhatsApp, which Facebook bought for $19.3 billion in 2014, was founded by Ukrainian immigrant Jan Koum. Koum was born into a Jewish family in Fastiv, where Russia launched a military operation in 1976.

2. PayPal

Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal, one of the world’s leading digital payment services, is also of Ukrainian origin. Born in 1975 in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, Levchin founded PayPal in 1998.

3. Snapchat

Snapchat’s trademark masking technology is under the signature of Lookery, a photography initiative co-founded by Ukraine-based Yurii Monastyrshin. Snapchat bought Looksery for $150 million in 2015 to put this technology into practice. This deal was the largest acquisition in the history of Ukraine.

4. CleanMyMac

Kiev is also the epicenter of MacPaw, developer of CleanMyMac, which cleans junk and malware from Mac computers. CleanMyMac has more than 30 million users worldwide.

5. Grammarly

Grammarly is one of the biggest technology companies to come out of Ukraine. Helping people write grammatically correct and error-free content, Grammarly was founded in 2009 by Ukrainians Max Lytvyn, Alex Shevchenko and Dmytro Lider.

6. Solano

Solano, one of the most popular blockchain networks in the world, was founded by Ukrainian origin Alex Yakovenko. Solano platform, which also has its own cryptocurrency called SOL, also hosts more than 400 DeFi, NFT and Web3 projects.

7. GitLab

Ukraine-based Dmitriy Zaporozhets founded GitLab from his home in Ukraine in 2011 to help developer teams collaborate more efficiently.

8. People.ai

People.ai, a predictive sales management platform that helps businesses increase the efficiency of sales teams and automates manual data entry, was also founded by Ukrainian Oleg Rogynskyy. Rogynskyy is counted among Ukraine’s most successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.