Photo: Vitaly Sedler, CEO and co-founder of Intellias. (Photo credit: Intellias)

With more and more client demand on this side of the Atlantic, Latin America became a natural draw for Ukraine-born tech provider Intellias. After an extensive site selection search, the globally minded company decided to open its first regional office in Bogotá.

Colombia is still new to Intellias and its CEO and co-founder Vitaly Sedler, but the experience has been great so far. On top of proximity and time zone alignment with North American clients, he says Colombia was an obvious choice due to the tech sector talent, number of programmers with English proficiency, and an industry growth trajectory that reminds him of home. “I think there is a lot of interest in terms of entering the market and working with Colombian engineers,” says Sedler about how his peers view the nation’s talent.

We recently sat down with Sedler to talk about his company and the decision to launch an office in Colombia.

Finance Colombia: Intellias is a company with Ukrainian heritage. As one of the co-founders, can you give us a little background on the company’s history and where it is in the IT sector?

Vitaly Sedler: We started 21 years ago in 2002 as a two-man company with myself and my partner, Michael, because we just loved coding and programming. Then, year over year, step by step, our company has grown very significantly. Today, we have more than 3,200 engineers working at Intellias, which I would say makes it a mid-market player in Eastern Europe. Maybe on the top of mid-market even. Of course, we have some larger companies that are active on the market, but if you look at the mid-market companies from, let’s say, 1,000 to 7,000 people, Intellias is a strong player in this big market segment.

“Seeing how the Colombian IT market is developing, it reminds me of how the Ukrainian IT market developed. Knowing how our past was in Ukraine, I know what the future will be for Colombia for IT — and we want to be a part of the story.”

– Vitaly Sedler, CEO and co-founder of Intellias

Finance Colombia: What really makes Intellias unique? What’s your focus, and what’s your DNA as a company?

Vitaly Sedler: We are different due to several things. One is that we are an extremely successful and extremely fast-growing company. And when I say this is, I mean like 50% year over year, so it’s much, much faster than the market average, which grows usually 15% to 20%. This company focus on growth is everywhere in our internal discussions and our internal ecosystem.

Another thing is that we have a very strong focus on our people agenda, we are a company focused around people. I believe that we are one of the trendsetters, at least here in Ukraine, about how you work with your employees, how you treat them. You treat them as partners and treat them as your colleagues that together drive business forward — not as managers, not as directors. We are all partners to each other and create very special employee propositions that allow people to feel very well and very safe in the company, and be able to develop themselves in the company.

“We can expect a significant part of our business being placed in Colombia and Latin America in general,” says Sedler. (Photo: Intellias)

Finance Colombia: You recently opened operations in Colombia. Is that your first foray into Latin America?

Vitaly Sedler: That’s correct. This is our first time operating in the region. We were looking at Latin America as a market, and then, thinking about which country to go. We analyzed Colombia, Argentina, and Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, and Mexico. And then our decision was for Colombia because, on one hand, it’s a fairly-well-developed market where you have a lot of engineers and companies working for the domestic market and also for the international market. There are many engineers who are English-speaking. In other countries, I think this percentage is a bit lower. It is important for us because we are a global company working mostly for English-speaking markets, and I think there is a lot of interest in terms of entering the market and working with Colombian engineers.

Colombia, to some extent, reminds me of Ukraine — maybe some time ago, because in Ukraine, we have a very mature industry now with thousands of companies and maybe 300,000 engineers. Seeing how the Colombian IT market is developing, it reminds me of how the Ukrainian IT market developed. Knowing how our past was in Ukraine, I know what the future will be for Colombia for IT — and we want to be a part of the story. It sounds very similar and very close to us, and we are very happy to be a part of the growing IT industry in Colombia.

Finance Colombia: A lot of companies that come to Colombia from Europe because their U.S. client base is growing and they want to be closer to North America. How much of a factor was that in your decision-making?

Vitaly Sedler: It was very important. When we look at different global markets where our talent is present, of course, we consider different criteria. One of them is how convenient it will be for our clients to work with this market. When talking about time-zone differences, it’s very convenient for European clients to work with Intellias because they have Ukraine, Poland, Croatia, Bulgaria. But for our North American clients, it’s less convenient. It’s much more convenient to work with Latin American countries.

This one was one of the arguments — or, I would say, the number one argument — for us to go to Latin America. Latin America, and Colombia in particular, is a very attractive region for us, in terms of time zone difference with all American clients.

“This company focus on growth is everywhere in our internal discussions and our internal ecosystem,” says Selder. (Photo: Intellias)

Finance Colombia: Tell me about your experience with the process of establishing operations in Colombia. How was that process? And what advice would you give to a company thinking about opening up in Colombia?

Vitaly Sedler: I can’t offer too many insights at this moment, because we are still learning how it is to work in Colombia. We don’t have that much experience.

But our first impression is quite good! For us, it’s most important to meet great people and to hire great people. I can say that, so far, so good. The professionals we are hiring in Colombia are just like us — with a slightly different culture, slightly different mindset. Very family-oriented. During interviews we talked about families, kids, and pets. In Ukraine, and in Europe, it’s more, I would say, business focused. Here it’s more about people, culture, and family. That’s our learning from being in Colombia, and we’re quite happy with who we have met.

We want to grow. Our ambition for Colombia for this year is maybe a little bit lower because the market is a little bit slow now. But, i think, by the end of the year, we’ll have a few dozen people, maybe like 30 or 40, and overall it’s a strategic region for us that will grow. We can expect hundreds of workplaces created in the coming years and a significant part of our business being placed in Colombia and Latin America in general.

Finance Colombia: What is the ideal client for Intellias? What kind of company should contact Intellias, and how can you help them?

Vitaly Sedler: Yeah, we have different types of clients. First of all, we structure our business around verticals. We say that it’s not enough to be a good engineer — it’s important to be a good engineer and understand financial services or insurance or retail or the mobility sector, or digital in general. We build our company around these verticals and we deepen our expertise in each specific vertical. So, an ideal client is basically a client that comes from this vertical.

Then, on the other hand, are the client goals. Like the digital transformation process. We have enterprises, for example, that are working in a sector that is not fully digitalized, and we help them to become a true IT company with capacity, engineering competence, process competence. We help in solving these issues. This can be a smaller company or larger enterprise companies.

Intellias has expertise in several industries including mobility, financial services, telecom and media, and retail, working with companies like HERE Technologies, HelloFresh, Rand McNally, TomTom and DKV.

“Having a well-developed tech ecosystem and technically skilled engineers, Colombia is one of the fastest-growing IT hubs in the LATAM region. Additionally, Colombia is the perfect location to set up the first delivery center in Latin America and work with our growing US client roster. By cooperating closely with Colombian IT experts, educational centers, and IT hubs, we plan to build a top-tier team of engineers who will join our efforts in digitalizing the world. We invite local developers to apply to join the Intellias team and grow with the company,” said Vitaly Sedler, CEO and co-founder of Intellias

Intellias claims to have been named the best IT employer by Forbes and EY in 2020 and 2021, and has also been named one of the most family-friendly companies in Ukraine by UNFPA. This, according to the company, is due to paying special attention to nurturing and supporting a human-to-human corporate culture. Team members can manage their careers, work remotely, master new skills, become mentors, join engineering communities, and even get insurance for their pets.

“Setting Colombia as a new global location is a big and strategic step for Intellias. We hope to get access to the world-renowned LATAM talent market, using Colombia as a key bridge, while also using Colombia’s close ties with North America to foster a strong partnership with our clients. We look forward to cooperating with Colombian specialists on top-notch engineering projects and creating outstanding digital solutions while enjoying the rich culture and diversity Colombia has to offer,” Camilo Riveros,  Intellias Employee Experience Manager for Colombia

Last year, Intellias reported 50% growth, opening new offices in Croatia, Bulgaria, Spain, Portugal, and Poland; and acquiring Digitally Inspired, a fast-growing UK-based development company focusing on retail and eCommerce industries. Intellias also has offices in Ukraine, working with the country’s engineers to launch initiatives to support the Ukrainian people during the country’s defense against Russian aggression. In 2023, the company plans to open even more locations in Colombia and India.