Antonov
Antonov State Company is one of the big-name companies famous in Ukraine, the countries of the former Soviet Union and beyond its borders. In 2015, Antonov ranked the 2nd in the Alliance Capital Management list of Top 20 Most Profitable Airlines. The company's main pride, Antonov An-225 Mriya exists in a single copy and is often booked for a year ahead: it operates on commercial flights for various cargo delivery, otherwise impossible to perform by air, such as 150-ton generators.
Initially, AN-225 was built to transport the Soviet Buran spacecraft to space — and on its background, Buran, roughly the size of the US Shuttle, seems tiny and timid. Mriya is one of the approximately 22,000 aircrafts built throughout the existence of the company. Thanks to the end of the Cold War, Antonov had the chance to expand and commercialize abroad and some of the A-2 aircrafts still operate in Cuba. Nowadays, Antonov cooperates with Boeing, Beijing A-Star Aerospace Technology Co, and Silk Way Airlines.
Roshen
Definitely one of the biggest confectionary companies in Ukraine, Roshen often pops up when it comes to Ukrainian sweets. Roshen Confectionery occupies the 25th place in the Global Top-100 Candy Companies ranking. Each brand shop in Kyiv is unique and lures kids with creative showcases, which present the process of sweets manufacturing. Roshen's product range includes more than 350 kinds of sweets.
Nowadays, Roshen plans to turn their chocolate factory in Kyiv into a public space, following the example of Lviv's !FEST republic and numerous factory-style free spaces in Western Europe. Roshen Plaza is planned to be completed by 2020. The reconstruction will allow anyone to attend Roshen factory and relax on the factory's territory afterward: there are plans to install a fountain and a technical complex for the light and music show. Besides, an open-air skating rink is planned to be opened as well.
DepositPhotos
One of the most famous photo stock companies in the world actually comes from Ukraine. DepositPhotos was founded way back in 2009 in a Kyiv basement office by a Ukrainian entrepreneur Dmitry Sergeev. Nowadays, the company functions internationally, providing more than 60 million royalty-free photographs and vector images. The site uses a pay-as-you-go system and offers several types of subscription for their users.
DepositPhotos has several international offices, including the one in Kyiv, and is headquartered in Florida, United States. In 2015, the company raised $5 million from EBRD and TMT Investments for their funding. According to Owler, the estimated annual revenue of DepositPhotos currently reaches $17 million. Depositphotos occupies the 44th rank in DOU list of Top 50 Biggest IT Companies in Ukraine.
Kyivstar
Kyivstar, the company with the 20-year history in Ukraine, provides cellphone and Internet services all over Ukraine. According to the American consulting group of Deloitte, Kyivstar currently belongs to the 500 largest companies of Central and Eastern Europe and has more than 26 million customers. Kyivstar is also a part of VEON, one of the world's largest integrated telecommunications companies. VEON owns telecom assets in various parts of the world, including CIS countries. Kyivstar occupies the 4th position on the Forbes list of Top 200 Biggest Companies in Ukraine.
Nowadays, Kyivstar's customer base is estimated to be over 26 million among those who use the mobile service and around 820 thousand who prefer the broadband internet. The company promotes business initiative: it introduced Radar TECh technological cluster in the Expocenter of Ukraine, Kyivstar Business Hub to develop business ideas with youth and Make Your Mark program that supports young talented students and entrepreneurs.
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WOG
Up to date, WOG is the biggest network filling stations and the largest importer of fuel in Ukraine. It is represented in 24 regions of the country and provides services for approximately 150 000 customers every day. The 8 types of fuel available on WOG are imported from certified factories of Lithuania, Romania, and Belarus. The company was founded in 2000 and ten years later was awarded the 'Gas Station of the Year' during the Choice of The Year Ukraine awards.
In 2015, the company launched several cafe points famous for high-quality coffee and quick self-service. WOG participates in charity by raising funds for ATO veterans and children in need. In 2018, WOG ranked number 77 in the Forbes list of the 200 highest-grossing companies in Ukraine. According to the data, the company's revenue for 2017 amounted to UAH 9.75 billion.
Grammarly
The famous online grammar-checking tool is, in fact, one of the Ukrainian companies that are known in the whole world. Grammarly belongs to the Inc. 500 companies and has offices in New York and Kyiv, with headquarters in San Francisco. Grammarly ranks 6th in Forbes list of innovative Ukrainian companies that can save the economy.
The software program that helps users with grammar and spell checking, as well as plagiarism detection, was initially released in 2009 by Alex Shevchenko and Max Lytvyn in Kyiv. Grammarly is available as a browser extension for various browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, as well as an app for iOS and Android. In 2017, Chrome extension reached the 10 million times download benchmark. The same year the company received $110 million investment led by General Catalyst.
Jooble
The worldwide job search engine Jooble was founded in 2007 in Kyiv and is currently headquartered in the capital as well. The website operates in more than 60 countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, as well as North and South Americas. The multilingual job listings service is available in 24 languages.
After being founded by Roman Prokofyev und Ievgen Sobakarov more than ten years ago, the company went a long way to expand from Ukraine and became an international service. According to SimilarWeb rating, Jooble is the fifth largest job aggregator in the world. The monthly user benchmark reaches 50 million people.
Naturally, the list of top companies in Ukraine isn't limited to a single sphere. Numerous fashion, technology, gaming, and ecological startups currently gain their deserved attention in the limelight.
The companies are mentioned in a random order.
Photo sources: Facebook and websites of businesses mentioned above, epravda.com.ua, unsplash.com. All images belong to their rightful authors.
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