Fintech platforms in SME’s financing: EU experience and ways of their application in Ukraine

Over the last five years, Ukraine suffers from armed conflicts that cause substantial losses in the state budget. In this context, shaping the prospects and developing measures for the post-conflict reconstruction of the state and its economy is an important problem. The very possibility and the effectiveness of such measures will depend on the country's financial potential as well as on the financial strength of its entities. This potential is dynamic and influenced by information technology, without which any institution cannot go.
Given the particular significance of the financial potential IT-transformation, the role of digital forms of money, crowdfunding and initial coin offering (ICO) was identified. It is substantiated that while overcoming the consequences of military conflicts, their implementation facilitates the attraction and acceleration of the financial resources movement. By generalizing the developments and practical experience of Ukrainian fintech-companies, the principles of such developments application for assessing the external financial environment of economic entities and conducting financial analysis have been shaped.

The level of insured losses from natural and man-made disasters occurred in the world from 2012 to 2016 did not exceed 30-45%. Therefore, it is necessary to study another perspective source of financing losses refunding from natural and man-made disasters. The objective of this research is to consider financing losses from natural and man-made disasters by use of crowdfunding, especially in emerging countries. It was defined that the most appropriate model of crowdfunding for financing losses from natural and man-made disasters is donation model with reward-based and donation-based business models. Stimulus for individuals to take part in crowdfunding for financing losses from natural and man-made disasters can be different depending on their location and business model. Sets of assessments based on four categories of questions and method of results visualization were used to examine a country’s readiness for crowdfunding on the example of Ukraine. Complete level of Ukraine’s readiness for crowdfunding was defined. It shows that reward-based crowdfunding is the first stage towards crowdfunding implementation and development. Further research should be done to investigate the mechanism of using a tax discount in case of implementation of the reward-based crowdfunding for financing losses from natural and man-made disasters.

The study aims to analyze the innovation potential of enterprises, explain the use of the binary regression methodology, and explore different indicators of the enterprises in the regions of Kazakhstan for building an effective management strategy. Methodological substantiation is based on the complex survey data analysis, provided by the World Bank Enterprises Survey (WBES) for Kazakhstan. WBES database has covered a sociological survey of enterprises, which was conducted using a random survey and representativeness among 1,296 enterprises, mainly in the production sector. Besides, the data were collected among companies regarding their experience in environmental perception (including innovation activity), in which they worked. The results have demonstrated that the age of the company, exporter status, type, sector, or activity – all these have a positive influence on the company’s tendency to innovations. However, as part of the study, it has found out that competitors in the marketplace and regions of activity of enterprises predominantly negatively affect the prospects of introducing innovation. It was also in evidence that the same factors (foreign ownership, advanced training, type, size, and sector of an enterprise) are essential determinants of product, technology, R&D, ICT, and innovation. Obtained results can be used by enterprises for building an effective management strategy of own business innovative development, as well as by local authorities to upgrade the competitive performance.

Acknowledgments
This study has been funded by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Grant “Priorities and mechanisms of inclusive regional development of Kazakhstan in the context of overcoming the economic recession” No. AP09259004).