Valery Krasovsky, CEO of Sigma Software Group, speaks with dev.ua to analyze the company’s cooperation with British giant BAE Systems, explain the importance of European digital sovereignty, and name the promising Ukrainian projects changing the rules of the game on the battlefield.
Valery Krasovsky, CEO of Sigma Software Group, speaks with dev.ua to analyze the company’s cooperation with British giant BAE Systems, explain the importance of European digital sovereignty, and name the promising Ukrainian projects changing the rules of the game on the battlefield.
In total, we acquired 65 new clients over the year, so the growth rate remains the same as last year. Regarding this year’s KPIs, having serious and complex projects is more important to us than sheer numbers. The paradigm in the market has shifted: while previously clients came looking for a large number of people (requests for 50–100 developers), they are now more cautious due to geopolitics and AI challenges. Now, orders are more focused on solving specific business challenges, such as the orchestration of existing AI tools.
Our offices operate uninterrupted 99,9% of the time. We have long been equipped with generators and Starlinks, so our spaces are a kind of «hub of resilience» where we even invite friends from other companies.
Over the past four years, clients have grown accustomed to this situation; they see that projects are completed on time and have simply stopped noticing infrastructure issues. We have even shared our business continuity experience (knowledge sharing) with the Swedish government, companies, and institutions, as they also feel a certain level of danger due to their proximity to the Russian Federation.
We try to grow in several places simultaneously. Brazil is interesting to us because it shares a similar time zone with the US, which is convenient for American customers, and it also has a powerful talent market.
We chose between various Latin American countries—we have people in Argentina and Colombia—but Brazil currently has our largest office, with about 80 people. We attended several conferences in Brazil, liked the atmosphere and the people, and decided to scale there specifically.
We received 30 applications from candidates all over the world: Canada, Poland, Ireland, Portugal, Britain, Cyprus, USA, Spain, Austria, and even Kenya. This is practically a never-ending process because the company always has more ideas than people capable of realizing them. The candidates come with very strong experience.
Publicly, I can only confirm the fact of cooperation in the field of cybersecurity. We built this relationship over a long period, perhaps a year or more. We are also very active in the British market and promote relations between the countries through initiatives like the UK-Ukraine TechBridge and participation in joint events like London Tech Week.
This is very important for the long term. At world exhibitions in Dubai or Qatar, national pavilions are the norm, and Ukraine must show what it is capable of. Right now, there is even more attention on us due to successful cases in Defense Tech that are going to IPO just a few years after being founded.
Previously, Ukraine was a talent forge and a service business, then product companies appeared, and now—powerful DefTech. The main facilitator is the Ministry of Digital Transformation, but the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and embassies also actively help. The Brave1 project was a very timely initiative for redirecting grants into the defense ecosystem.
I believe you have to start somewhere, because if you never start, nothing will happen. Gaia-X is the right initiative because software can be a digital weapon. In the modern world, it is impossible to completely abandon American products, but it is important to reduce dependence: store your data locally and train your own LLM models without excessive sharing. It’s like digital defense.
The technology is advancing. This is evidenced by our investment with the SID Venture Partners fund in the company Haiqu, founded by a Ukrainian and an American. Haiqu raised $11 million and cooperates with giants like IBM, Airbus, and HSBC bank. This is a good indicator, as it demonstrates they have results to be proud of and real development.
In general, quantum computing is a harbinger of a future revolution in cyber defense, as quantum computing will be able to instantly crack modern security keys. Therefore, we must prepare for this before computational methods can break existing protection.
I would also highlight blockchain as one of the technologies that developed rapidly over the past year. Unfortunately, traditional banks are inefficient when payments take 3–5 days, so blockchain technologies will eventually push them out.
I use several tools. Grok even recently suggested we laugh together at ChatGPT’s conclusions because the latter cannot work in real-time and lags behind trends.
I use Perplexity for research, and Microsoft Copilot is integrated into our workflows. Each has its advantages, though Copilot still needs improvement.
That’s a very interesting question. Who knows how long it will last. I think someone will win this race, and someone will fail to keep up the pace. Currently, most companies in this field are unprofitable due to huge energy and computing costs. Someone will definitely collapse, but it won’t be a crash like the dot-com bubble in 2000 because the technology is already genuinely helping with efficiency.
There is a good example with Uber—the company only became profitable a couple of years ago, but before that, it existed for decades on investor funds. The story of the pandemic and the fall of banks like Silicon Valley Bank or Credit Suisse showed that if there isn’t enough money, they simply print it. They solved the SVB problem literally over a weekend. So, there are resources in the market.
But comparing it to YouTube, which eventually pushed everyone out and remained alone, the situation here will be different. I think more than one player will survive this race, and a market with several strong solutions will form.
The potential is incredibly high. DefTech will become a core industry on par with agriculture and IT. Right now, we are seeing money constantly poured into defense, new investment rounds being raised, and companies entering foreign markets. Sigma Software Group, together with partners including the Kyiv School of Economics, also helps DefTech companies through the Defense Builder accelerator.
Most countries are thinking very seriously about this. Ukraine has a unique situation: extremely fast feedback from the front and experience working with a vast array of Western weaponry. The demand for people in defense companies is growing daily. Besides Swarmer, I recommend paying attention to: Buntar Aerospace, Sine Engineering, and General Chereshnya.
