Марія Бровінська Увійти в ІТ 1 December 2025, 08:59

“We do not plan to leave Ukraine or relocate.” The story of a Ukrainian who launched the EdTech startup JayJay in Indonesia and has already trained 8,000 students in digital professions

Even during a full-scale war, Ukrainian businesses should not stop, says Vitaliy Syomka, CEO of Anteniti and founder of the educational startup JayJay. While large companies are counting losses, his team has not only preserved its business, but also entered a new market, launched an EdTech platform in Indonesia, and attracted $1 million in investment from Jooble Venture Lab.

dev.ua talked to Vitaliy about how he entered the new EdTech field for him, what challenges he faced in a country with a different culture, and why launching in Indonesia took much longer than it seemed at the start.

Two megatrends that defined the future

Vitaliy Syomka is a Ukrainian entrepreneur from Kryvyi Rih. In 2021, he graduated from the Presidential MBA program at Kyiv-Mohyla Business School, and it was this program that significantly influenced his management perspective and the decision to create an EdTech startup.

«Although I don’t have a classic technical IT education, I’ve been launching businesses since I was 17, most of which were at the intersection of technology, digital solutions, and management. I created products from scratch, built teams, systems, did strategic management, entered new markets, managed operations, and worked with data. My previous project — manufacturing and distributing hardware for telecom operators — gave me a deep understanding of the requirements for high-quality hardware and software. All of this became the foundation of JayJay,» he says.

The idea for JayJay came about, the entrepreneur says, while studying at kmbs. «I deeply experienced the experience of studying as an adult and realized: the world is moving towards total digitalization. The number of digital companies is growing, and at the same time, specialists are needed to work in this new environment,» the startuper explains.

The second megatrend is the transition from the paradigm of «human as a labor resource» to «human as the center of the economy.» «Over the past 30 years, this has happened radically: now it is people who demand quality work, service, and life. Remote employment, digital professions, and choosing a convenient life model are the norm,» says Vitaliy.

He admits: he realized that all companies that improve the quality of life through skills, extending productive life, and developing professions will have tremendous growth in the next 100 years.

«JayJay is exactly about this: about learning, digital skills, career development, and human empowerment,» says Szyomka.

Why Indonesia?

Vitaliy was looking for a country with a large market, demand for IT and creative professions, adequate competition, and a low investment entry threshold.

Indonesia turned out to be ideal. First, according to the entrepreneur, it has the largest youth audience in Southeast Asia. Second, there is a high demand for practical digital skills. The third factor is the lack of high-quality, affordable education. And then there is the dynamic EdTech sector. «Today, we have 52 competitors, and we are already in the top 10 in terms of traffic, and in the creative professions niche, we are No. 1,» says the startuper.

10 months before first sale

Vitaliy admits: the path to success was thorny. «We started working in 2021. It took us ten months to make the first sale — it happened only in May 2022,» says the entrepreneur. Launching in a remote market, he adds, was extremely difficult. «I had never taken products outside of Ukraine. I had never worked with Southeast Asia and had not even been to Indonesia before the launch. I had no experience in online education,» says Vitaliy.

The entrepreneur had to learn everything from scratch: creating curricula, operations, and models of interaction with students.

In addition to organizational challenges, Vitaliy faced cultural and mental differences of a new audience for him. «Language and cultural differences — the slightest mistake in communication could cost a reputation. Another challenge was local payment systems, legal requirements. And finding the first local employees was a real quest. We tried to do marketing without knowledge of the market — we retested dozens of hypotheses before we found the right strategy,» Vitaliy shares.

What is JayJay?

The name for the startup, says Szymka, was invented by an acquaintance from a creative agency. «We needed a short name, neutral, easy to pronounce in any language, and „playful.“ JayJay sounds sonorous, rhythmic, youthful — like TikTok or GoGo. A name that is associated with dynamics and modernity. I liked it right away,» he admits.

Today, the team that creates JayJay has over 50 people — it is a bicultural, English-speaking team. About ten team members are Ukrainian. They are engaged in management, analytics, marketing, development, and work as an operations center. The Indonesian team is responsible for sales, local support, product production, and recruiting.

«I lived in Indonesia for a year with the management team — we built infrastructure and processes. But strategically we remain based in Ukraine. This is our home. And so — we do not plan to leave or relocate,» says Vitaliy.

The startup only had offices in Indonesia at the start, and it never had a physical office in Ukraine. The company has been working remote-first since day one. «We regularly meet with the Ukrainian team offline — it’s part of our culture. Will we ever return to offices? It’s possible, but in a hybrid format — if there’s a real business need for it,» the startuper thinks.

How JayJay works

JayJay.co is an online platform for educating young people in five areas:

Design
GameDev / Art
Marketing
Management
Programming

There are currently 32 courses available here, and the main product is intensive courses lasting 2–5 months. The learning model is asynchronous: a ready-made video studio, interactives, homework checking, personal mentors, one-to-one sessions.

This approach, says Vitaliy, has a number of advantages for clients: starting without waiting for recruitment; flexibility; personalization.

In 2025, the startup team integrated artificial intelligence into almost all intensives. «It’s about automating routines, focusing on core skills, and preserving 70% of practice,» Vitaliy sums up the effect of the innovation.

Currently, according to Szymka, JayJay is recruiting students through a website and paid performance marketing on Meta, Google, YouTube, and TikTok.

«Over 8,000 students have already gone through the platform,» he says.

JayJay’s value proposition, according to Vitaliy, consists of six components:

An almost empty niche of creative professions.
Unique asynchronous model with strong personal support.
«Craft» courses with top lecturers from large companies.
A wide range of modern professions.
Open positioning. «We are from Ukraine. For Indonesians, this is a sign of trust and European quality,» says Szymka.
People-centric service and support.

Money, investments, profits

Vitaliy says that he launched JayJay with his own money. The initial investment was $250,000. It was enough for the MVP, the first employees, and hypothesis testing.

At the end of 2022, the project team raised $1 million from Jooble Venture Lab. «It was a seed round that helped us scale. For me, it’s important that Jooble is not a fund, but an operating business, and their expertise was very useful,» says Szymka.

Currently, the startup operates in two formats:

Intensives — one check, average $432, sale through sales.
Mini-courses, or «Weekend Learning» for Gen Z, are microtransactions with an average check of $52. This is an innovation for 2025. «One skill, one course. Average check is $52. We are still testing the model,» says the startuper.

JayJay, according to Vitaliy, has been profitable for two years. «We grow by 40–50% every year and operate in a bootstrapped paradigm: at the expense of our own revenues, without burn rate and overheating,» he says.

Plans and prospects

In 2026, JayJay plans to expand its line of intensives and find product-market fit for the mini-course. «Indonesia is our main market, and we plan to ‘dig deeper’. In parallel, we are studying a possible launch in a second country,» intrigues Sömka.

And there are prerequisites for such development. The startup has already been included in the HolonIQ «Southeast Asia EdTech TOP 50» rating three times in a row — in 2023, 2024, and 2025. «It’s hard to get there, it’s even harder to stay there for three years. I’m proud of the team: this rating is confirmation of our resilience and the fact that analysts in the region see our progress,» Vitaliy sums up.

The entrepreneur emphasizes: JayJay is the first public Ukrainian startup in Indonesia/ «We are pioneers. We have to find non-standard solutions. That’s why I’m looking for adventurous people to join the team — those who are not afraid of new territories,» he noted.

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