Special investment fund helps Ukrainian companies grow during the hardest times
Nataliya Andreychuk, a marketing executive and cancer survivor, knows how important it is to get access to the right health information quickly.
“To be effective, the message has to travel fast, it must be easy to understand, and it must be delivered clearly to pharmacists and doctors,” says Andreychuk, the head of Viseven, a Ukrainian marketing and technology company working in the pharmaceutical sector. “All this information helps patients get diagnosed and treated faster. My cancer treatment has reinforced my belief in the importance of the work we do at Viseven.”
Viseven helps pharmaceutical companies improve communications, online content, data analytics, project management and the use of digital technology. In 2023, Horizon Capital, a private equity firm in Ukraine, invested in Viseven to help it expand internationally. Horizon is helping many Ukrainian companies do more business in other countries. The firm received a €25 million investment from the European Investment Bank in 2023 to broaden its work. This financing came from the EU for Ukraine Fund, established to address urgent needs and sustain the economy in Ukraine.
“The EIB’s investment ensures that businesses get access to financing at a time when they need it most, keeping jobs in Ukraine and helping to generate revenue for the country,” says Vasile Tofan, a senior partner at Horizon Capital.
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Grants, loans and investments to rebuild
The EU for Ukraine Fund, set up in 2023, enables donors to help the country’s economy and society. So far, donations have come from Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Luxembourg. The fund can offer financing to help small and medium businesses grow, and it can give grants to rebuild hospitals, schools and other critical infrastructure, such as roads and trains. It has pledges worth more than €400 million.
“The fund helps the EIB and EU Member States do more work for Ukraine’s economic recovery and reconstruction in the face of Russia’s invasion,” says Jesper Persson, who heads a team at the European Investment Bank managing the fund.
Finding a gap in marketing
Viseven was founded in 2009 in Zhytomyr, in northern Ukraine, by Andreychuk, Vyacheslav Vasylenko and Roman Vasylenko. Andreychuk, the chief executive of the company and an English language teacher by education, launched a career in information technology more than two decades ago, when the industry was just beginning to emerge in Ukraine. She found that pharmaceutical companies often need marketing and business development help. Her marketing company now employs more than 700 people and has offices in Ukraine, Estonia, India, Canada and the United States.
It was not easy for a woman to start a company 15 years ago in Ukraine in this type of industry.
Nataliya Andreychuk demonstrating her company’s eWizard content platform at a conference.
“This could not be a more difficult challenge, taking into consideration how conservative the pharma world is and some of the prejudices women in tech still have to overcome,” says Denys Sychkov, a principal at Horizon Capital who is based in Kyiv.
Viseven has remained successful by hiring medical experts, IT specialists, digital marketers, project managers, web designers, social media experts and business analysts. The company has more than 50 pharmaceutical clients around the world and is known for its “content experience” platform called eWizard. This tool lets companies run a digital content factory that automates the planning and managing of online content.
The pharmaceutical sector is heavily regulated and often resistant to digitalisation. Viseven makes it easier for these companies to develop and approve marketing content. This means they can reach the right audience at the right time with the correct message.
Managing the havoc during wartime
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Viseven team was already used to remote working. The havoc caused by the war was managed effectively by the team, many of whom became refugees overnight.
For the team members on the ground in Ukraine since 2022, the fact that they kept working brought a sense of normality during wartime. Viseven was already a global company in 2022, with employees in several different countries. There was no threat of losing business during the war because the staff working outside Ukraine took on extra projects when needed.
Yuliya Sotska, the chief brand and communications officer at Viseven, says the investments Horizon Capital is making in Ukraine also help the European Union, because Ukrainian companies are eager to work across Europe. Ukrainian companies make high-quality products, they have perseverance, good customer service, attention to detail and a willingness to think outside the box, she says.
Yuliya Sotska moderating a panel discussion on Ukraine’s technology industry at a summit meeting in Lisbon.
“Ukraine is worth investing in, Ukrainian people are worth investing in,” says Sotska, a Ukrainian who grew up in Canada but came back to her country and stayed, even during the war. “Our people are our wealth. We have enormous talent that is willing to go above and beyond.”
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