Nykyta Izmaylov and the N1 Fund’s Investment in ObriyAI: Why the Ukrainian AI Startup Is Preparing for a Major Breakthrough in the EU

Ukrainian AI startup ObriyAI has closed a $500,000 pre-seed round from N1 Investment Company. This sends a clear signal to the market: investors have decisively shifted their focus from ChatGPT-powered toys toward deep business automation, moving into the practical development of autonomous digital agents.

As Nykyta Izmaylov notes, capital today flows toward software capable of handling entire operational workflows, rather than just isolated routine processes: “We are seeing a clear shift from using models for individual tasks to building autonomous operational architectures for businesses.”

According to N1 Investment Company founder Nykyta Izmaylov, the market no longer buys into polished presentations about “AI for AI’s sake.” Instead, investments in projects such as ObriyAI represent a bet on technologies capable of radically changing business economics. Capital flows toward software that can save businesses thousands of hours of routine work.

Similarly, early-stage success in B2B SaaS depends on a team’s ability to address critical pain points for corporate clients from day one: “Our focus at N1 goes beyond supporting technological ideas. We seek business founders who clearly understand unit economics and can sell a complex product in highly competitive markets. The market is not looking for yet more add-ons, but for tangible business outcomes with a predictable return on investment for the customer.”

The SURE Product and Architecture

ObriyAI’s flagship product, the SURE platform, focuses on automating complex processes in customer support, internal operations, and workflow management. Unlike standard chatbots, SURE’s architecture deploys interconnected AI agents that integrate with companies’ internal systems, including CRMs, Zendesk, and corporate archives, and independently manage workflows from the initial request through to completion.

The platform integrates deeply into a company’s internal systems and handles the entire process, from an incoming request to the final resolution, evaluating every request in real time and either resolving it on its own or seamlessly handing it over to a human. In the team’s use cases, three agents work sequentially to qualify a lead, configure a product, and prepare a commercial proposal within five minutes. The platform follows a straightforward B2B model.

The Team and Market Potential

The company was founded by three entrepreneurs: Viacheslav Shestakovskyi, Andrii Bobrov, and Dmytro Nosach. Nosach brought 15 years of total industry management experience, including at GlobalLogic, as well as experience working with Fortune Global 500 companies. This is a decisive advantage in the corporate segment, where selling enterprise software to major companies is considerably more difficult than writing code.

The company’s early traction in the commercial and public sectors includes securing clients such as Silpo through Fozzy Venture Studio, TaxBox, Atmosfera, and IDCard; winning the GovTech Lab Ukraine program and being selected by Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice to pilot SURE within the free legal aid system; and winning Glovo Startup Lab 3.0, followed by a presentation at Glovo’s headquarters in Barcelona.

Investment Context and Preparation for the Seed Round

The pre-seed funding received from N1 in March 2026 marked the company’s first external investment round and is helping it prepare for a seed round. The startup is using the funding to accelerate product development and expand its team. The investor’s involvement extends beyond capital to helping the company build strategic partnerships and establish its international positioning.

As Nykyta Izmaylov emphasizes, evaluating early-stage AI companies requires an in-depth analysis of core financial and operational metrics: “When we assess projects transitioning from pre-seed to seed, the presentation no longer matters. Hard numbers take center stage: ARR/MRR trends, the gross margin structure accounting for the cost of LLM and API calls, the net customer churn rate, and other metrics.”

Deciding whether to participate in the next round requires requesting and verifying key metrics: current and historical monthly recurring revenue (MRR), including trends over the past six months; average deal size; margins after deducting cloud costs; and the current cash flow shortfall and capital structure. Without these data, it is impossible to determine the company’s market valuation accurately.

Despite the venture risks associated with early-stage investments, the combination of strong, validated demand, institutional investment support from N1, and demand for automation in the EU makes ObriyAI one of the most prominent technology ventures of Ukrainian origin in the European market.