Foreigners set up 1100 companies in Ukraine last year: who most often starts a business
23 January 2025 13:05
In 2024, foreigners registered more than 1,100 new companies in Ukraine. Citizens of Turkey, Poland, and the United States were the most likely to start a business in Ukraine last year. This is evidenced by Opendatabot data, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
1109 new companies were opened by foreign nationals in 2024. This is 24% less than in 2023. Compared to 2021, the number of such businesses decreased by 60%.
Citizens of which countries started businesses in Ukraine
Citizens of 78 countries started a business in Ukraine last year. Turkish citizens registered companies most often – 201 businesses. The top 3 are followed by Polish citizens (90 companies) and US citizens (89 businesses).
Citizens of the following countries started businesses in Ukraine in 2024:
- Turkey – 201
- Poland – 90
- USA – 89
- Germany – 55
- Israel – 49
- China – 48
- Azerbaijan – 44
- Romania – 39
- United Kingdom – 36
- Other – 458.
Where foreigners most often started a business in Ukraine
Almost half of new foreign companies are concentrated in Kyiv – 542 (48.9%).
Other popular regions are Lviv region – 137 companies (12.4%) and Odesa region – 122 companies (11%).
Foreigners opened businesses in the following cities:
- Odesa – 122
- Kyiv – 542
- Zhytomyr – 4
- Sumy – 6
- Dnipro – 30
- Kharkiv – 32
- Poltava – 1
- Zaporizhzhia – 9
- Chernihiv – 5
- Rivne -15
- Chernivtsi – 28
- Ivano-Frankivsk – 15
- Khmelnytsky – 9
- Lviv – 137
- Ternopil – 7
- Transcarpathia – 32
- Volyn – 9
- Cherkasy – 11
- Kirovograd – 4
- Kyiv – 70
- Mykolaiv – 15
- Vinnytsia – 6.
Most often, foreign companies are engaged in wholesale trade (255 companies, 23%), computer programming (109 companies, 9.8%) and real estate transactions (86 companies, 7.8%).
It is noted that among the newly established companies last year, DVL UKR LLC from Kyiv has the largest authorized capital. Its ultimate beneficiary is a French citizen, and the authorized capital amounted to UAH 1.18 billion. The top companies are also TRADE SOLUTIONS LLC (UAH 456.7 million) and DK KYIV OUTLET LLC (UAH 335.6 million), owned by a Czech citizen.
“In addition, among the registered companies there are those that have ties to well-known Ukrainian FIGs. These are Ombri Electric Energy Co. Limited – the owner of the company is a Greek citizen, but the company belongs to the Lovochkin family group. Also, AP Bioenergy Complex has owners with US and Austrian citizenship, but is associated with AVEC(Feldman’s group),” the OpenDataBot noted.
