Andriy Kusyi is a 2018 graduate of UCU’s Data Science Master’s Program of the Applied Sciences Faculty. Recently, LetsData, a startup of Andriy Kusyi and Kseniya Ilyuk, won a competition of pitches in America’s largest investment activity, SelectUSA 2023, in which a Ukrainian delegation participated for the first time this year. In total, some 200 startups from throughout the world participated in the competition, and three Ukrainian projects made it to the final round.
Andriy Kusyi with a Ukrainian flag at the awards ceremony
After completing the Data Science Master’s Program, Kusyi started to work for the Grammarly company, and also was involved with teaching educational courses at the UCU Applied Sciences Faculty, including “Machine learning and cloud services” and “Machine learning for data engineers.”
In 2021, Andriy Kusyi and Kseniya Ilyuk start actively to work in the area of combating disinformation and organizing educational projects for Ukrainian journalists regarding the use of technology to counter hostile information campaigns. After Russia’s full-scale invasion, the team started to work together with the Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative, in partnership with Detector Media, analyzing the information field about Ukraine in 40 countries, and also promoting Ukrainian narratives in the international media. As a result of this cooperation, Kusyi and Ilyuk developed the first prototype of the LetsData product.
LetsData is an AI-solution which predicts communication risks and opportunities and helps organizations counter threatening information campaigns. The product works in two stages. At first, the system collects data from social networks and the media according to the user’s demands. Then, the data develops a number of systems of artificial intelligence to receive an additional signal about the use of toxic phrases, references to organizations, people, and locations, emotional coloring, dominant themes, etc.
On the basis of these signals and data about involvement, the system forms alerts and reports with recommendations which the team of analysts later validates and adds to recommendations for organizations regarding threats about advantages of one or another information campaign.
The founders of the startup assert that, at this stage, their product helps transfer to pro-active communication, warns about disinformation campaigns, and suggests additional communicational possibilities. Among their clients are government institutions and organizations.
“We are now actively seeking investments to increase the scope of our activity. We take part in professional conferences and consider possibilities for accelerating. At the end of 2023, we also plan to conduct an investment round to the sum of over $1 million. Our great goal is to help companies build their communicational stability.” So Andriy Kusyi comments on his plans for the future.
So, at the start of May, the LetsData team took part in the SelectUSA 2023 investment summit, where it won in pitching startups. This year’s summit had 4 900 participants from 82 countries, and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke at the awards ceremony.
The participation of the delegation of Ukrainian startups at the SelectUSA 2023 investment summit became possible thanks to the efforts of USAID CEP (the Competitive Economy Program of the United States Agency for International Development) in Ukraine, with the support of Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, and the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States, in cooperation with the Ukrainian Startups Fund and Techosystem.
The text was written using journalistic materials from the platform Vector.
Photos – Vector.
