Kitsoft CEO Oleksandr Iefremov shared with PUBLIC the specifics of working in GovTech, the company's entry into the EU market, and his advice for startups planning to work with the state.
PUBLIC is a British company that provides digital transformation consulting services and supports innovation in the public sector. The organization's experts are mentors at the European accelerator GovTech Connect, in which Kitsoft participated.
Public has launched a series of interviews called Inside GovTech Spotlight, which tells about the successes of European GovTech innovators, offers officials new ideas, and opens up opportunities for cooperation for IT companies. Oleksandr Iefremov became the first speaker of the program.
We are publishing the main points from this conversation.
Image: Cover of the interview with Kitsoft CEO Oleksandr Iefremov for Inside GovTech Spotlight.
How Kitsoft was founded and what tasks it solves
We founded Kitsoft to develop digital solutions for government and business. Over time, we realized that government online services are not integrated with each other, so users have to provide their data to different services several times. This creates barriers for citizens.
Many government agencies have limited resources — lack of time, budget, and experience. That's why we focused on creating a solution that allowed us to launch government online services quickly and without the need to write code every time. Our low-code platform Liquio was the answer to these challenges. It allows state and municipal institutions to create integrated, scalable services without the need for large IT teams.
How Diia changed public services in Ukraine
At the request of the Ukrainian government, the Kitsoft team developed the Diia portal, which united government online services into a single ecosystem. More than 20 million users use Diia's digital services.
Ukrainians can register a business, draw up documents, pay taxes, get permits and social benefits - quickly, securely, without paperwork and bureaucracy.
In the near future, Kitsoft plans to make the Liquio low-code platform open-source and create a community with which we will work on its development. To do this, we have launched a training and certification program for partners to work on the platform.
About scaling to the European market
After the success of Diia and Liquio in Ukraine, Kitsoft decided to enter the international market. The first representative office was established in Belgium. This country was chosen because of its central location and importance for the entire EU. Kitsoft entered the European market with a new solution, BelDoc, which simplifies the process of starting a business.
In some countries, this process is still complicated and bureaucratic. Kitsoft's low-code platform will help automate document flow, personal identification, electronic signature creation, etc. with the help of AI tools.
Simplifying this process for entrepreneurs is one of the EU's priorities, and Kitsoft sees great potential for scaling this solution.
How the government can support innovation
To accelerate digitalization, the government should simplify procurement and innovation processes for GovTech startups. To do this, it is necessary to make more active use of sandboxes - test environments where startups could test their solutions and demonstrate their effectiveness.
It is also important to create conditions under which new companies can build their services on the basis of already successful solutions. This will accelerate the digitalization of the public sector.
Advices for GovTech startups on cooperation with the state
First of all, we advise you to research the real problems that people are concerned about. Conduct research, talk to users, understand their pains, and check whether the solution meets them.
For example, Kitsoft developed Liquio to simplify communication between the government and citizens. They used the concept of a “state in a smartphone” as a basis.
So the key is to plan ahead, solve real problems, and be persistent!