Security risks, military operations, infrastructure destruction, and disruption of established logistics routes force Ukrainian businesses to constantly restructure their operations. Companies are changing supply chains, seeking new suppliers and markets, settling payments faster, and building additional inventory. All of this increases the need for working capital and rapid access to financing.
At the same time, the nature of international economic engagement with Ukraine is changing. Foreign partners are increasingly seeking practical tools that allow them not only to support Ukraine, but also to work directly with Ukrainian businesses, develop trade relationships, and channel capital into the real economy.
The Ukrainian economy is becoming increasingly integrated into the world through capital, technology, expertise, and partnerships.
This process already involves international financial institutions, banks, technology companies, business organizations, funds, and diplomatic missions, including IFC, NAVER Financial Corporation, UKRSIBBANK BNP Paribas Group, Mastercard, Piraeus Bank, the embassies of Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada, AmCham, Impact Fund Denmark, AHK, Mercy Corps, UAfrica Business Council, Innovation Norway, VisionFund, and other international partners.
One of the key demands of Ukrainian businesses remains access to working capital. Disruption of logistics chains, military risks, and changing conditions of interaction between suppliers, manufacturers, and retail networks increase cash gaps and create the need for financing directly at the moment a transaction occurs.
That is why not only the availability of capital is becoming increasingly important, but also the architecture of its access to business.
"Today, businesses need not just money, but fast and transparent access to it precisely at the moment when financing is needed. Foreign partners working in Ukraine and seeing the situation from the inside understand this well. Our task is to create infrastructure through which Ukrainian and international capital can reach real businesses quickly, technologically, and without unnecessary friction. Money should follow the entrepreneur and their needs, not force the entrepreneur to seek financing outside their daily operations. This is exactly the kind of financial infrastructure we are building at Activitis," notes Kostiantyn Zhukovskyi, founder of Activitis.
One of the mechanisms of such infrastructure is embedded finance, when financing becomes part of the interaction between companies itself.
For example, a supplier can receive funds immediately after delivering goods, while the buyer receives the necessary time to settle payment. In this model, financing arises directly within the trade transaction, without interrupting it or forcing the business to separately seek a credit product.
This allows the flow of goods and capital to continue even when one participant in the chain experiences a temporary shortage of working capital.
"If we talk about which businesses benefit most from embedded finance, it is primarily retail. This category concentrates a large number of enterprises that generate significant demand for financing. Also among active users of such tools are HoReCa and agribusiness. At the same time, the needs of different sectors differ: they have different operating cycles, volumes, and financing frequencies. Therefore, today among the key categories for the development of embedded finance, I would highlight retail, HoReCa, and the agricultural sector," notes Andrii Kostenko, SME Product Development Manager for Ukraine and Moldova, Mastercard.
Thus, international economic engagement with Ukraine is gradually transitioning from a support model to an economic partnership model.
Capital, technology, and financial infrastructure create opportunities for international partners to work directly with the Ukrainian economy, and for Ukrainian businesses to access financing where and when it is needed.
This is not just about new financial products. This is about forming a new financing architecture in which capital becomes part of economic interaction itself.
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