Over 18,000 new companies were registered in Ukraine during the first half of 2025, according to the Unified State Register. This is nearly the same as during the same period last year, but one-third lower than before the full-scale invasion began. While the number of new registrations remains stable, business closures have slightly increased: +19% compared to the same period last year. Notably, 97 newly established companies ceased operations within less than six months. Additionally, a mass founder has already registered 886 companies this year.
18,277 new companies were registered in Ukraine during the first half of 2025. New business creation has stabilized — nearly the same number of companies were opened during the same period last year. However, the numbers still haven’t returned to pre-invasion levels: in the first half of 2021, 1.6 times more legal entities were registered.
The situation with closures is less stable: business closures increased by 19% over the year. Since the beginning of 2025, 6,653 businesses have shut down. The net growth stands at 11,624 companies — the lowest figure in the past five years.
At the same time, the highest number of closures occurred in these same regions. Kyiv leads with 717 companies shutting down, followed by Lviv region (470 businesses) and Dnipropetrovsk region (464 companies).
The Top Mass Founder in 2025 this year’s top mass founder is Vitalii Pavlovych Ilnytskyi. He owns 886 newly registered companies in 2025 alone. Notably, all of his businesses rank among the top in terms of charter capital — ranging from UAH 1 billion to UAH 9.8 billion. In total, Ilnytskyi owns over 3,000 companies.
It is important to note that the declared amounts of charter capital may include not only real cash but also assets like intellectual property or equipment, the value of which can be difficult to verify. Ukrainian law does not impose any limits on the maximum size of a company’s charter capital.
Wholesale trade is the most common field for new businesses in Ukraine — accounting for 15% of all registrations. In second place are non-governmental organizations, followed by real estate, IT, and agriculture. The fastest-growing sector, however, is IT — with a 48% year-over-year increase in new registrations.
At the same time, non-governmental organizations were also the most frequently closed type of entity this year — making up 11% of all company closures.
Source: https://opendatabot.ua/
