Ukrainian Mobile Application Developer Devlight Enters the Swedish Market

Ukrainian IT company Devlight, which has achieved significant success in the digital transformation of the largest businesses on the market, now intends to enter the Swedish market. After many years of work and successful implementation of modern digital solutions in Ukraine, Devlight is ready to bring its experience and expertise to one of the most innovative countries in Europe. Read about how the company plans to win the trust of new customers and what exactly it offers to the Swedish market in our interview with Devlight CEO Ihor Polych.

– If you briefly characterize the Devlight development path, what is it about? What was the original goal and at what stage is the company now?

Devlight has always chased to digitize the economy and be a leader in the introduction of mobile applications. We set ourselves the goal of helping companies transform into Mobile First Business, because this is the future, and we have been moving in this direction for the past 8 years.

At first, there were really many objections: that a website would be enough, or that e-commerce in grocery retail is impossible – who will buy a loaf of bread, tomatoes and bananas through mobile applications?! But thanks to real results, most of those who refused us 5-7 years ago are now our clients. We cooperate with large Ukrainian companies that also set themselves the goal of digitalization of their business, and we see how mobile applications become an integral and valuable tool within their business models. Now the field of our activity is not only development, but a whole ecosystem of services i.e., finding a value proposition, promoting applications in markets, user research, setting up analytics and communication design.

We know how to create an application with a unique value for the user that will benefit the business, so we feel that we have already reached a certain necessary level in Ukraine. Further, we plan to develop our ecosystem. We want to transfer the knowledge, experience and expertise accumulated over the years to a new ambitious market, and that is why we are entering the Swedish market.

– Why Sweden? 

There is a combination of factors. First, we see that this is a very innovative country. Here, the innovation index is one of the largest in Europe, and Stockholm is the largest city in Europe in terms of the number of unicorns. This statistic characterizes Sweden as an innovative country open to digital technologies, and we are interested in this.

In addition, Sweden and Ukraine have many connections and a developed base of exporting IT services. We twice participated in a study tour as part of the IT Association trip. We partially discovered the market and got to know the ecosystem. This experience made us understand that despite all the innovativeness of Sweden, there is an empty room here, and first of all, it concerns the user experience and communication in the application. So, we see that the Devlight experience can really come in handy here.

– So, what makes Devlight stand out in the competitive field of mobile apps development?

Now we fully cover the chain of creating the value of a mobile application – from ideation, testing the idea on the market, to supporting the project in the growth phase and thereafter. And our approach has been tested by developing applications for many niches and needs i.e., retail and e-commerce, fintech, logistics, health care and loyalty programs. We recently crossed the mark of 35 million downloads of our applications. In fact, almost every Ukrainian has interacted with applications developed or currently being developed by Devlight.

Today, the companies are not just looking for a contractor to perform one-off tasks, but rather a partner who is ready to take on a large part of the responsibility and be a competent expert in the long term. This is exactly what we want to bring to the Swedish market.

In addition, the entire industry is now facing a huge level of fraud and cybercrimes. Working in Ukraine during a full-scale war, we do understand what data protection is. So, in Devlight we have a mission to protect customer data and the products themselves as much as possible, using the best practices for those purposes. 

– How does Devlight ensure that mobile apps it develops resonate and engage users?

Over the years of working with clients from different niches and with different requests, in Devlight we have developed a certain work model, which we call the Fusion Framework. It is based on 8 key principles we focus on to create an advanced application: 

• Strategy + Big Idea – we believe that the basis of a successful product is a clearly defined strategy and a big idea, which are formed on the basis of a deep analysis of the market, competitors and target audience, as well as the JTBD (Job To Be Done) concept, which helps to understand the real needs of users and solve their real tasks;
• Dynamic value offers adjustable to market changes and user needs. This allows you to constantly improve the product;
• Differentiation and usability of our products ensure that they stand out in the market due to their unique features and high efficiency in solving real user problems;
• To increase engagement and interaction, we implement interactive features, social elements and gamification mechanisms;
• Our approach is user-oriented: we consider their needs and expectations at every stage of development, actively involving users in testing prototypes and minding their feedback. We focus on a deep understanding of users, their context of product use and requirements. Thanks to this, the user receives an intuitive and efficient product;
• We also use a Data-Driven approach, when all decisions in the process of product development and improvement are based on data analysis, to include A/B testing and analysis of user behavioural patterns. This allows optimizing the functionality and improving the user experience;
• The Hooked Effect principle strengthens the user’s desire to return to the application thanks to the built-in triggers and reward system;
• And finally, a high level of technology and design, because this is the only way to ensure high performance, safety and convenience for users. 

Each of these stages is carefully planned and the entire team of mobile application developers i.e., designers, engineers, project managers, marketers, do closely cooperates on each of them. This approach allows creating applications on Android or iOS meeting high users and market requirements.

– Can the experience of cooperation with high-level clients in Ukraine be helpful for Devlight in entering the Swedish market? And what challenges do you already see in entering a new market?

The experience of working with the largest Ukrainian companies in the economic field gives us a certain level of expertise, and we know how to deal with complex requests of large clients. This relates to building multi-vector relationships, and considering the dynamics of a large company, and, of course, the ability to listen to stakeholders, understand and combine the company’s needs on the way to Mobile First Businesses in the context of creating mobile applications.

At the same time, we understand that we will be underdogs on the Swedish market, and this is our main challenge now – to win trust and move to the position of trusted partner. We already have several inquiries from local companies and are ready to work with future colleagues “for a long time”, and we are not afraid to invest 5-10 years in building relationships. 

– How does Devlight plan to impact the Swedish technology sector and its customers?

We are currently actively working on the App Playbook project. This is a comprehensive methodology for building and scaling mobile applications. The project is based on a structured approach that includes 75 tasks covering the entire application development life cycle i.e., from the idea to post-launch support. With real-world examples from more than 120 successful projects, this guide offers practical tools, templates and expert advice to help founders, entrepreneurs and managers speed up the development process by 3-5 times, while ensuring high product quality and safety.

The App Playbook, developed by Devlight, relies on extensive experience of working with leading companies and innovative startups. It is intended for those who seek to approach application development in a systematic way, minimizing risks and costs. Using the App Playbook, the developers can benefit from rich resources and step-by-step instructions to easily adapt the development process to different industries and project scales.

– What do you think is the future of mobile apps development and how is Devlight preparing for it? And what are Devlight’s plans for new markets?

The level of competition in the mobile application market in terms of companies offering products and end users is increasing dramatically. Therefore, the companies should think about the value they bring to the consumer, the level of technology and design in their products, as well as data protection and personalization. And we make a lot efforts in this direction.

Another point is integration of generative AI models into mobile applications, which will create new opportunities for the user and business. We are currently testing new ways of offline communication with the client using a mobile application. 

We are interested in entering markets of other Scandinavian countries, so we will focus our efforts in this direction, explore market opportunities and develop new products and services.

Devlight, a recognized leader in mobile technology, is preparing to move to the next level in Sweden. If you are interested in keeping your business ahead of the competition, leave your request and take advantage of a free consultation. Go to our website and join the digital revolution with Devlight.