- OneUkraine was founded by European team of top tech entrepreneurs and investors pooling skills and resources to provide sustainable humanitarian relief for the Ukrainian people at scale, speed, and efficiency
- Three immediate priorities of OneUkraine: Get Ukrainians to safety, deliver humanitarian aid efficiently where it is needed most, and preserve and rebuild infrastructure through supporting Ukrainian SMEs and tech entrepreneurs
- OneUkraine’s unique operating model is based on working through Ukrainian experts, suppliers, and companies wherever possible
- OneUkraine invites donors and other partners looking to support Ukraine effectively and with immediate, lasting impact to join the initiative
Berlin, 24 May 2022. OneUkraine, a charitable organisation providing sustainable humanitarian relief for the Ukrainian people, today announced the official launch of its platform. Built by an accomplished group of European founders and investors, OneUkraine leverages their pooled skills, resources, and experience in founding, running and scaling multi-billion-dollar tech companies and applies those to support Ukrainians at a time of urgent need. OneUkraine’s immediate priorities are to support Ukrainians at home and abroad, deliver humanitarian aid, and to rebuild the tech and broader infrastructure of Ukraine through supporting small and medium-sized businesses and tech entrepreneurs on the ground. As many of the organization’s founding members are from Ukraine themselves or have strong family ties to the country, OneUkraine has direct access to unique local networks and up-to-date information about exactly what is required most urgently and where.
Since the start of the war, the team behind OneUkraine has already evacuated more than 5,500 people, mostly women and children, to safety and delivered aid worth more than EUR 4 million to Ukraine. They also built the first fully accredited Ukrainian school for 175 Ukrainian students and 25 teachers in Lithuania to provide education for refugees. The core aim of OneUkraine is to ensure continued support for the people of Ukraine in the fastest, most efficient and agile way by bundling relief efforts, connecting people and initiatives, and providing live updates on its activities via its fully digital platform.
Martin Reiter, CEO and co-founder of OneUkraine: “With many of our founders born and raised in Ukraine, we felt compelled to help our friends, family, and colleagues. All of our founders have proven track records leading or founding tech unicorns, and we are now doing collectively what we do best: working quickly and efficiently at scale, providing instant and much needed humanitarian relief for the people of Ukraine. We believe that we can help best by bringing an entrepreneurial, data-driven and sustainable approach to the world of humanitarian aid, complementing other major relief efforts. We started to evacuate refugees and supply aid on day one of the war three months ago – and we will continue to do so as long as necessary. We know that we can make a huge difference, and we welcome donors and other partners to join us on this critical, life-saving mission.”
OneUkraine’s founding team:
- Martin Reiter: Martin ran Groupon Ukraine back in 2011 and still has many friends in Ukraine. Martin previously held leading positions at Airbnb and Wayfair Europe and co-founded mademoisellemartina.org to help evacuate Ukrainian women and children.
- Martina Kojic: Martina grew up in post-war Croatia, with the impact and trauma of the post-war situation shaping much of her childhood. Martina co-founded mademoisellemartina.org to help evacuate Ukrainian women and children.
- Markus Fuhrmann: Markus, whose wife and her family are from Mariupol, Ukraine, is CEO and co-founder at GROPYUS, and previously co-founder of Lieferheld.de and Delivery Hero.
- Wolfgang Heigl: Wolfgang, who is based in Lithuania, is the co-founder & CSO of HomeToGo and the founder of NFQ Technologies UAB.
- Viktoriya Tigipko: Viktoriya, born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine, is the founding partner of TA Ventures and founder of ICLUB Global, the network angel investors. She is the founder of WTECH, a 5k+ network of women in tech business, Chairman of the Board of Ukrainian Startup Fund and founder and president of Odesa International Film Festival.
- Johannes Reck: Johannes, whose grandfather grew up in a small village which today is part of western Ukraine, is the co-founder and CEO of GetYourGuide.
- Dmitry Gorilovskiy: Dmitry, whose mother is from Rovno, Ukraine, has been organising adoptions of Russian orphans with disabilities since 2014, when the Russian government prohibited adoption by foreigners. He is a serial founder of product design, IoT and machine learning businesses such as Woodenshark and Moeco.
- Klaus Hommels: Klaus is the founder and chairman of Lakestar and one of Europe’s leading venture capitalists. Klaus is also a prominent voice for the European tech ecosystem with the aim of strengthening Europe’s position in times of digital transformation.
- Jens Hilgers: Jens, whose wife is Ukrainian, is a serial entrepreneur and has built and managed international games and tech companies in Central and Eastern Europe as well as in Asia. Among others, Jens is founding GP at BITKRAFT Ventures and is co-founder and chairman at G2 Esports.
- Alexa Sinyachova: Alexa, who was born and raised in Odessa, Ukraine, is the co-founder and CEO of IoT platform Moeco.
OneUkraine’s unique operating model is based on replicating the full lifecycle of humanitarian aid. The organisation’s highly scalable, data-driven platform, run by Ukrainian experts, matches Ukrainian needs, based on direct input from governmental departments, with Ukrainian producers. It thus helps Ukrainian businesses not just to survive, but to find new sources of demand, and enables donors to supply much-needed help while also strengthening Ukrainian supply chains and companies for the longer term.
The organisation evacuates refugees from several cities within Ukraine by employing Ukrainian bus drivers and using Ukrainian shelters where it supplies food procured within Ukraine. Aftercare in the countries and cities of destination across Europe is provided to Ukrainian refugees often through other fellow expats and refugees. OneUkraine helps with accommodation, registration and integration for a swift transition to employment and continued education in the host location. The same idea is applied to the building of schools, which are staffed with Ukrainian teachers that were forced to leave their country and now support Ukrainian refugee children.
OneUkraine was set up as a long-term initiative and requires substantial donor funds to help create a sustainable perspective for Ukraine and its people. The founders have built a full-time team to manage the growing portfolio of aid efforts, partnerships, and execution capabilities. While the cost of the operational team will be fully funded by the founders’ personal funds, OneUkraine is inviting donors and other partners to help fund the projects and support Ukraine efficiently. The platform is incorporated in Germany as a gGmbH, a charitable limited company and is audited by Ecovis, a leading auditor specialised on charities.
For more information on OneUkraine, please visit www.oneukraine.com
Media contact
Knut Engelmann
Kekst CNC
Phone: +49 174 234 2808
Email: press@oneukraine.com
Donor contact
Roman Kostyrko
OneUkraine
Phone: +49 3022 0468 11
Email: donate@oneukraine.com