Five Ukrainians enter Forbes 30-under-30 success lists

Amid the doom and gloom of the present as the world fights the global spread of the novel coronavirus, Forbes has published its annual 30 Under 30 lists that highlight successful people from 32 European countries who are still under 30 years of age.

And Ukraine is featured there, too. The U.S. business magazine placed five Ukrainians on its list of the 30 most successful people in Europe, which was published on March 17: rapper Alyona Alyona, tennis player Elina Svitolina and the founders of startups BetterMe and Allset.

In all, Forbes’ 30-under-30 lists include 300 “young visionary leaders brashly reinventing business and society” in 13 sectors, including sports and games, entertainment and technology.

Ukrainian rap star

Former nursery school teacher Alyona Savranenko, 28, is praised for her novel style and originality in the world of Ukrainian rap. She is “redefining what a rapper looks and sounds like,” Forbes wrote.

Under the stage name Alyona Alyona, she is a pioneering Ukrainian artist, and her popularity reaches beyond the country’s borders.

In September 2019, the 28-year-old rapper won the German Anchor Award as the best emerging artist of the year. Alyona Alyona was also profiled by American Vogue and featured in a New York Times story on Europe’s 15 most promising music artists. Before the Forbes list, she was also featured in the Kyiv Post’s Top 30 Under 30 list.

Her groundbreaking debut album “Pushka” (“Gun”) drew millions of fans and paved her way to the best Ukrainian and European music festivals.

The official music video for hip-hop singer Alyona Alyona’s rap song “Pushka” (“Gun”).

World’s third-best tennis player

Twenty-five-year-old athlete Elina Svitolina is the third-best tennis player in the world and the winner of 14 titles in the Women’s Tennis Association. The young Ukrainian was endorsed by Nike, French clothing firm Lacoste, British sports apparel company Ellesse and American sports equipment manufacturer Wilson.

For her revolutionary achievements in sports, CNN called Svitolina “her country’s most successful tennis player.”

In 2019, she founded the Elina Svitolina Foundation aimed at creating opportunities through scholarships, camps, after-school programs and special events for aspiring Ukrainian athletes. She also plans to open tennis courts in different regions of Ukraine.

Two techies in the restaurant business

Ukrainian tech entrepreneurs Anna Polishchuk, 29, and Stas Matviyenko, 28, founded a mobile app that helps restaurants to cut dining time in half by allowing customers to pre-order their meals.

Called Allset, the app provides services at over 2,500 restaurants across the United States and raised over $16 million in funding from Greycroft, Andreessen Horowitz, Compound and other big investment firms.

In January 2019, the company partnered with Google, and now all the venues that work with the startup are shown on Google Maps with links to its services.

Allset was founded in 2015 and is based in San Francisco and Kyiv.

Female tech prodigy

Another IT prodigy, Victoria Repa, 27, is an official member of the Forbes tech council and the only Ukrainian alumni of the Apple Entrepreneur Camp, an intensive mentorship program for companies founded and led by women.

She co-founded health and fitness app BetterMe that has over 50 million downloads and 400,000 paid subscribers. BetterMe motivates users to do fitness, yoga, meditation, walking and strength exercises.

In 2018, the company was recognized as having the fastest-growing app in the world and was ranked the 5th most popular app in the health and fitness section of Apple’s App Store.