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Since 2022, Ukraine’s businesses have been dealing with some of the most unique challenges in their lifetimes. Faced with broken supply chains and millions of people leaving the country, every industry was hit by the turmoil. Some businesses collapsed, some relocated, and some, like Favbet Group, managed to adapt. In this article, we take a look at how this Ukrainian entertainment corporation not only managed to keep its operations going but also reshaped itself to become an engine for some major humanitarian efforts within the country.

Favbet’s transformation has been largely motivated by the group’s founder, Andrii Matiukha, who’s long seen his companies as more than just businesses, as drivers of sustainability and social change. The structural changes that came along with Matiukha’s leadership in the winter of 2022 allowed Favbet to not only keep the business running but also provide aid to those affected by the war. “That February truly crystallised our identity,” says Andrii Matiukha. “Supporting Ukraine is now an integral part of who we are as a business.”

In the early weeks of the conflict, Favbet was primarily focused on protecting more than 700 of its employees. The group implemented contingency plans, relocated staff when necessary, and established new remote options to operate across multiple affected regions. All of this ensured that Favbet could keep rolling while not endangering any of its people.

Favbet Foundation is the group’s charitable arm established in 2019 that was first focused on supporting youth sports, education, and various social programs in Ukraine. However, in early 2022, when the war erupted, the foundation rapidly re-established its mission. Within weeks, it moved from long-term projects to urgent assistance to distressed communities at home and displaced Ukrainians abroad.

Using Favbet Group’s digital infrastructure and financial resources, the foundation was able to deliver aid swiftly and effectively. Just days into the full-scale war, it started shipping critical supplies, medical equipment, and other humanitarian assistance directly to the communities that needed them most. To date, the total value of aid delivered with the foundation’s assistance exceeds $10 million. “We’ve had situations where supplies we had shipped on Monday were already saving lives on Tuesday,” says Matiukha, adding that such tempo is not something his business was built for but something it had to embrace.

Outside of Ukraine, Favbet Foundation’s activity has been most prominent in its humanitarian partnerships in Croatia. Here, Andrii Matiukha helped launch a charitable initiative in cooperation with a local volunteer group, Dobro Dobrim. In late 2023, together they delivered 150 tonnes of aid from Zagreb to Ukraine containing food, clothing, hygiene necessities, as well as disinfectants for several frontline hospitals. Earlier that year, the foundation and its Croatian partners responded to the Kakhovka Dam disaster and sent over 11 tonnes of emergency supplies to the families from the affected Kherson region.

Since April 2022, Favbet Foundation has also supported thousands of Ukrainians who found refuge in Croatia by opening an Adaptation Center in Zagreb that offers language classes and legal aid, and also taking part in cultural and family events.

In June 2023, Andrii Matiukha helped organise a sports festival for displaced Ukrainian families, bringing together hundreds of children and parents for a day of games and connection. Around St. Nicholas Day, he personally delivered educational kits to Ukrainian school kids in Zagreb.

Later in 2023 and 2024, Favbet Foundation’s team allowed itself to dedicate more resources to its original mission of safeguarding Ukraine’s future through youth sports and education. This included the launch of the Superhero Club that consisted of several projects tailored for the children of Ukraine’s military personnel as well as displaced families. Those included free basketball, football, wrestling and boxing training in Kyiv, as well as a number of basic IT courses for children across Ukraine in cooperation with the Code Club network. To date, the programme has engaged over a thousand children.

“Today, we’re doing everything we can to help those affected right now, but we’re also trying to safeguard our future by creating more opportunities for our future generations,” says Matiukha.

Beyond external relief efforts, Andrii Matiukha devoted equal attention to supporting those within his organisation. He understood that what he's dealing with was not only a logistical challenge but also lots of psychological pressure and physical risks for the employees. In response, he initiated several initiatives to safeguard their physical safety and mental well-being.

Those included relocation options for workers in high-risk locations, free counseling, flexible work schedules, and open, frequent internal communications to enable staff to stay connected and informed. These initiatives enabled the company to retain over 90 per cent of its workforce, a number that very few Ukrainian companies could boast at the time.

“Continuity of operations is important,” says Andrii Matiukha, “but emotional continuity is what holds a team together in times of turmoil.”

Speaking about the future of Favbet and its role, Andrii Matiukha says his vision remains clear: to keep building a company that stands for something bigger than business results. He believes Favbet Group’s future lies in staying connected to Ukraine and its people both inside and outside the organisation. “I don’t think we can go back to how things were before 2022. We’ve withstood and learned a lot, and our goal now is to preserve that and keep growing with purpose.”

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This article is from the Brand Desk. User discretion is advised.

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