Tech and creative industry figures come together to launch Sunflower Relief – a grassroots, not-for-profit network providing humanitarian relief across Ukraine

Tech entrepreneurs, tech investors and creative industry leaders have come together to launch Sunflower Relief, a not-for-profit social enterprise founded to provide essential humanitarian relief in Ukraine. Connecting the immediate needs of the Ukrainian people to the practical solutions at hand, the organisation is working to facilitate and link foreign aid looking for a way deeper into Ukraine, while supporting the current on-the-ground relief efforts.

Spearheaded by Ukrainian-born, London-based entrepreneur Irra Ariella Khi, CEO of Zamna and backed by an extensive network of entrepreneurs, tech investors and organisations, Sunflower Relief is a grassroots, volunteer-led network focused on providing Ukrainian locals with humanitarian relief.

Directing humanitarian relief more effectively

Sunflower Relief aims to help direct and distribute Ukrainian humanitarian relief more effectively – from providing logistics assistance to foreign aid agencies trying to reach deeper into Ukraine beyond the border, to getting medical supplies, hygiene products, camping equipment and food out to the millions of citizens who remain stranded or displaced in a war zone, as the Russian invasion continues.

To co-ordinate its efforts, the organisation has partnered with operations and logistics personnel in Ukraine to connect with local support organisations. Alongside this, it is organising a tech team of Ukrainians both on the ground, and abroad to source and share eyewitness accounts from citizens. This team will also moderate local language communication channels with real-time intelligence and information sharing.

Elsewhere, Sunflower Relief is building a network of Ukranian, Russian and Polish speakers to help coordinate the efforts between regions. It has already signed up more than 200 part-time, and four full-time volunteers based in Ukraine, London and across Europe. It is now on a global recruitment drive to encourage further Ukrainian and Russian speakers to join its network, particularly those who can commit six or more hours a day in its West London HQ, as well as recruiting dedicated full time support in order to ensure process integrity across the organisation, and effectively coordinate volunteer shifts.

Irra Ariella Khi was compelled to launch Sunflower Relief after hearing about the challenges on the ground in a series of eyewitness accounts, since the day the war started, from her immediate family in Ukraine. She realised foreign organisations were struggling to communicate with local networks already serving their own communities, leading to unhelpful assumptions about the type of aid and direction of support needed. This was also causing logistical difficulties getting supplies beyond the border or major cities, and into the depths of Ukraine.

“Most Ukrainians don’t want to get up and leave,” said Khi. “They’ve lived in these modern cities and built beautiful homes spending their lives in a culture they love, but with a lengthy and protracted conflict now highly likely, and with limited humanitarian corridors available, it’s crucial they have immediate access to supplies, services and support in their precise location.

“We’re rapidly scaling our grassroots operation to ensure that this support doesn’t just stop at the Ukrainian border, while we’re also making a huge communications effort to ensure citizens understand how and where support can be accessed. This can only be achieved through a combination of local language capabilities, deep local networks and local knowledge.”

Collective action

Sunflower Relief is backed by partners including Phoenix Court Works, Seedcamp, Point 9 Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, UKBAA, Firstminute Capital, Founders Forum and Accel. Commitments of more than £300,000 initial funding have been secured from companies and individuals across the tech sector, with more support coming from the creative and tech communities. Sherry Coutu, serial entrepreneur and tech investor; Samir Desai,founder of Funding Circle; Mei Wen founding partner at Yinvest, Check Warner partner at Ada Ventures, Ella Goldner co-founder and general manager at Zinc VC, Paul Murphy, partner at Lightspeed; Ben Marrel, managing partner at Breega, Jenny Tooth OBE chief executive at UKBAA, Lyuba Guk, founding partner of Blue Lake VC; Grace Cassy and Jonathan Luff cofounders at CyLon/Epsilon; Rajeeb Dey MBE CEO of Learnerbly; Gary Stewart, founder and CEO of FounderTribes and Brent Hoberman, co-founder and chairman at Founders Factory/Founders Forum are also supporting Sunflower, either financially or with resources and access to their networks.

Sunflower Relief is currently speaking with other VCs and partners to secure additional financing for its operations.

The organisation is also partnering with initiatives and events to augment its support efforts. The first of these initiatives was Night for Ukraine, a collaboration with Secret Cinema founder Fabien Riggall.

Night for Ukraine was held at London’s Roundhouse on Wednesday 9 March. The live event showcased artists from Ukraine and the wider world, with the aim of kickstarting an ongoing events programme that keeps humanitarian efforts top of mind in the months ahead.

Irra Ariella Khi, CEO of Zamna and founder of Sunflower Relief says: “I felt a moral imperative to act when I heard first hand about how organisations were struggling to communicate with locals in Ukraine. If not me, then who? Through immediate family and the network of personal contacts on the ground, myself and the volunteers at Sunflower Relief are able to connect people in need with the organisations and groups best suited to help. This means that useful aid stands a chance of getting into the right hands. The grass-roots, local-level support Sunflower Relief can provide is there to complement the astounding and unrelenting work of the large aid agencies to ensure everyone who needs support gets access to it.”

Remus Brett, Partner at LocalGlobe & Latitude, says: “The impact Irra has made since the invasion began has been phenomenal. When you apply tech knowhow and an entrepreneurial mindset to a crisis, you can drive instant support to those who need it most. This is why I am so passionate about backing people like Irra and her network of partners, who have direct insight into what’s happening on the ground, along with the necessary skills and connections to make an immeasurable difference. We’re working to ensure Sunflower has the right people, operational prowess and grassroots connectivity to positively affect the lives of citizens across Ukraine. If we can provide one person with resources to get out of a war zone, or give supplies and shelter to one person whose home has been destroyed, then what we are doing is 100% worth it.”

Brent Hoberman, Executive chairman and co-founder, Firstminute Capital, says: “It is a privilege to be able to support founders delivering real impact, and rarely more so than in the case of Irra and the team of volunteers at Sunflower Relief, carrying out urgent work in Ukraine. We look forward to helping scale this with full support from Founders Forum and Firstminute capital.”