UNIT.City — місце, де люди працюють... КРАЩЕ! Обирай свій простір просто зараз 👉
Наталя ХандусенкоStartup
25 September 2025, 14:18
2025-09-25
"Over the next 10-30 years, Africa will become the main source of labor for developed economies." Ukrainians launch WorkUgo platform for employing African workers in Western countries
Two weeks ago, the founder of the venture fund Digital Future, Oleksiy Vitchenko, together with his partner Andriy Malenkov, launched the startup WorkUgo, a platform where Western companies can search for and recruit workers from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The partners are betting on labor shortages in developed countries.
Two weeks ago, the founder of the venture fund Digital Future, Oleksiy Vitchenko, together with his partner Andriy Malenkov, launched the startup WorkUgo, a platform where Western companies can search for and recruit workers from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The partners are betting on labor shortages in developed countries.
Oleksiy Vitchenko told this in an interview for Forbes Ukraine.
The startup has already received its first investment — $200,000 from the Digital Future venture fund.
“Over the next 10–30 years, Africa will become the main source of labor for developed economies,” says Vitchenko. According to him, the United States, Canada, and Germany are already experiencing a shortage of qualified personnel.
WorkUgo is initially launching in Canada with B2B pilots in the metallurgy, energy, and mining industries. They plan to sign several agreements in the coming months. According to Malenkov, the needs of one client can start from 10 to 100 employees.
Canada has a special French-speaking program that provides work permits and the opportunity to obtain a PMP. Therefore, initially, workers will be attracted from those African countries where the main language is French.
Next year, they plan to add Latin America (Chile, Uruguay) and Asia (Vietnam, Malaysia).
The platform will work as follows: a candidate fills out a form on the website and undergoes an experience assessment. Then, the employer receives the top five candidates for a given vacancy and chooses from them.
The startup is responsible for organizing the transportation of migrants and the costs. For this, they cooperate with licensed migration consultants RCIC in Canada.
Monetization will take place using the placement fee model — the employer pays a one-time percentage of the candidate's annual salary — 15% to 25%, depending on the profession. According to Malenkov, current salaries for these positions in Canada range from 70,000 to 95,000 Canadian dollars.
Over time, the team plans to introduce an operator model — independently hiring employees and providing personnel for temporary use to corporations.
Ukrainians created AI-Copilot for Upwork. It is already used by Kyivstar and over 150 other businesses. How does such a tool work and does it really speed up the search for orders?
