Nadiia Kaznacheieva, Chief Investment Officer at umgi, discusses how private investors think, what they expect from businesses, how they differ from international donors, and what entrepreneurs need to prepare to attract investment.

In our new Smart Money section, we speak with individuals like these — about their successes, failures, insights, and the decisions that helped them achieve financial independence. Our today’s speaker is Andrii Gorokhov, CEO of the investment firm umgi, which operates under a private equity model, partnering primarily with medium-sized businesses across European markets.

In 2023, Ukraine’s investment climate greatly improved despite of war. While investors mainly focused on risks after the full-scale invasion, now benefits are coming to the surface.

From 24 February 2022 to 4 April 2022, SCM businesses, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, and FC Shakhtar donated about UAH 1.4 billion ($48 million) in aid to Ukraine and Ukrainian people. In particular, this amount includes humanitarian aid, as well as support for the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Territorial Defence of Ukraine in dozens of towns and cities

The electricity had been cut, and so too had the water. Food was running low. The cold seeped into their bones. For a week, the family sheltered in the basement of their home in a western suburb of Kyiv, listening to the artillery blasts outside grow closer and closer.

В умовах війни на території України влада, суспільство й бізнес об’єдналися в боротьбі проти російської агресії. Зокрема, Фонд Ріната Ахметова, Метінвест, ДТЕК та інші компанії SCM допомагають українцям вижити, постачаючи до постраждалих регіонів гуманітарні вантажі. Про все це в інтерв’ю американському Forbes розповів акціонер Групи Метінвест Рінат Ахметов.

Authors: Serhii Shevchuk, Olha Hordiienko, Svitlana Zarazhevska

Chief Investment Officer of UMG Investments shared with Forbes Ukraine Investment Guide market trends of 2021.

In 2016, UMG, which used to be a vertically integrated holding company with a managing company and mining assets, adopted a new business strategy, and the company started to transform into an investment one. That decision resulted in significant changes in both the business model and the team.

Believe it or not, agriculture, including livestock breeding, affects the environment almost twice as much as the transportation industry.