Companies are moving their Ukraine-based tech teams to hubs in nearby Poland and Georgia, setting up more permanent operations while the war’s destructiveness cuts deeper into the country.
Stuzo LLC, a Philadelphia-based software company, is establishing a corporate entity in Poland to allow employees to stay there if they wish, said Gunter Pfau, the company’s chief executive. Some 35 Stuzo employees relocated to Poland since the onset of the war.
“We are doing it as a contingency,” said Mr. Pfau. “I would hope to not have to use it … because I know that the people want to go home.”
Olga Shubovych, a project manager at Stuzo, moved to Poznan, Poland, from Zhytomyr, Ukraine, on March 6. She plans to stay there for a month while continuing to monitor the situation in Ukraine.
“It’s really hard to plan something by more than one day or one week, so I’ll just be checking the situation,” she said. “We’ll see how it develops.”
Lviv-based global consulting and IT services firm Intellias Ltd. said it moved 350 staff members to Krakow, Poland, where it has had an office since 2019. The company’s Ukrainian employees are able to stay in Poland for up to a year, and Intellias is prepared to arrange for longer-term work visas, said Viktor Haydin, vice president of growth enablement.
Intellias also is looking at expanding into other European Union and Caucasus-region countries.
“We plan to increase our footprint outside Ukraine both to be able to relocate our Ukrainian people when [the] situation allows and to be able to hire new engineers” in those markets, Mr. Haydin said.
Upswot Inc., a Charlotte, N.C.-based financial technology company, is considering opening an office in Georgia, said Dmitry Norenko, the company’s chief executive.
Around 40 of Upswot’s Ukrainian employees relocated to Batumi, Georgia when the war broke out.
“Georgia is very friendly to Ukrainians,” said Mr. Norenko, who is originally from Ukraine. “There are no visa challenges. Our guys can go to Georgia and stay for 365 days.”
Companies say they are also stepping up measures to support employees who could not leave Ukraine or chose to stay in the country.
Upswot is providing financial support to an employee’s family in Mariupol, currently under siege by Russian forces, despite not having heard from the employee for some time, he said.
“There is no internet. There is no cell phone, but we know his relatives, we know his parents, and we transfer the funds to help,” Mr. Norenko said.
Corrections & Amplifications
Stuzo LLC is the Philadelphia-based software company. An earlier version of this article incorrectly named the company name Stuzo Inc. (Corrected on March 12)
Write to Suman Bhattacharyya at [email protected]
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