Ukraine is long well-known for its top-notch IT specialists and IT companies. Recently, a new tech company Roosh has appeared on the local market and immediately set an ambitious goal: to change the conditions in Ukraine for IT specialists for the better so that they do not want anymore to leave the country. Roosh aims at creating IT projects and investing in promising projects that work with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). According to Sergey Tokarev, an IT entrepreneur, Reface investor, and Roosh founder, the company will help Ukraine become a place where IT specialists and startups will be able to develop and implement their ambitions.
In July 2021, Sergey Tokarev announced the launching of Roosh that was supposed to streamline everything he and his team had done before. Together with Sergey Kartashov, Eugene Kozytskyi, Den Dmitrenko, and Kiril Ukho, Tokarev gathered all the projects they started last year in one company. This way, the team wants to help develop different tech industries. Yet, when choosing a company to support, they give a priority to projects that work with AI and ML.
These two areas were chosen as they are recognized as knowledge-intensive areas and are increasing their positions in almost all the industries that are somehow connected to IT. These technologies are already deeply integrated into our lives: we use them when playing computer games, when translating text in an app, or when we see context ads on the Internet.
In 2020, ML and AI became ones of the most invested areas with up to 60% of private investments that stand for more than 40 billion US dollars.
Roosh also has AI and ML companies that have already proved their high demand on the market. One of them is the popular mobile app Reface that allows users to swap their faces with celebrities. By now, the app has been downloaded more than 100 million times and got millions of investments. The app became popular last year, and almost immediately reached top positions in the App Store, leaving behind such apps as TikTok, YouTube, Zoom, and Netflix. The founders of the app hope to keep the positions for long as they are not going to stop in their ambitions and aim at developing the technology so that a user will eventually be able to watch not only a gif and a small video with themselves but a movie or a TV episode.
Roosh also hosts Pawa project, a venture capital studio that develops projects based on ML. Sergey Tokarev believes that this project will turn into the largest startup accelerator in Europe. Just like Roosh itself, Pawa focuses mostly on AI and ML startups that work in the gaming, healthcare, media, and financing industries.
Another well-developed company in Roosh is ZibraAI. The company uses compact neural networks and creates 3D objects and 3D rendering. The founders believe they can reach full similarity with reality in their visual work so that game players will hardly see the difference.
The Roosh team also created Roosh Ventures, a venture capital fund that supports startups in the US and Europe. One of their most promising projects is the Oura project that provides users with a smart ring tracker and related mobile app in order to help people track their health state and changes in their bodies.
All in all, Sergey Tokarev believes that such successful projects will make IT specialists stay in Ukraine: once they see that it is possible to do business here and reach success, they will not opt for moving abroad or switching for outsourcing. This way, the Roosh team hopes to change the country for the better.
You can find out more about Sergey Tokarev in the source.