The Create4Me marketplace has launched in Ukraine, a platform for selling handmade products that aims to become a local alternative to the American giant Etsy. The project, founded by veteran Maksym Maksymenko, has already brought together over 300 Ukrainian craftsmen.
The Create4Me marketplace has launched in Ukraine, a platform for selling handmade products that aims to become a local alternative to the American giant Etsy. The project, founded by veteran Maksym Maksymenko, has already brought together over 300 Ukrainian craftsmen.
As reported by LIGA.net, the idea of creating the platform arose from a personal request: the founder noticed that on the available resources, handmade goods were getting lost among mass-produced products from China. «I wanted to create a platform specifically for handmade goods in order to close the gaps I saw in the future,» the entrepreneur explained.
Maksym Maksymenko was demobilized from the army in 2022 after being seriously injured, and began developing the marketplace with the support of grant funds.
The project was funded by the Ukrainian Veterans Fund within the framework of the «Varto 11.0» program. The total grant amount was UAH 1.5 million, of which about UAH 600,000 was invested directly in development, interface design, and server capacity rental. Currently, the platform development continues at the expense of the founder’s own funds and income from commissions.
The marketplace’s monetization is based on a commission model, where the rate depends on the seller’s status: veterans pay 8%, volunteers — 12%, and other craftsmen — 15%. Technical support and promotion of the resource are provided by a team of four specialists.
By the end of 2026, Create4Me plans to transform from a trading platform into a full-fledged community, where craftsmen will be able to receive legal and accounting support. Maksymenko’s strategic goal is to enter international markets, where the platform will act as an intermediary between Ukrainian craftsmen and global online platforms or offline fairs abroad.
Former military man and now QA Expert at SoftServe, Vitaliy Kalinichenko, created the NGO «Ukrainian Veteran IT Association». The goal is to build a holistic ecosystem for veterans and employers in the IT sector. The NGO’s activities began with the launch of the job search platform «Veteran+ JobPortal».
