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Наталя ХандусенкоHot News
14 May 2026, 10:33
2026-05-14
“The war pushed us to go global.” Ukrainian IT service company Sombra enters the Indian market, and its office in Colombia now accounts for 20% of the company
In nine years, IT company Sombra has gone from a one-room office in Lviv and orders on Upwork to a powerful international business. The company now has three offices in Ukraine, opened a branch in Colombia in 2023, and plans to expand into the Indian market. Despite the challenges of the war, Ukraine remains the "heart" and main headquarters of the company.
In nine years, IT company Sombra has gone from a one-room office in Lviv and orders on Upwork to a powerful international business. The company now has three offices in Ukraine, opened a branch in Colombia in 2023, and plans to expand into the Indian market. Despite the challenges of the war, Ukraine remains the "heart" and main headquarters of the company.
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The IT service company Sombra was founded in 2014 by developer Viktor Czech. During this time, the company has scaled to cooperate with businesses in the US and Canada and currently has about 40 active clients.
The company has offices in Kyiv, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk, and since 2023, Sombra has entered the Colombian market, opening representative offices in Medellin and Bogota.
Currently, the international team has over 400 specialists, of whom 340+ work in Ukraine and 60 in Colombian branches.
Financial indicators confirm steady growth: according to Opendatabot, in 2025 the company's revenue in Ukraine reached almost UAH 500 million, which is 23% higher than the results of the previous year. With a net profit of UAH 37 million, Sombra confidently entered the top 50 most profitable IT companies in the country in 2025.
"We are not building a strategy on the hope that the war will end. If it does, good. But if not, we will still be able to develop the business, because we have already adapted: we know how to survive difficult winters, we have booked specialists, etc. But the main solutions for us now are diversification of locations, that is, growth outside of Ukraine. The war pushed us towards global development," said Sombra founder and CEO Viktor Chekh in an interview with LIGA.net.
Currently, Sombra has about 50 employees booked. Another 10 colleagues defend the country in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: some of them are directly on the front lines, while others apply their professional skills as IT specialists, performing the roles of developers and system administrators.
In 2023, the company began international expansion, opening its first overseas office in Colombia with an investment of around $75,000.
Currently, plans are underway to enter the Indian market, where they intend to invest a similar amount.
Although the main point of growth has been Colombia, which already accounts for 20% of the entire company, the Ukrainian business is not losing ground: the local office showed an increase of approximately 15%.
Victor Cech believes that expanding into the Colombian market was the right decision, even despite the challenges at the beginning: cross-cultural nuances or customer dissatisfaction with quality.
“We are gradually solving this. What has worked well for us: investments in travel. For cultural exchange, specialists from Ukraine travel to Colombia and vice versa. For example, now there are two Colombian employees in the Lviv office — a recruiter and a project manager. It was wrong to treat Colombians like Ukrainians — the mentalities are different after all. But we found a “golden mean” for how to work,” added the company founder.
The labor market in Colombia currently resembles the Ukrainian one of 2020–2021, where talented specialists have to compete. But according to Viktor Cech, this strengthens the company, as they gain skills to effectively compete for specialists in different geographical regions.
Ukraine remains a strategic center for Sombra: it is here that the main headquarters and all top management of the company are located. According to the founder, there are no plans to relocate the business - on the contrary, there is a tendency for managers from Europe to return to Ukraine to continue working in the key decision-making center.
"We set goals for growth figures in Ukraine, but they are lower than other locations. However, Ukraine is also strengthened by foreign locations. If it weren't for them, we would not only not grow, but most likely fall. We realized that even with war, you can build a global company and solve many issues by traveling. Moving is not a panacea," Viktor Chekh noted.
