Publication date:
Publication from:
Three startups from Ukraine and Europe—Obriy AI, Itera, and citytax—have been selected to pilot digital solutions for public services under GovTech Lab Ukraine, Ukraine’s first open innovation programme for the public sector. Each team will receive up to USD 100,000 to implement and test their solutions in partnership with Ukrainian government institutions.
GovTech Lab Ukraine is Ukraine’s first open innovation programme for the public sector that enables government institutions to work directly with startups to design and test digital solutions before scaling them. This approach helps reduce the risks of large-scale digital projects, accelerates innovation cycles, and allows both public institutions and technology companies to develop solutions grounded in real operational needs—ultimately improving public services and strengthening the digital economy.
The programme is implemented by the Global Government Technology Centre Kyiv, in collaboration with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, the World Economic Forum, and with the support of Switzerland within EGAP Program, which is carried out by East Europe Foundation.
This year, GovTech Lab Ukraine focused on three challenge areas developed together with government partners: legal assistance, urban development, and tourism management. During the programme, seven startups worked with public-sector teams to refine user needs, test hypotheses, and prepare pilot concepts, which they presented at Demo Day.
The solutions were reviewed by an Advisory Board that included representatives from government, international organisations, and the GovTech ecosystem. The jury evaluated how clearly each team addressed a real public-sector problem, how feasible and scalable the proposed pilot was, the robustness of the technical approach, the value for money, and the expected impact. Based on this evaluation, one startup per challenge area was selected to receive funding of up to USD 100,000 and move forward to implementation and piloting.
Winning startups and their pilot solutions
The challenge focuses on improving access to basic legal guidance for citizens while reducing operational workload for the Free Legal Aid service.
Winner: Obriy AI
Obriy AI, a Ukrainian company developing enterprise-grade AI solutions, will pilot its SURE platform to support the Free Legal Aid service. The solution deploys AI agents capable of understanding legal intent, retrieving information from knowledge bases, and assisting operators in handling citizen inquiries while complying with strict security and data-governance requirements. The pilot is expected to help reduce workload for legal aid staff, improve response times, and ensure more consistent service delivery.
Thу challenge focuses on improving the collection, analysis, and use of tourism data to support better policy and decision-making.
Winner: citytax UAB
citytax UAB is a Lithuanian GovTech startup developing digital infrastructure for public-sector tourism management and local taxation. The company will pilot a digital platform for accommodation registration and tourist-tax administration, introducing standardized identifiers, structured data flows, and AI-based screening of accommodation listings. The solution helps authorities identify unregistered properties, improve compliance, and enable more reliable tourism data for policymaking. The platform is designed to integrate with public-sector systems and align with European regulatory requirements, supporting scalable implementation beyond the pilot stage.
Thу challenge aims to improve transparency and efficiency in construction and urban planning processes, particularly in working with documentation and regulatory requirements.
Winner: Itera
Itera is a Nordic software and innovation company with more than 30 years of experience and a strong team in Ukraine. The company presented an AI-powered solution designed to automate the extraction, structuring, and verification of complex construction documentation. The system performs compliance checks against regulatory requirements and introduces auditable workflows and role-based dashboards, helping improve transparency and efficiency in construction-permit issuance.
The next phase of the programme
Selection of the winners marks the transition to the implementation phase — the most critical stage of the GovTech Lab Ukraine programme. Over the next 12 weeks, startup teams will work together with government partners to develop and deploy the proposed pilot solutions in real operating environments. These pilots are designed to generate practical evidence on effectiveness, usability, and scalability, helping public institutions make informed decisions about further adoption and scaling.
GovTech Lab Ukraine is an open innovation programme in government technology implemented by the Global Government Technology Centre Kyiv (GGTC), in collaboration with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, the World Economic Forum, and with the support of Switzerland within EGAP Program, which is carried out by East Europe Foundation. More information about the GovTech Lab programme can be found via the link.
Support for selected challenges is provided by Mastercard, partner of the data-driven tourism management challenge, and East Europe Foundation, partner of the automated legal assistance challenge. Infrastructure resources across all three challenges are provided by De Novo, enabling startup teams to design and test pilot solutions.
The Global Government Technology Centre (GGTC) Kyiv became the second GovTech centre in the world after Berlin and the 21st Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) in the World Economic Forum network. GGTC Kyiv is supported by Switzerland within EGAP Program, which is carried out by East Europe Foundation, and initiated by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the World Economic Forum.
