Kharkiv IT industry research: $1.5B market, 500 companies, and 45,000 professionals

The Kharkiv IT Cluster presented a report of the regional IT industry research, made in cooperation with KPMG, a Big Four member company. According to the results, the region’s industry has over 510 service and product tech companies, and the number of IT professionals has exceeded 45,000 people.

Over the two years of the pandemic, the IT industry in Kharkiv has grown by 29%, and its total sales in 2021 are expected to amount to $1.5 billion, ensuring a 53% growth compared to 2019.

Kharkiv vastly outnumbers the country’s other IT locations in terms of IT companies and IT specialists, second only to the capital. As far as the concentration of IT professionals is concerned, Kharkiv is just as strong as Kyiv.

Over 95% of IT industry sales are exports of IT solutions and IT products to the markets of the USA (78%), European Union countries (15%), and Israel.

Some of the major industries in which Kharkiv companies have been offering their IT services for the last two years include healthcare, e-commerce, education, insurance, and retail. Kharkiv IT companies are traditionally just as strong in developing services for media, entertainment, gaming, banking, fintech, telecom, logistics, and manufacturing industries.

In recent years, the IT industry has become a leader not only in terms of foreign exchange earnings but also in terms of the volume of taxes it generates.

Based on KPMG’s estimates, the volume of all taxes received by the country on account of the Kharkiv IT industry will reach almost 12 billion hryvnias in 2021, and this number will grow up to 16 billion by 2026, according to the baseline forecast. The event put an increased focus on the Diia City project and its implementation.

An average IT professional’s compensation in Kharkiv is an equivalent of $2,260.

Every IT specialist creates 3.5 workplaces. So, the powerful IT community in the Kharkiv region alone enables an additional 160,000 people to secure full-time jobs in different industries, from building residential and office spaces to providing domestic services to maintaining shops, schools, and kindergartens.

Currently, over 50% of the IT specialists are still working remotely, as lack of office spaces becomes a problem once again. The report data suggests that only 10% of category А and В office spaces are vacant, and by 2026, the IT industry might need an additional 200 thousand square meters of office space. 

The full report can be viewed by clicking here.