KYIV/KHARKIV, Ukraine (CI Ukraine)-– Boosteroid founder and CEO Ivan Shvaichenko is a prime example of how Ukrainian private sector companies play a pivotal role in the nation’s David-versus-Goliath battle against Russia’s far superior military force and whose inherent dynamism allows them to leapfrog  conglomerates like Alphabet [NYSE:GOOG], Amazon [NASDAQ:AMZN], and Microsoft [NYSE:MSFT] in innovation and applied technology.

[Boosteroid founder and CEO Ivan Shvaichenko speaks to Capitol Intelligence/CI Ukraine along with company general counsel Vladyslav Kosmin in Kiev and Kharkiv, Ukraine]

In a little more than seven years, Kharkiv native, Shvaichenko, 40, built his Kyiv-based Boosteroid cloud game hosting company into the third largest in the world after Santa Clara-based Nividia [NASDAQ: NVDA] GeForce and Japan’s Sony PlayStation Cloud Gaming, with operations throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

The 85 employees of Boosteroid — like everyone in Kyiv and Kharkiv — come into work every morning notwithstanding nightly air raid sirens and voice warnings by Star Wars’ Mark Hamill of incoming Russian ballistic missiles and drones. The streets of Kyiv and Kharkiv are as busy and vibrant as before the war, only difference that the locals are all slightly grumpy as young parents with colic infants.

One leading Ukraine military commander said he predicted victory over Russia by autumn and Ukraine would be willing to push an offensive “even to meeting the Chinese” if necessary. Boosteroid success most recently culminated in signing a 10-year partnership agreement with Microsoft pushed through by no less than its president and vice chairman, Brad Smith.

On top of its market share in North America and the EU, Boosteroid is in the process of opening in Central Asian markets of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan; Africa’s most populated nation Nigeria; and the growing consumer market of mineral rich Indonesia.

However, the company says it has immediate plan to expand in Latin America, with special focus on Brazil.

In fact, Shvaichenko stated goal is to bring Boosteroid, now with a market value of between $500m to $1 billion based on fair market value, to Nasdaq.

“It’s not if but when,” he said, about a US Nasdaq listing of his company that he describes as the Netflix of gaming.

Even with daily missile attacks, Shvaichenko and his legal team headed by Vladyslav Kosmin and Artem Skoryi were instrumental in convincing EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager to greenlight Microsoft’s $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard that US Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan underhandedly colluded with UK Competition Market Authority’s Sarah Cardell to block on monopoly grounds.

Microsoft is certain to appeal the FTC and CMA decisions, including on constitutional grounds, in US federal court and in the high court of the UK.

“We were in contact over 21 times with the EU Competition on the Microsoft/Activision deal, explaining why the merger would help increase competition and not hinder it,” Kosmin said.

[Microsoft President and Vice Chairman Brad Smith speaks to Capitol Intelligence/CI Ukraine using CI Glass on making private sector investment in Ukraine and partnership with Boosteroid and the US FTC and UK CMA opposition to its $70 billion takeover of Activision.]

In fact, Japan’s PlayStation spared no expense in lobbying the FTC and CMA to block the merger between Microsoft’s Xbox unit and Call of Duty maker Activision even if the combined Xbox and Activision would be half the size of PlayStation.

Khan, the UK born chairperson of the FTC, is allied with anti-business, and far left “progressive” democrats led by US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) as opposed to the more bipartisan and mainstream chairwoman of the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee for Antitrust, US Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

Another example of a dynamic Ukrainian company is Kyiv-based Nova Poshta, – a combination of Ebay/Amazon/Alibaba – that has become a critical lifeline for Ukrainian companies and citizens sending and receiving goods around Ukraine and to Europe, United States Asia after the Russian war closed off all air cargo operations and hampered traditional mail.

Nova Poshta beats out all its competitors like Memphis, Tennessee-based FDX Corporation [NYSE: FEDEX], Seattle-based United Parcel Service [NYSE:UPS]; Deutsche Post owned DHL in customer satisfaction and has rejected multiple takeover bids from above mentioned rivals and e-commerce giants.

[Amazon and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos speaks to Capitol Intelligence using CI Glass (google glass) at the National Press Club. Washington, DC. September 17, 2014]

Colonel Oleksandr O., the commander of one of the key logistics units in the Armed Forces Ukraine (AFU), said the military and the private sector has been forced to work in parallel to overcome unprecedented obstacles thrown up by the war.

For the military logistics, Ukraine is teaching not only the Pentagon on how to supply and feed an army using decentralized logistics but showing Amazon’s owner Jeff Bezos how to use drones by delivering critical supplies to front lines fighters in Bakhmut.

What also made the Ukrainian army so effective against their Russian enemy was their ability to adapt innovation and technology at a pace not seen since World War II.

Col. Oleksandr O. said he was very interested in adapting hyperledger distributed technology (blockchain) developed by market leader Digital Asset Holdings and used by companies such as Dutch shipping giant Maersk.

“Right now, we use paper for orders because the Russian cannot hack it, but secure communication via blockchain would be ideal,” he said.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister in change of innovation and digitalization, Mykhailo Fedorov, recently traveled to Washington DC to demonstrate the county has developed the world’s leading e-government system with its Diia platform that provides 360-degree citizen services from real-time health records; passports and driver licenses; fines and tax payment to even allowing citizens to report enemy movements and mortgages for front-line soldiers.

[Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation and Innovation Mykhailo Fedorov filmed by Capitol Intelligence/CI Ukraine using CI Glass at the presentation of the Diia e-government platform in Washington DC on May 23, 2023]

The Diia platform was developed by Ukrainian based programmers led by Yegor (George) Dubinsky using open-source software.  Diia met and even exceeded the leading e-government platforms of Estonia and Lithuania.

Peter Premk, a consultant to Slovenian Finance Minister Klemen Bostjancic, said he is proposing the country adapt Diia’s e-health system.

Fedorov — who many tout as a future president of Ukraine after Volodymyr Zelensky — was entirely unaware that his Tedx Talk like presentation of the ground breaking Diia platform to a standing room only crowd of government officials and corporate lobbyists poured fuel to the acrimonious battle of influence between United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) CEO Scott Nathan and United States Agency for International Development (US AID) Administrator Samantha Power on who will lead non-military support for Ukraine and the $400-$500 billion needed to rebuild the country.

In fact, the battle between aid and investment is currently being waged within the US DFC by the agency’s chief of staff and former State Department official, Jane Rhee, who wants the agency to be more of “social impact” development organization rather than carry out its congressionally mandated mission as the lender of last resort for private sector companies in geo-politically important countries such as Ukraine.

Opposing political forces such as Kharkiv regional chairwoman Tatyana Yegorova-Lutsenko and Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov are now united and working closely together to bring US corporate investment to Ukraine’s industrial and scientific heartland.

[Kharkiv region (oblast) chairwoman Tatyana Yegorova-Lutsenko speaks with Capitol Intelligence/CI Ukraine using CI Glass on her talks with Ohio governor Mike DeWine to forge partnership agreement between the region of Kharkiv and the State of Ohio]

Yegorova-Lutsenko, who is the highest elected official in the Kharkiv region, said she will include the participation of major Ohio-based businesses such as Cincinnati, Ohio-based Procter & Gamble [NYSE: PG], Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear Tires [NASDAG: GT], and Columbus, Ohio-based American Electrical Power [NASDAQ: AEP] in a soon to be finalized partnership agreement between the region of Kharkiv and the State of Ohio negotiated directly with Ohio governor Mike DeWine.

The plan is also to twin Ohio State University with Kharkiv University and follows on an earlier Sister City agreement between the city of Kharkiv and Cincinnati.

The soft-spoken mayor of Kharkiv, Terekhov, said that it is local and regional authorities that must take the lead in promoting and facilitating foreign investors and not the central government in Kiev.

“I will do everything to help companies establish themselves in Kharkiv and all we expect in return is new tax revenues,” he said.

Not only has Shvaichenko nudged Yegorova-Lutsenko and Terekhov on the same page regarding foreign investment in Kharkiv but also to agree to rename a street to mark the birthplace of Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor and the Cold War architect in bringing down the Soviet Union.

Shvaichenko said no-one should be surprised that Ukrainian companies can operate and even grow market share because war makes everyone focus “on results and not process.”

PK Semler in Kyiv and Kharkiv, Ukraine. For more information, email pks@capitolintelgroup.com
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