Tech startups from Ukraine calling Tucson home through May

TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - Four Ukrainian tech startups in Southern Arizona are looking to bring solutions to problems back to their country amid a war that just entered its second year.

The startups are calling the University of Arizona Tech Park their home for now as they learn to expand their business and make connections.

“We learn a little more about how the energy market works in the United States, how the start-up system works in the United States,” said Oleg Sheremeta, co-founder of SorbiForce.

The startup SorbiForce created a sustainable, cost-effective and safe carbon battery. Their goal is to help the world transition to cleaner energy.

Over a six-month period, SorbiForce, along with the three other startups, are taking their startups to a greater level, networking, finding investors, and working to expand their business to the U.S.

“Looking forward with optimism to bring more new green technologies to the market, to the people of this planet,” said Serhiy Kaminksy, the other co-founder of SorbiForce.

Many of the startups, such as the EQ App, have already made an impact in Ukraine even as the war continues. The EQ App has a focus on emotional intelligence and helping people process their feelings.

Founder Gnat Panok said, “At first, it was a little tough understanding that most of our team live in Ukraine and having to adjust because of the problem with electricity and the constant bombings, but we found ourselves in the position that we have this unique application that can help people and we’re just helping people at the moment, right now.”

The company made the application free at the beginning of the war. In the first few weeks, it was downloaded about 20-thousand times.

“Even in the most stressful situation, the most stressful times of war and when it all started, people really understood that it’s a good opportunity for us to download the application,” Panok said. “They found the time and found the need and they actually found the help from the application.”

Each startup has their own goal that they are working toward over the next few months. When they leave for Ukraine in May, they will take what they learned with them, in hopes of creating more solutions for their country as well as ours.