Diversification helps Marin County software firm Svitla Systems grow despite Ukraine conflict
Svitla Systems returned for a third consecutive year to a national list of fast-growing companies because of demand from companies globally to get custom software rolled out and thrive on the internet, especially with a surge in e-commerce and remote work in the pandemic.
But the Marin County-based company expects it may be in the running for a fourth year for the Inc. 5000 list because it is on track for roughly 30% revenue growth just from momentum in the first half of this year, according to founder and CEO Nataliya Anon. The company ranked No. 3,555 this year with 145% revenue growth from 2018 through 2021, the magazine’s main metric.
Revenue last year was $44 million, and the company is on track for $56 million to $60 million this year.
And that despite a grueling first quarter in which some of Svitla’s key centers for software development in Ukraine were swept up in the chaos after Russia’s ongoing invasion of that Eastern European county.
Svitla arranged to move by various means its roughly 500 Ukraine development team members away from the embroiled eastern areas of the country to the less-involved western side. Some female employees were relocated to Svitla’s development center in Poland, as Ukraine has restricted most men ages 18–60 from leaving during the conflict.
“What really helped us out in this whole situation is the story of diversification,” Anon said.
The company was able to convince customers to stick with the Ukraine development team for existing projects, but new orders were able to be redistributed to Poland and a growing number of development centers in Central and South America, according to Anon.
She founded Svitla — Ukrainian for “bright” — in 2003, pulling from her ties to the country to set up programming teams there. In the past few years, the company has opened development centers in Guadalajara, Mexico, now with a staff of 150 there and working remotely in Mexico City and Monterrey, and Costa Rica, which has about 50. A few months ago Svitla opened an office in Buenos Aires, with 10 developers there.
And because of demand from clients for Eastern European programmers, Svitla is working to open development centers in Turkey and Bulgaria in the next two months, with planned staffing of 50.
The workforce has grown from about 800 a year ago to now around 900.
The conflict in Ukraine has raised interest in cybersecurity, so that side of the business is growing, as is Svitla’s website development and cloud computing business.
“Even though we see some softness in high tech and a downturn in the stock market, there is still strong demand for moving to the cloud and having a website,” Anon said.
Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Before coming to the Business Journal in 1999, he wrote for Bay City News Service in San Francisco. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.
