When the COVID-19 pandemic began, the tourism and passenger transportation industries were critically affected. The biggest downturn in the history of aviation happened. Airports and airlines worldwide have cut staff by more than half or closed, and passenger traffic on all continents has fallen by 60-90%. And when the world, it would seem, adapted and the crisis began to pass, Ukrainian aviation fell even deeper – a full-scale war took the sky away from it. Attacked airports, completely closed airspace, destroyed "Mriya" ("Dream" – the most powerful aircraft in the world, designed in Ukraine in a single copy) – the industry suffered even more significant losses than it was during the COVID era.
But, surprisingly, for three colleagues with more than 30 years of experience in aviation altogether, these crisis times became the basis for nurturing a new dream. Anastasia Smyk, Valentyn Zavadskyi, and Andriy Smyk saw that the forced stagnation of the aviation sector is a chance to rebuild its main systems by the requirements of the time, and with the recovery of traffic bring them to a new level. To do this, they created the company Input Soft. They began implementing revolutionary changes in the global aviation industry to make it more efficient, digital, and environmentally friendly.
A new era of aviation management
What is the essence of the innovative solutions that the three founders of Input Soft decided to offer aviation? They envisioned a single web-based platform for resource planning, data collection, and data analysis at airports to replace outdated and inefficient tools.
The software that the airline industry got used to was created back in the early 2000s. It has a vintage interface that lacks many essential functions, it is impossible to plan resources efficiently, and it has no automatic data processing and analysis functions. The vast majority of companies still collect data on the provided services manually on paper and plan their work in Excel, which does not have optimization algorithms to, for example, reduce the number of working hours.
In contrast, while promoting the concept of "smart airports", InputSoft gradually developed an intuitive platform with a user-friendly interface and scenarios based on artificial intelligence. They integrated satellite data on the aircraft's location, making it possible to automatically receive up-to-date information about flight times and delays, changing airport services and resources load in real-time. The team proposed algorithms to predict the airport's traffic better, plan the work of the staff for a month or six months, and see it immediately on the graphs. The program made it possible to optimize data collection and invoicing processes during ground handling operations, strategically plan critical equipment, and control the movement of equipment around aircraft. And all this within one platform.
Today, Input Soft already works with many companies in different countries. They proved that not Excel and manual calculations but flight data and real-time analytics will help better understand the aviation business's weak points and make balanced decisions.
(Innovative software Input Soft and the founders of the company)
On the runway
How exactly was this ambitious goal realized? It all started with two months of in-depth market research by interviewing experts first from Ukraine and then from other countries in Europe, South America, Africa, and the Middle East. It showed the pressing problems and what exactly needed optimization in the airports. Then, there were three months of incubation in the YEP Incubator, communication with the heads of large companies, and winning the first $2,500 on the final demo day. It gave them helpful knowledge and wings to move on. And in the fall of 2021, at the height of a new wave of COVID, Anastasia, Valentin, and Andriy raised an investment of $25,000 from the Ukrainian Startup Fund, quit their jobs, and finally hired developers – at that time, their software existed only in prototype form. These events brought rapid growth for the founders without prior business experience. Both professionally and personally, Anastasia admits.
By the way, they spent the prize money from the YEP demo day on a trip to the Web Summit in Portugal. There, they met the director of Techstars, the second largest and most popular American accelerator in the world, and thanks to this, they got into its Torino Cities of the Future program. In April 2022, Input Soft had a successful demo day in Italy and started their first venture investment with Techstars. The team doubled in size, the product was improved, and the company planned its activities until 2027.
(Input Soft team at international startup events How to Web Conference, Tech Chill, and Web Summit in Lisbon)
Contrasts and adaptation
All this happened already during a full-scale war. As soon as russia invaded, part of the team moved to calmer western regions and continued to develop the program. Due to the closing of the sky, Input Soft lost three potential customers in Ukraine, who had been testing their software for months. But while Andriy went to the territorial defense, Valentyn helped transport international aid from the border to the cities of Ukraine, and Anastasia coordinated the humanitarian aid of the army, their startup was nominated as Big Data and Best Newcomer in Ukraine for 2021 at the Global Startup Awards.
After the shock, the team assessed the risks associated with the war in Ukraine and began to adapt their financial model to the new reality. Anastasia Smik, CEO of Input Soft, left for the EU and took over the company's representation abroad, continuing to look for partners, clients, and investors.
(Co-founder of InputSoft Anastasia Smyk)
Gender discrimination in aviation
Because of the war, Anastasia faced the problem of attracting investments. Investors did not understand the situation in Ukraine and did not believe it was possible to work in such conditions, so they recommended finding new co-founders in Europe.
But this is not the only difficulty that awaited Anastasia. At numerous meetings in search of investors and clients, she encountered discrimination against women founders in business. The disbelief from the men was overwhelming. They took her business card, read it, and wondered aloud that she was the CEO of the company because they perceived her as nothing more than a sales manager.
"During communication with male investors, I heard a question 'Why were you appointed as the general director of this company?' or 'Please share if you have male business partners,'" she told Reuters in an interview.
But Anastasia struggled with prejudice. Possessing perfect knowledge of her company, product, and market, she managed to prove in conversations with men that she was aware of their problems as customers or requirements as investors.
"There is a patriarchy in aviation. Women need to prepare more for the meeting. We must be more daring to achieve what men achieve by just sitting at the table, biting off our own. But over time, success will come, and you will understand that it was not in vain," Anastasia addresses women in the industry.
She believes that in this humiliating reality, it is vital for women to believe in their product and their team, to know by heart why and for whom they are doing it, and what impact it will have. She also recommends using the support of the women's community in business because many investment funds in Europe are explicitly focused on women and provide an opportunity to join an established business network.
Military realities and advancement
Overcoming difficulties in the first year of full-scale war, Anastasia Smyk continued to develop the business and attended 12 international aviation and IT conferences. As part of the delegation that presented the Ukrainian startup ecosystem at Europe's largest IT conference, VIVA Technology in Paris, she met with investors, diplomats, and even the president of France.
Input Soft started cooperation with several European companies. And it was at this time, unfortunately, that the runway of Ukraine's newest airport, Odesa International Airport, was destroyed by repeated missile strikes by the russians. It was the first Ukrainian airport that tested the Input Soft program for months, and cooperation with it has already become impossible. Russia continued to destroy other Ukrainian airports as strategic objects – in Kherson (Chornobaivka), Ivano-Frankivsk, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, and other cities...
(Kherson International Airport before and after the russian occupation, and the AN-225 Mriya heavy transport aircraft, one of the symbols of Ukraine, destroyed by the enemy)
But thanks to long-term testing in Ukraine and abroad, feedback from users at the development stage, and verification of their solutions at meetings with aviation industry representatives, Input Soft completed the MVP of their first Resource Management module. Soon, working on the second Data Management software solution and fundraising, sales, marketing, and branding, they found themselves on Startup Stash's list of top Ukrainian startups. Input Soft opened a new round of investments and successfully spent the winter of 2022-2023 with generators and Starlinks, much to the surprise of foreign colleagues.
Grant for sustainable business
As we know, the most significant source of air pollution at the airport is airplanes during taxiing on runways, take-off, and landing. Ground transport and airport service cars come second. Thanks to the combination of the two Input Soft modules, their airport customers could more efficiently organize the traffic that serves the aircraft and minimize the wait for departure with the engines running. Limiting the engine idling time, they reduced fuel consumption and significantly reduced CO₂ emissions. In addition, the software has reduced the use of paper forms for daily technical inspections. All these and other landmark solutions have made Input Soft IT ambassadors of sustainability in the aviation industry.
But this was preceded by an important event. At the end of 2022, the company participated in the Climate Innovation Vouchers grant program from the EBRD and the European Union, designed specifically for innovative businesses that create friendly to the climate and the environment solutions. Thanks to the received Voucher, for four months of daily work, joint calls, development, and testing, Input Soft completed and introduced the alpha release of the second Data Management module – its web version and mobile application.
After this event, the platform was already ready to enter the market. Therefore, from the fall of 2023, the company began active work with potential customers in all parts of the world.
(COO Input Soft Andriy Smyk next to the head of Greencubator Roman Zinchenko and other grantees at the awarding of Climate Innovation Vouchers)
US recognition and investment
Silicon Valley, Miami, Punta Cana, Washington, Paris, Lviv, Warsaw, and Lisbon – 2023 seemed extremely busy for Input Soft. The company attended various industry conferences, looking for investors, partners, and customers, and brought the brand's recognition to the international level.
At the same time, CEO Anastasia Smyk participated in the GIST program, where she spent half a year in America with the support of the US State Department researching the market and startup ecosystem. During the short period she spent in Chicago, Anastasia made such a positive impression on the ecosystem players that she was included in the Forbes 30 under 30 Local Chicago list.
(Anastasia Smyk speaks in Washington in front of the US State Department, taking part in the GIST program)
Since being awarded the Climate Innovation Vouchers, the company has raised another $420K in investment from Techstars and angel investors SID Venture Partners and Sigma Software Labs, that provide software for the aviation industry worldwide. This first major investment helped Input Soft triple its team size.
(Andriy Smyk at the IT Arena technological conference in Lviv)
Entering the world arena
It was time to expand the horizons, and in the new year 2024, Input Soft began to explore Asian markets. The company's CEO, Anastasia Smyk, attended landmark conferences in Singapore and Malaysia and held more than 20 meetings in the region. As a result, Asia's most important exhibition of aviation technology, Aviation Festival Asia in Singapore, recognized Input Soft's software solutions and named it one of the 15 startups in the aviation industry to watch out for. Subsequently, the company began work on entering the Thai aviation market as part of the government's regional airport modernization program.
Input Soft's focus also fell on the Middle East. Emirates Group, which includes one of the world's largest aviation service providers, dnata, and the largest airline in the Middle East, Emirates, selected Ukrainian innovators to solve their operational tasks through the Intelak partnership program. In addition, Input Soft has signed a sales partnership agreement with the largest integrator in Saudi Arabia, a country with nearly 30 airports currently being upgraded as part of the Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 roadmap.
Companies from other parts of the world – the USA and Canada – have also become interested in integrating Input Soft products. It was facilitated by the incredible mobility of Input Soft and participation in the Americas Ground Handling International Conference in Toronto, which gathers all the top managers of the aviation industry from North, Central, and South America. In addition, as part of the Invest in Bravery COO event, Andriy Smyk met with investors and civil aviation market players in the Czech Republic and Germany, as well as with representatives of the Czech Senate. In the first quarter of 2024, Input Soft signed two partnership agreements for representation and assistance in entering EU markets and received a $50,000 grant from the Western NIS Enterprise Fund and USF. Recently, the company secured $50,000 in investment from the venture capital firm ZAS Ventures, which it plans to invest in marketing and scaling.
(Co-founders of the company at Ground Handling International conferences in Asia and America, as well as at Invest in Bravery meetings in the Czech Republic)
The Ukrainian dream
Today, Input Soft, born when the world seemed to have stopped, is deploying pilot projects and conducting commercial negotiations with clients on five continents. It works closely with Emirates Group, Dubai Airports, Amadeus and the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism to validate its solutions. This testing confirms the intuitiveness of their system – it requires no prior training to use, while their competitors' programs take months to master. Input Soft is working to ensure data protection, privacy, and security and is approaching its innovative platform's RTM (release to manufacturing).
But in the turbulent international activity, Anastasia, Andriy, and Valentyn do not give up hope of returning to the place where their common dream was born. They continue to communicate with almost all Ukrainian market players – airlines and airports currently operating in maintenance mode.
Unfortunately, due to the daily missile attacks by the terrorist country, air traffic with Ukraine remains completely closed, and it is increasingly difficult for Ukrainian airports to maintain the level of readiness for flights and the qualifications of their employees. Despite this, our airports actively cooperate with the EU and encourage air carriers to plan their return to Ukraine. When this happens, the Ukrainian aviation industry will need integration into the European aviation community, deep changes at various levels, optimization, and digitization. Then Input Soft will be able to implement all its innovative developments, currently tested by the world's leading airlines, in Ukraine.
"I want to return to Ukraine to take part in the reconstruction and revival of our country...," says Anastasia Smyk in an interview with dev.ua. "We are even ready to work for free to see the first civilian aircraft in the Ukrainian sky as soon as possible."
ABOUT THE PROJECT
«The Cream of the Crop of Ukrainian Cleantech» is a series of stories about 10 Ukrainian companies that received the Climate Innovation Vouchers grant at a key stage of their development. They've risen to prominence in Ukraine's cleantech sector in a short span. Climate Innovation Vouchers is one of the largest grant programs in Ukraine for innovators in green and climate-friendly technologies. It was initiated by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and funded by the European Union. NGO Greencubator implements the program in Ukraine.