The 4th International Early Stage Investors Summit - VOX ANGELIS which is the high level gathering of private early stage investors will take place in Moscow in 2021.
The Summit where top early stage investors, representatives of the international investment communities, angel investors, seed funds and other early stage investments players usually meet for 3 days will take place in a wonderful forest resort near Moscow.
The Summit stands on its principles - it will be the most closed informal meeting of investors in a special atmosphere. The European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds and Early Stage Market Players (EBAN) is the official strategic partner of the VOX ANGELIS.
Jacopo Losso
Belgium
Director of Secretariat EBAN
Baybars Altuntas
Turkey
President of the World Business Angels Investment Forum, President of the Business Angels Association of Turkey
Kaiser H. Naseem
Canada
Digital Transformation Professional/International Development Banker
Lana Graf
USA
Partner, YellowRockets.vc, Boston, MA
Panagiotis Ketikidis
Greece
Hellenic Business Angels Network
Aleksandr Voronov
Panama
Development Director in CIS and Eastern Europe, NTL Trust
Christine Bjarkby
Sweden
Board member of EBAN for Sweden
Fabrice Testa
Luxembourg
Board Member of the Luxembourg Business Angel Network
Yuri Navarro
Canada
CEO at Panache International, former CEO at National Angel Capital Organization
Andreas Mihalovits
Germany
Co-founder of Global Super Angels Club
Marcel Dridje
France
President of Sophia Business Angels
Robert Ługowski
Poland
Managing Partner at Cobin Angels, Board Member at EBAN
Angelo Dalli
Malta
Serial entrepreneur, Angel investor
Branko Drobnak
Slovenia
President of Business Angels of Slovenia
Lisa-Marie Fassl
Austria
Managing Director of Austrian Angel Investors Association
Israel Pons
Mexico
CEO and Co-Founding Partner of Angels Nest LATAM
Anette Nordvall
Sweden
Partner and Chapter President Keiretsu Forum Nordics
David Assia
Israel
Executive Chairman of iAngels
Yuri Rabinovich
Israel
Managing Partner at Monthly Ventures and ZenRock Ventures
Guy Zbarsky
Israel
Managing Partner at Sabra Capital
Vitalina Dzutseva
USA
ICON Holdings plc
Karl W. Mundorff
USA
Director of the OSU Advantage Accelerator
Alex Zhigarev
Austria
Partner at Speedinvest
Peter Hoffmann
Luxembourg
Business & Export Acceleration, Ecosystem Building (PwC`s Accelerator)
Vitaly Polekhin
Russia
President of International Investor organization INVESTORO, National Business Angels Association
Igor Lutz
Russia
Managing partner of the Untitled ventures
Edward Fiyaksel
Russia
President of "Initial Investments" Business Angel Network
Dmitry Sutormin
Russia
Angel investor, Partner at YellowRockets.vc
Alexander Kobenko
Russia
Executive Director, National Engineering Corporation
Konstantin Nadenenko
Russia
Venture investments director, "Leader" management company
Igor Kaloshin
Russia
Partner, SmartHub
Renat Batyrov
Russia
General Director of Skolkovo Technopark
Yury Mitin
Russia
Venture partner, iTech Capital
Nikolay Borisenko
Russia
Deputy Venture investments director, "Leader" management company
Vladimir Batmanov
Russia
Angel investor
Nikita Zhelezny
Russia
Angel investor
Stanislav Kolesnichenko
Russia
Director of Ecosystem Development, Skolkovo Ventures
Islam Midov
Russia
Head of CVC MTS
Aleksander Kardash
Russia
Director, Advisory, PwC, Russia
Anton Vasilyev
Russia
Партнер M&A практики Orange Capital
Alexander Sapov
Russia
CEO of GetTransfer.com, an international transfer booking service, Co-founder of Key Group Accelerator
Olga Dorofeeva
Russia
Managing Partner of SmartHub Venture Boutique
Alexey Milevsky
Russia
Investment Director, Mail.ru Group
Daria Lyulkovich
Russia
Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO
Nikolay Sakharov
Russia
General Partner "Sakharov and partners"
Investment Academy
Special course on early stage investments will be handy for first-time business angels. Alongside experts, you will learn how to search for and evaluate startups, structure transactions and grow portfolio companies that may become multi-million assets with high returns in a few years.
Venture Insights
Best international early stage investors will discuss current investment strategies and interaction with the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Essential track for those who would like to see the direction in which the early stage investment market is heading.
Global Exchange
Track for experienced investors. International dialogue and full immersion in transaction details, portfolio structure, specifics of cross-border investments. Detailed case studies of successful and failed exits.
Pre-party
The dinner with the main guests and intellectual game VentuRing will take place on the first day of the Summit.
Gala Dinner
All the individuals and organizations, which made a significant contribution to the early stage investment market development in 2018 and 2019, will receive the VOX ANGELIS Early Stage Investment Award 2019.
Off the record
All tracks will be held in private and off the record. Due to this, participants will be able to share their experience and knowledge in full during the informal part as well as presentations and panel discussions.
■ expansion and support of the professional early stage investment community;
■ sharing of experience, transboundary co-investments with foreign investors;
■ improvement of investors' competencies, immersion in industry trends and analytics.
■ 3-day investment community meeting far from the city bustle;
■ the Summit has been included to the EBAN events calendar - EBAN unites 197 European investment communities;
■ worthwhile networking.
Vitaly Polekhin
Russia
President of International Investor organization INVESTORO, National Business Angels Association
Edward Fiyaksel
Russia
President of "Initial Investments" Business Angel Network
Alexander Kobenko
Russia
Executive Director, National Engineering Corporation
Yury Mitin
Russia
Director of Startup Academy at Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO
Elena Pozharnova
Russia
Executive Director of Assistance fund for venture investments development of Samara region
Oleg Teplov
Russia
CEO, VEB Ventures
Dmitry Kalaev
Russia
Head of acceleration, IIDF
Alexey Basov
Russia
Chief Investment Officer, Russian venture company
Olga Dorofeeva
Russia
SmartHub
Egor Gogolev
Russia
Head of Venture Project Deaprtment Severstal Managment
Dmitry Sutormin
Russia
Angel investor, Partner at YellowRockets.vc
Sergey Ivanov
Russia
Chief Operations Officer at AltaClub
300+ PARTICIPANTS
Lead early stage investors from the Russian and global investment community - business angels, private investors, seed funds and venture capital funds.
35+ EVENTS
Plenary sessions and panel discussions, award ceremony, investment academy, workshops, presentations of investment transactions by the lead investors, portfolio management, structuring and legal practice of VC deals, syndicated investments and much more.
30 COUNTRIES
First-time and experienced investors from all over the world, notably from Russia, Europe, USA, Israel, Singapore, Latin and South America.
Karl Mundorff | Director of the OSU Advantage Accelerator
"The Vox Angelis event was one of the most professional events I’ve ever attended. From the venue to the panel topics, panelists, the instant translations, the art work that augmented the panels, the food and entertainment, all of it was top notch! It was also exciting to see the wide variety of countries and angel groups represented by the attendees. The value of the connections is well worth the price of admission."
Andreas Mihalovits | Global Super Angel Club
"VOX ANGELIS 2019 clearly showed, that it is the No. 1 Early Stage Investors Summit in Eastern Europe, attracting not only some the most important investors and promising startups from Russia, but also a remarkable amount of international early stage investors interested to collaborate on a global level."
Candace Johnson | President Emeritus of EBAN
"Over the past two or three years, the level of Russian venture capital investors has increased significantly. I believe that Russian entrepreneurs and business angels are doing a great job, they help their companies to enter international markets, and contribute to globalization as a whole. As for me, this is the right direction."
Vitaly Polekhin | President of International Investor organization INVESTORO, National Business Angels Association, co-organizer of VOX ANGELIS/p>
"Venture investments at the early stages are no longer a local game. Investors are looking for new mutual opportunities in new markets. International exchange of experience on deals, portfolio structures, peculiarities of cross-border investments, successful and unsuccessful exits, with a deep dive into details - the main feature of VOX ANGELIS, where investors from 25 countries gathered. The open exchange of the existing deal flow, in which successful Russian and foreign investors invite each other to join, the opportunity to share experience and knowledge "without notes" not only in the informal part, but also through presentations and discussion panels - this is what our summit participants love."
Sergey Bogdanov | CEO YellowRockets, co-organizer of VOX ANGELIS
"The VOX ANGELIS Summit was attended by investors from more than 25 countries. This is very important for us because the summit aims to develop the global vс community. In the venture business, networking is almost the most important thing. In addition to a busy business program, we pay a lot of attention to creating conditions for informal communication and networking. This year we see a lot of new people at the summit - more than 100 foreign investors have gathered. Thanks to all this, the VOX ANGELIS Summit has become a recognized leading platform for meeting early stage venture market participants."
Oleg Teplov | CEO of VEB Ventures, General partner of VOX ANGELIS 2019
"Our corporations must learn to work with open innovations, and the whole ecosystem must help them. The level of maturity of the corporation is important, what product it can take on: either the whole chain from accelerator to corporate venture fund and M&A, or concentrating on the best solutions to look for ready-made stories in the market and support super teams that can integrate into the system. A community must be open and comfortable for everyone, no one innovates alone, this applies not only to startup entrepreneurs, but also to funds and corporations. Everyone has to be in the ecosystem. If we are not greedy and are ready to share, there will only be more projects, they will be of higher quality and the whole market will benefit from it."
Dmitry Kalaev | Head of IIDF Aceelerator
"A unique event for the Russian market, where the largest number of early stage investors gather.
Thanks to Vitaly Polekhin, Sergey Bogdanov and the whole event team!
Very rich with insights, experiences, new plans and soul talks :)
I recommend early stage investors and business angels to include the summit into their program of events for the next year!"
Fedor Yakovlev | Managing Partner at Startup Lab
"I spent this weekend at Vox Angelis.
I think this event is an absolute must for those involved in the world of venture. For me personally, this summit was a source of many ideas, as well as an opportunity to make sure that we are looking in the right direction in the Startup Lab. As a bonus - a lot of useful contacts and, of course, a great time.
Thanks to Sergei Bogdanov and Vitaly Polekhin for the perfect organization and networking, to Igor Ryabensky, Alexei Girin, Arkady Moreinis, Maria Ivanova for the excellent bowling game and wise advice that I'll be thinking about for the long time 👍"
Sergey Dashkov | Angel investor
"Thanks to Vitaly Polekhin and Sergey Bogdanov for VOXANGELIS: a lot of useful things, a strong network and a light friendly atmosphere".
Vladimir Batmanov | Angel investor
«#VoxAngelis is over💥🔥👏
The event, as always, was brilliantly organized - Sergey Bogdanov's thermonuclear team #YellowRockets is on top, although after last year's summit it seemed that there was nowhere to grow. It turned out that there were - more interesting foreign speakers, discussions on topical issues, thanks to Vitaly Polekhin, and the plenary panels were just super. I've heard a lot of confirmation of my existing assumptions about the trajectory of Russian business angelism. To mention the style of the event, our development institutes still have to learn and learn - everything was perfectly moderated and timed, not long, short, relevant.
As usual there were many interesting contacts, including new foreign ones, as well as meetings of old friends from all over the country. 🔥"
Mikhail Erman | CEO, HSE Business Incubator
"Weekend spent in an excellent company of early-stage investors and those who want to become them, at Vox Angelis. Well, just a super useful and high-quality event, which every year as well as wine becomes only better. About 300 people from different parts of the world met to exchange experiences and agree on common deals and exchange pipelines. I came back with a bunch of useful contacts, which I will now turn into joint projects. Thank you, Sergey Bogdanov, for inviting me as a speaker, and the coincidence of circumstances that led to the cancellation of the previously planned trip. A giant work of @YellowRockets and @Investoro, guys are doing a great job".
Alexey Girin | General Partner, Starta Ventures
"Last weekend the Vox Angelis summit took place.
Best event of the year in terms of organization, networking and content for early stage investors in Russia.
Thanks to Vitaly Polekhin, Sergey Bogdanov, Angelina Pak and everyone involved in its organization.
We are waiting for the next one in 2020."
Denis Kreicberg | Founder of kruiz.online
"I've finally came to senses after #voxangelis Early Stage Investors Summit. )))
I'm overflowing with emotions - an amazing level of organization of the event by @yellowrocketsrus and Vitaly Polekhin's teams.
Very cool educational program - I'd like to become an investor in the future )
Non-stop communication - almost around the clock 🙈😉
Lots of useful information for our project kruiz.online and a lot of necessary acquaintances.
Cool entertainment program in the morning and evening - all the participants and guests are very positive )
.Thanks to the organizers and speakers for expanding the horizons. 👍🌍🚀"
Alexander Tomchenko | CEO, Glambook
"Almost a month has passed since the event organized by Vitaly Polekhin's team - Vox Angelis.
Even before participation I was told: this is the best event in Russia for startups.
And after a month, I can once again confirm - it's the best and extremely effective.
Interesting program, awesome Network with 250+ angels and fund representatives from 30 countries, useful "off-the-record" insights, behind-the-scenes meetings and agreements!
Thank you for the invitation and the opportunity to be one of the few startups selected for the summit!"
In 2019, the Summit will take place on the territory of picturesque wooded AREAL park hotel, which is in Moscow region. Comfortable rooms, unique landscape design, variety of appetizing food cooked right in the hotel's restaurant complex, plenty of space and fresh forest air will make your stay there rich and enjoyable. Sports, outdoor games, SPA, BBQ, karaoke and bowling will complement our business programme. Besides, it takes no more than 1.5 hours to get from the Sheremetyevo airport to the park hotel and just 40 minutes from Moscow Ring Road.
Address of AREAL park hotel: 21/1 Sirenevaya Str., Rodinki township, Novaya Kupavna village, Noginskiy district, Moscow region
EARLY BIRD
75 000 ₽
until June 30
- participation in the business program;
- hotel accommodation (single supplement in the AREAL park hotel - in the area where the summit will be held on September 13-15);
- meals (breakfast, lunch, coffee breaks with snacks);
- Pre-party | VentuRing;
- AWARDS | Gala dinner;
- BBQ at the pond;
- Fresh&Health - zone for one-on-one meetings;
- Sport | Wellness&SPA programs;
- simultaneous interpreting;
- free parking;
- free device application with participants' contacts.
0/100
Tickets
left
SOLD OUT
STANDART
- participation in the business program;
- hotel accommodation (single supplement in the AREAL park hotel - in the area where the summit will be held on September 13-15);
- meals (breakfast, lunch, coffee breaks with snacks);
- Pre-party | VentuRing;
- AWARDS | Gala dinner;
- BBQ at the pond;
- Fresh&Health - zone for one-on-one meetings;
- Sport | Wellness&SPA programs;
- simultaneous interpreting;
- free parking;
- free device application with participants' contacts.
3/175
Tickets
left
SOLD OUT
If you would like to become a media partner of the event, please send an e-mail to pr@yrockets.com. Please include "VOX ANGELIS Media partnership" in the subject line.
In order to do that, e-mail a motivation letter at hello@voxangelis.org with the subject "I would like to become a volunteer". Please state your full name, age, occupation (if you are a student, please state the university and department) and your level of English language proficiency. In addition to that, please explain why you are interested in participating in the event. Volunteers between the ages of 20 and 35 are welcome.
Even if you are not able to attend the entire business program and take part in all the events of the summit, the ticket price will not change.
All adult event participants pay full cost for the selected category ticket. If you want to bring children under 18 years of age, send an e-mail to hello@voxangelis.org with the subject "Accommodation with children" and we will contact you to arrange a convenient accommodation option.
Organizers start preparing for the VOLGA ANGELS summit in advance. This includes prepayment costs for the rental space, reservation of accommodation for participants, organization of the business program, etc. Expenditure increases as you approach the date of the summit, therefore refusal to participate is subjected to the following conditions:
1. If you cancel more than 90 days prior to summit start – 20% of the ticket price is deducted.
2. If you cancel 30 to 89 days prior to summit start – 30% of the ticket price is deducted.
3. If you cancel 5 to 29 days prior to summit start – 50% of the ticket price is deducted.
4. In case of cancellation less than 5 days before the summit – full cost of the ticket price is deducted.
If you wish to request a ticket refund, you need to go to your personal account on website timepad.ru and activate the corresponding function there.
Media partnership and accreditation
Rules
1. After you complete the registration form, your application will be submitted for approval, which will take no more than a day. If your participation is confirmed, we will contact you to discuss the payment procedure.
2. The number of participants in the summit is limited. If you will not pay for participation within three working days after application confirmation, your application will be canceled and you will have to register again.
3. If you have a promocode, enter it in the appropriate field before you fill out the registration form.
Registration form
Brian S. Cohen
Chairman, New York Angels
Considered one of the fathers of science & technology strategic communications - founded Technology Solutions, Inc. in 1983. Client list read like a who's who list of startup technology companies in computing, communication, software, education, and entertainment. Maintained a strategic communications partnership with Sony & IBM Corporation (10 years). Received the Gold CIPRA award in 1998 for the IBM Deep Blue/Gary Kasparov Chess Match. In 1996, TSI was recognized as the #1 fastest growing agency in the United States. Sold the company to The McCann Erickson World Group in 1997 and became the Vice Chairman. Now serves as Chairman of the New York Angels.
Brian was a pioneer in the founding of a number of the first computing publications including Computer Systems News and InformationWeek magazine.
Candace Johnson
President Emeritus, EBAN
Candace Johnson is the Co-founder of SES, the world’s pre-eminent satellite group and the architect of SES Global. She is also the founding President of Europe Online Investments S.A., the world’s first internet-based online service and satellite broadband network, and the Founder of Loral Cyberstar-Teleport Europe, Europe’s first independent private trans-border satellite communications network. Ms. Johnson is also a founding investor and Member of the Board of Kacific, the high-throughput Satellite Internet System for the Pacific. She is also the founding President of the VATM, the Association of Private Telecom Operators in Germany, and of the Global Telecom Women’s Network (GTWN).
During her time as President of EBAN, she has co-founded MBAN, the Middle East and North Africa Business Angel Network and ABAN, the African Business Angel Network.
Marcus Dantus
CEO, Startup Mexico
Marcus is a recognized serial entrepreneur and angel investor with almost 2 decades creating, managing, funding and mentoring startups both in Mexico and the US. He currently heads Startup Mexico, Mexico’s first entrepreneurial super hubs, several facilities especially designed to foster collaboration and innovation and host aspiring entrepreneurs, startups, seed funds, corporations and a variety of services aimed at newly created companies. Marcus also teaches entrepreneurship and innovation at IPADE, Mexico’s top graduate business school and heads the startup creation module at ISDI’s Master in Internet Business program. Previously, he founded and headed Wayra Mexico, Telefónica´s startup accelerator, focused primarily on IT and Communication high-impact businesses. He has been CEO and founder of several companies in the past, including Mexico.com, Simitel, Peerant and Abdeo Medical. Marcus has also won several entrepreneurship and innovation awards, including the Intel Technology Award with Simitel in 2004 and again with Innovamedica in 2008, as well as the Endeavor dedication award in 2005. He is a regular speaker at academic, government and industry events. He is also a board member of the Mexico-US Entrepreneurship and Innovation Council (MUSEIC) and serves as a project chair in the National [Intersectoral] Innovation Committee and the Mexico-France Entrepreneurship and Innovation Council (COMFEI), he was also recently appointed vice president of the financial committee of CONCAMIN, Mexico’s Confederation of Industrial Chambers.
Peter Braun
Co-founder and CEO of the Mountain Club AG
Peter E. Braun has 20 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur and in various senior and top management positions in the aerospace and automotive industries. He has successfully launched two industrial companies and two finance-related enterprises, and completed two IPOs, one in the United States and one in Germany. During his career, Peter acquired profound knowledge of the capital markets and the finance sector though his activities in Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Canada, USA and Asia. He is a much asked for coach for start-ups, a compelling speaker and a sought after senior advisor and board member.
In his most recent activity as a Co-founder and CEO of the Mountain Club AG, he created a peerless e-banking solution for business angel and private equity investments in collaboration with strategic partner UBS AG.
Riku Asikainen
Vice-President, FiBAN
Riku Asikainen is an entrepreneur, angel investor and growth hacker. He started his first company while in high school, and sold it fifteen years later, after it had become Finland’s leading internet bookstore. Since then he has been a founder, active investor and board member in more than 35 companies. Riku has had several nice upswings, ten exits and one IPO, but is still looking for his first billion dollars. Riku Asikainen was one of the co-founders and Chairman of FiBAN (Finnish Business Angel network), which was awarded Europe´s Best Business Angel Network title in 2013 by EBAN. He is a proud Co-founder of Startup-foundation, the organization behind both SLUSH, Europe´s biggest tech conference and Startup sauna, a leading incubator program for the region, in which Riku currently serves as Head Coach. Riku Asikainen graduated from Aalto University School of Business (M.Sc, Helsinki) and was nominated as the Alumni of the year in 2014.
Peter Cowley
Chair of the board of the Cambridge Business Angels
UK Business Angel of the Year 2014/15, charity chair and trustee, mentor and non-executive director.
As an active angel investor for ten years, invested in over 60 startups and was named UK Business Angel of the Year 2014/15 and Best Angel of the World by the World Business Angel Investment Forum in February 2017<.p>
Peter Cowley is a chair of the board of the Cambridge Business Angels and the Investment Director of the Marshall of Cambridge, Martlet Corporate Angel division. I've led 25+ investment deals and am currently a non-executive director of five angel-backed technology start-ups, plus a board observer of two others.
Ian Sosso
Founder and Managing Partner, Monte Carlo Capital
Ian founded Monte Carlo Capital in 2009 to invest his own assets in early stage companies. Over the years Monte Carlo Capital attracted a group of sophisticated individuals who invest as a group between $500K and to $3Mio in each business.
Monte Carlo Capital looks for the best start ups around the world: businesses with a clear edge, strong intellectual property or looking to disrupt an industry, and has build a portfolio of exceptional companies in sectors ranging from biotech and medical devices to artificial intelligence, robotics, fintech, robotics and consumer products.
Ian is regularly the lead investor and is involved in each step of the deal, from deal sourcing, to due diligence, deal structuring, and often joins the board or the advisory board.
Before founding Monte Carlo Capital, Ian was, until 2009, the regional managing director and head of capital markets in Asia for Commerzbank where he was managing all capital markets activities in Asia, including equity derivatives, credit, precious metals, foreign exchange, debt capital markets, as well as the treasuries of HK, Singapore and Shanghai.
Ian started his career in 1993 and previously worked in Paris, London, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong with HSBC, UBS and JPMorgan, holding positions in trading, sales and financial engineering.
Over the years, Ian has been a keynote speaker in numerous conferences in China, HK, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Russia and Monaco.
Ian currently lectures venture capital to MBA and finance MSc students at the International University of Monaco, and a regular speaker at leading business school. He is also a board member of the Monaco Venture Capital Association.
Ian joined the European Business Angels Network (EBAN), in 2016 and recently won the best performing new member award at the annual conference of EBAN in Malaga. EBAN is the pan-European trade association for the early stage investor community and gathers member organisations in 59 countries, Ian is a Monégasque and holds a MSc in Finance from the London School of Economics (LSE).
Vitaly Polekhin
President of International Investor organization INVESTORO, National Business Angels Association
2018 – now President of International Investor Organization INVESTORO. INVESTORO is an International Investor Organization aiming and focusing on early stage investment deals in startups and scale ups around the world. By now, its membership base consists of more than 200 private investors.
2016 – now President of National Business Angels Association. National Business Angels Association (NBAA) is the most well-known and influential Russian representative for business angels networks, seed funds, and other early stage VC market players. NBAA was created in 2009 by 4 major national angel groups. By now, its membership base consists of more than 20 organizations and 5 associated members, representing nearly 85% of the Russian early stage VC market.
2012 – now Head of SKOLKOVO Investor club. The SKOLKOVO Investor Club is a communication platform that brings together entrepreneurs and investors looking for new business opportunities. We support entrepreneurs through private and institutional investors among more than 200 participants and 70 partners of the SKOLKOVO Investor Club.
2016 – now Board Member of European Business Angels Network (EBAN). EBAN is the pan-European representative for the early stage investor gathering over 150 member organizations more than 50 countries today. Established in 1999 by a group of pioneer angel networks in Europe with the collaboration of the European Commission and EURADA, EBAN represents a sector estimated to invest 7.5 billion Euros a year and playing a vital role in Europe’s future, notably in the funding of SMEs. EBAN fuels Europe’s growth through the creation of wealth and jobs.
2016 Angel Investor of the Year 2015 by Russia Venture Awards.
2009-2016 Shareholder and Supervisory Board Member of Venture Capital Firms:
• Addventure
• Texdrive
• Venture Angels
2009-2017 More than 40 investments in startups in Russia and worldwide.
Konstantin Siniushin
Managing Partner, the Untitled venture company
Business-angel in ICT projects, entrepreneur in the field of management and operations consulting.
Today Konstantin is a managing partner of seed fund called the Untitled ventures, specializing in Russian tech projects. The fund develops partnership with Russian venture funds and ecosystem participants as well as foreign investors.
Igor Ryabenkiy
General Partner, Altair Capital
Global entrepreneur, founder of ParallelGraphics, BCC Group and Unit. Igor started his path in venture capital in the 1990’s in investments in tech companies and became one of the first and most successful business angels in the CIS. Igor personally invested in several startups, receiving the Seed Investor of the Year Award in 2015. Having claimed superangel status, he gathered an international team to found AltaIR Capital.
AltaIR Capital Management, under the guidance of Igor Ryabenkiy as General Partner manages several Funds with headquarters in Vienna, Austria and is currently on its third partnership - ASF Ventures with $130m under management. In 2016 CB Insights named AltaIR Capital “The Most Active Venture Investor in Delaware.”
In AltaIR Capital’s 150+ portfolio are Juno (acquired by Gett Taxi), online car auction house Carprice, Spot.IM which is partnered with Time Inc, News Corp and others and assists other publishers in increasing ad revenue, marketing platforum Unomi (acquired by WeWork) and others.
In 2015 Igor Ryabnkiy and partners founded AltaClub – a members only investment club, accredited investors to coinvest with AltaIR Capital.
Bogdan Yarovoy
Managing Partner, SmartHub
Entrepreneur and skilled investor with a great track record of management and M&A deals in finance. Bogdan is one of the most prominent business angels in Russia, and an LP in several international venture fund. SmartHub is a venture boutique that provides consulting & investment services for individuals looking to invest in tech startups with global ambitions. SmartHub's partners have joined 30+ early stages companies with syndicate investment from $200K per deal.
Pavel Korolev
Founder partner and CEO, Pulsar Venture Capital
Pavel Korolev has been working in the field of venture capital financing at the early stages in Russia, Europe and the United States for more than 10 years. Industry Specialization: IT, electronics, and energy efficiency.
Pavel Korolev is a former Director's Advisor and Head of Venture Financing in the largest regional Institute of Development "Investment and Venture Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan" (2006 - 2013). Managing Partner of Volga Venture Partners, the first international fund of Russia, which executed successful investments in Silicon Valley (2010 - 2013). He was the Vice President of the Third Russian Tech Tour (2013) and became the president of the IV Russian Tech Tour (2017). Member of the executive board at different Russian and international technology companies.
At the beginning of his career Pavel had a successful experience in the launching and development of IT start-ups, as well as practical experience in developing and putting into production radio-electronic systems (2003 - 2005). He has Engineering and legal education at the Kazan State Technical University named after A. N. Tupolev, economic education in MIT Sloan School of Management.
Alexey Girin
General Partner, Starta Ventures
Starta Accelerator is an acceleration program in New York for technology startups with Eastern European R&D roots. Starta Accelerator was launched by Starta Capital VC fund formed in Moscow. Starta Capital is one of the leading VC funds in Russia. It has received prestigious awards granted by Russian Venture Capital Association, National Venture Industry Award and National Association of Business Angels award.
Elena Privalova
Head of the Center for Technology Promotion and Transfer, Global Tech Hub
Elena specializes in promotion and development of innovative technology companies.
She has supervised partnership programs for the HSE business incubator. She has a degree in Socio-Cultural Services and Tourism from the Russian State University of Tourism and Services Studies, as well as a degree in Organizational Psychology from the Psychology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Elena is an expert in social innovations. She taught the Social Innovations course for the HSE Business incubator. For four years, she was the CEO of VentureClub, a platform that attracts investors to investment projects. Furthermore, Elena organizes educational events and competitions significant for the venture market. She also teaches a course on management in industry 4.0 at the HSE.
Elena started her career as a journalist for a newspaper when she was fourteen.
She has fifteen years experience with writing texts that sell and seven years experience in innovative marketing.
Alexander Borodich
Investor, CEO of Universa Blockchain, Founder of VentureClub
Alexander Borodich is a Russian serial entrepreneur and venture investor (95 startups in the portfolio with x8 ROI), one of the first specialists in the area of innovations and blockchain technologies. Host of an original show on RBC TV channel. The founder of Universa Blockchain Platform – a protocol and platform for building business applications designed for applications in the production sector of the economy and public administration.
Bio: In 1999 Alexander Borodich graduated from Moscow State Institute of Electronics and Mathematics (MIEM), proceeding with post-graduate studies in 2003. Received an MBA in Stockholm School of Economics in 2008. Finalist of the Mobile Beat 2012 competition (San Francisco). Has a US patent in the area of evaluating the efficiency of information distribution in social media. Founder of FutureLabs, a crowd investment platform and investors club (VentureClub.ru). Previously head of marketing at Mail.ru Group and Acronis USA. Actively engaged in teaching activities, he is a mentor and teacher at the Chair of Marketing at Higher School of Economics, and a lecturer at Moscow State University.
Alexey Solovyev
Angel investor
Alexey is an investment professional starting from 2011 when he embarked on a career in venture industry as a head and one of the partners of Prostor Capital fund. Today Alexey, still being a partner at Prostor Capital, is also a partner at iTech-Skolkovo fund, and, beside that, he is a Managing Director of iTech Capital Moscow office and he is also a member of the boards of directors of several portfolio companies of iTech I and iTech II funds where he is a venture partner too. Apart from that, Alexey is an investor and mentor of several start-ups in FinTech and MedTech. Alexey takes an active part in venture industry development in Russia, being a member of Market Council at RVC (Russian Venture Company). Prior to embarking on venture industry, Alexey had spent over 7 years in the leading IT companies (Optima and IBS Group), and also worked as a Director of IT Business Development at ru-Net investment company of Leonid Boguslavsky.
Alexey graduated from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. He studied venture investments at Berkley University HAAS Business School (USA, California). Alexey is an author of many publications on venture market issues and on personal development. Alexey is very keen on amateur sports, including marathon running.
Alexander Rumyantsev
Venture investor
Alexander Rumyantsev is venture investor №1 in Russia in 2016 and 2017. Investment portfolio totals 50 startups. Sphere of investment interests is technological startups that meet the following requirements: the financial model of the project shows at least 10-fold growth within 3 years; the presence of a minimum version of the product, sales, the registered legal entity. The amount of the first investment tranche is up to 3 million rubles for 10% of the company share. Contacts: 3333626@gmail.com or facebook.com/al3ru.
Sergey Bogdanov
Founder and CEO, YellowRockets
YellowRockets is a company developing a global startup community. The YellowRockets.vc venture fund invests up to $400K in early-stage startups with a strong team and development potential. YellowRockets specializes in organizing acceleration programs for startups, cooperates with leading Russian and international venture funds, development institutions, business angel communities and corporations.
Alexey Goryachev
Senior partner, RB Partners
Alexey has more than 25 years of experience in investment and financial consulting. In 1990-1991 examiner-in-chief of the RTSB stock Department- the first Russian exchange, in 1991-1992 co-founder and Director of one of the first investment companies in Russia "Shares of Russia", in 1992-1994 — Manager of the National Investment Fund, 1994-2014 — RMG Partners, co-founder, President, Chairman of the Board of Directors. Education: Financial Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation, MBA Kennedy Western University, Executive MBA Skolkovo, Berkeley HAAS, Harvard Business School. The head of Moscow YPO. Master of Business, EY Entrepreneur of the year 2015. Alexey manages projects in M&A transaction support.
Alexander Nektorov
Partner, Nektorov, Saveliev & Partners (NSP)
Specializes in the support of technological projects, is an expert in the areas of corporate law, M&A deals and capital market transactions (ICO/IPO/ SPO/bonding). He has considerable experience in financial law and securitization. Provides strategic management of complex judicial projects.
Alexander is recognized as the Leading Lawyer 2017 in Project Finance and M&A according to the international rating IFLR 1000. He is included in the list of the best lawyers in Russia in the field of banking and financial law – Best Lawyers 2018 (2017, 2016, 2015). International ratings of Legal 500 and Chambers Europe annually register Alexander in the list of recommended lawyers. Alexander Nektorov twice entered the TOP 250 General Directors of Russia according to the magazine "General Director" (2012, 2014).
Audra Shallal
Board Member of the Les Business Angels des Grandes Ecoles
Audra Shallal is an expert in Women Entrepreneurship and Angel Investment in the EMEA region. She promotes Entrepreneurship and Angel Investing through Programs, Mentoring, Business Plan Competitions, Business Angel Networks and Women Economic Empowerment within the EU and MENA region.
She consults for international organizations such as OECD, UNEP, UNIDO and the European Commission, and teaches courses on Entrepreneurship to the Grandes Ecoles such as ENSCP, X, ParisTech, CELSA. Audra has played a key role in launching the Enterprise Financing Network within the MENA-OECD Investment Programme which creates a unique platform to connect entrepreneurs, financiers, research bodies and policymakers in order to improve the conditions for financing entrepreneurship.
She is past Vice-President of the Femmes Business Angels and currently serves on the Board of BADGE (Les Business Angels des Grandes Ecoles), the Advisory Board of Tenmou-Bahrain First Business Angel Company, and the Paris Executive Business Accelerator. She is also Chair of the Mentoring Taskforce within the American Chamber Women Leadership Committee and is an accredited Mentor for the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, the Tony Elumelu Foundation, and BiD Network. She is a Member of the Board at NFBAN – Nordic Female Business Angel Network.
Patrick Kedziora
Entrepreneurship Lab
Patrick Kedziora works closely with early stage companies and has been a founder of four technology companies in the past fifteen years. He is currently focused on growing his most recent venture – kedzoh.com, a mobile learning platform for the enterprise; which has won three major international innovation awards: Startup Chile, Startup Brazil and French Tech Ticket.
Mr. Kedziora’s experience encompasses both banking and industry. He headed a number of corporate finance groups in New York City and his experience encompasses both commercial and investment banking. In addition, he was the Managing Director for a $250 million investment fund.
He has also been the Chief Financial Officer of both private companies and a public company, head of business development and an arranger and financier of management led buyouts. He has held senior positions at Solomon Equities, Société Générale, and Barington Capital Group L.P. and counts amongst his previous clients: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and T. Boone Pickens.
Mr. Kedziora has an M.B.A. in Finance from the Stern School of Business at NYU and a has received Bachelor of Arts degrees in both Economics and Political Science from New York University. He is proficient in Spanish and has native fluency in English and French.
Mr. Kedziora is a mentor to entrepreneurs and is actively involved in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the US and in France. He is passionate about sharing his experiences and has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels in both the US and in France and has also been a judge in numerous startup competitions.
Ivar Siimar
President Emeritus, EstBan
Ivar Siimar is co-founder and partner at Trind Ventures, one of the first Business Angel initiated VC funds to be co-invested with by the EIF, European Investment Fund.
Ivar Siimar is an active member of the Estonian startup and angel investor community and the founding member and President Emeritus of the Estonian Business Angel Network (EstBAN).
He is also member of the Management Board of EBAN and member of the Finnish Business Angel Network (FiBAN).
He is the founder and partner of WNB Project, an investment company with a focus on seed and early stage investments established in 2007. Currently the company has a portfolio of 12 startups – just to mention a few of them, Defendec, PlanetOS, Click and Grow and Jobbatical. Ivar invest majority of his time on board-level mentoring of these companies.
He is also an advisor to accelerators like Startup Wise Guys and BuildIt. He has been a partner and mentor for the Estonian idea competition Brain Hunt (Ajujaht) for the last 6 years.
Baybars Altuntas
Chairman of the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF)
Former Senior Advisor of the Elite Program of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), Chairman of the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) – an affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) chaired by the Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, Co-chair of the Washington DC- based Global Business Angels Network (GBAN), Vice President of the Brussels-based European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds, and Early Stage Market Players (EBAN), President of the Business Angels Association of Turkey (TBAA), the World Entrepreneurship Forum Ambassador to Turkey and the Balkan countries, and President of Deulcom International Inc. Star of the Turkish version of the television show Dragons’ Den / Sharks Tank.
Recipient of the European Trade Association of Business Angels (EBAN) award for the Best Individual in Europe Globally Engaging with the Global Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in 2014 (Ireland), 2015 (Netherlands), 2016 (Portugal), 2017 (Spain) and 2018 (Bulgaria). The only entrepreneur to be granted a personal audience with former President Obama at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington DC. Developer of the world-renowned entrepreneurship theory, the Altuntas Start-up Compass Theory, researched by Sheffield University and used in numerous MBA programs. Appointed as JCI Ambassador, following Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary General of the United Nations.
Profiled regularly by leading international media such as CNN International, Bloomberg, BBC. A co-author of Planet Entrepreneur: The World Entrepreneurship Forum's Guide to Business Success Around the World, published by Wiley (2013). Author of Off the Bus, Into a Supercar! How I Became a Top TV Star and Celebrated Investor, published by Balboa Press (2014) and translated into Chinese, Croatian, Albanian, and Macedonian.
Alex Kosik
COO, Lipolysis Robitics, Inc.
Dr. Alex Kosik is a serial entrepreneur bringing numerous technology startup companies to U.S. market, securing financing and assisting them as an angel, advisor, mentor, EIR, and executive. His focus is in Life Sciences, Medical Devices, Blockchain, and IT in Healthcare. Alex is a due diligence expert and analyst for several VC's and multiple angels/groups, Gerson Lehrman Group, Deloitte and Skolkovo. He (co-)founded several successful technology ventures. One such company is a San-Diego, CA-based Lipolysis Robotics. The company creates advanced medical robots for low-invasive subcutaneous drug delivery for fat tissue removal aiming at multi-billion U.S. marketplace of plastic and cosmetic surgery.
Dušan Stojanović
Founder and CEO, True Global Ventures
A "citizen of the world" with a Swedish passport, Dušan was awarded the prize Business Angel of the Year in Europe in 2013 by EBAN (European Business Angel Network) after having three positive exits within a week, which was previously unheard of in the global angel history.
He was also nominated as one of four Business Angels of the Year in Europe 2009 by EBAN. Announced as among FINTECH ASIA 100 Leaders In Asian Fintech in 2016 after moving in 2014 to Asia. He has worked for more than 20 years within Business Development primarily within Fintech including payments and Media.
Half of the time at GE Capital and Monabanq.com and the rest with his own ventures/investments. Strong international network in primarily Silicon Valley, New York, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Stockholm, Berlin, London and Paris. Has learnt 6 languages and as many cultures and working habits. Regular Speaker and judge on conferences on more than 100 occasions since 2005.
Solid track record with 9 out of 19 investments fully or partly exited. All exits related to payments & Fintech. Also, 3 Token Generating Events in 3 weeks in 2017/2018.
Next step: a 1 billion USD decentralized blockchain fund in 30 cities, including the existing 11 cities and soon Tokyo, Seoul, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, Mumbai, Perth, Melbourne, Gothenburg, Istanbul, Dubai, Luxembourg, Ljubljana, Tallinn, Warsaw, Malta, Tel-Aviv, Vancouver, Toronto, Los Angeles, Bermuda, Gibraltar amongst others.
Kaushal Chokshi
Founder, Scaale Group
Kaushal is a Serial Entrepreneur and an Investor. Over the last three decades, Kaushal has founded over 20 ventures across USA, Europe and Asia with multiple exits and an IPO in 1987.
Kaushal laid the foundation of "The Scaale Group" in 2006, which is a Growth Consultancy helping companies through executing innovative global strategies and has its presence in over 8 countries and 14 cities around the world. He is also the founder of successful companies, providing distributed talent, called "Talent Anywhere Inc.", "Cross Border Angles Inc." which connects start-up eco system around the world and "The iPlex" which provides customized workspace solutions.
Mr. Kaushal Chokshi is also a prolific speaker and has been on the panel at G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit. He regularly speaks and judges various pitch competitions at numerous start-up summits in Helsinki, Istanbul, Antalya, Dublin, Moscow, Kiev, Warsaw, Gdansk, Tel Aviv, Beijing, Madrid and other locations.
Ari Korhonen
Founder, Lagoon Capital
Ari is an angel investor and entrepreneur. He is the founder of the Lagoon Capital investment company. He invests in tech companies both privately or from Lagoon Capital. Ari has been a successful technology entrepreneur for 20 years and a full time business angel for over 11 years. He developed his company Komartek into an international success story. Komartek was bought in 2004 by WM-data (presently CGI). His position in WM-data was Vice President.
Within the last 11 years, Ari has made angel investments in 34 companies. In those he has participated totally to 110 investment rounds. The companies invested in include Small Giant Games, MariaDB, DealDash, Miradore, Sympa and Strossle. Of these investments, he has had four successful exits; Severa, Paytrail, Octo3 and The Switch.
Ari is also an investor in venture capital funds which include Seedcamp, 500 Startups, True Global Ventures and Spintop Ventures. Of these investments, he has had one successful exit; Seedcamp fund II. In Spintop he is also a Senior advisor. Ari is an Investment council member in Finnish Industry Investments.
Ari was elected by FiBAN (Finish Business Angels Network) as Business Angel of the Year in Finland in 2014. He is a co-founder of FiBAN and Vice Chairman of the Board during 2010-2012. Ari has been an EBAN (European Business Angels Network) board member and Vice-President during 2012-2016. He was awarded EBAN Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. He is also an active member of EstBAN, NFBAN, NordicBAN, etc... Ari has been featured by EU-Startups as one of the top 40 of Europe’s most active and most influential angel investors.
Ari was awarded Honorary Doctorate in Economics and Business Administration by Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) in 2017. He holds a Master of Science degree in engineering from LUT.
Catherine Mannick
Vice chair of the board of CRDF Global
Catherine Mannick has extensive experience as a senior legal and business executive, and investor in early stage businesses. Her industry expertise includes financial services, software, internet, and natural resource development. She has a strong background in M&A and corporate governance. Her international expertise includes the former Soviet Union, Western Europe and Latin America.
Catherine began her career at The First National Bank of Boston (now, Bank of America), supporting the Bank’s operations in Western Europe, Latin America, and Africa. She subsequently joined the Boston law firm Hale and Dorr (now Wilmer Hale) as co-chair of its Russian Practice Group. Later she served in senior legal and business positions for The Pioneer Group, Inc. (now, Pioneer Investments) and other US based businesses entering the former Soviet market, including a boutique investment fund focused on Russian technology start-ups. She negotiated financing, structured mergers and acquisitions, trained local legal staff, and developed and implemented corporate governance policies for the Russian based operations of these US businesses. Since 2010, she has focused on emerging growth companies in the Boston area, as a senior executive for an early stage financial services technology company, and as an investor in a portfolio of technology based start-ups.
Catherine serves as a director of both for profit and non-profit organizations. In the last five years she served as a director of Launchpad Venture Group, a Boston area angel investing group focused on early stage investments primarily in high tech and life sciences. Today, Catherine serves as vice chair of the board of CRDF Global and chair of the Advisory Board of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard. She has served as a judge and mentor for Mass Challenge, an international business plan competition and accelerator, a mentor for LearnLaunch, an education technology accelerator, MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund and delta v student accelerators, all of them based in Boston. Catherine is a frequent speaker and panelist on subjects relating to angel investing and entrepreneurship.
Catherine holds a B.A. magna cum laude in Russian Studies from Yale University, an M.A. in History from Harvard University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served on the editorial board of the Harvard International Law Journal. She has studied law as an IREX research fellow at Moscow State University.
Brad Yasar
Blockchain Investors Consortium (BIC)
Brad is an entrepreneur, investor, mentor, and advisor who has started and bootstrapped several companies from inception to maturity over the past 20 years. Brad is currently the co-founder and Managing Partner of Krowd Mentor, a strategic crowdfunding advisory firm focusing on ICOs, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and token powered organizations. As the co-founder for Blockchain Investors Consortium (BIC) with over $5 Billion dollars allocated to blockchain and cryptocurrency projects and has access to extensive dealflow and experience analyzing disruptive technologies, Brad has participated in dozens successful crowd sales, which have raised over $500 million from 10,000s of investors since 2016.Brad also served as managing director of Yasar Corporation where he mentored, advised and invested in more than 50 companies.
Passionate about where the worlds of technology and marketing collide, Brad is frequently invited to speak at events related to entrepreneurship, angel investing and business strategy. Most recently, he presented at GCC, Digital Hollywood, and ITU Gate Accelerator Program. A big believer in coaching younger generations of entrepreneurs, Brad serves as a mentor for the Pepperdine Alumni Association. Brad holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business Management (1999) from Pepperdine University (Malibu, California) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Sciences Math (1996) from Académie de Grenoble (France).His charitable efforts focus on Goodwill Industries, the LA County Museum of Art, the LA Philharmonic and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, to name a few.
Born in Turkey in 1976, Brad lived and traveled throughout Europe; England, France, and Greece to name a few and migrated to the United States in 1996. Brad is fluent in English, French, Turkish and has basic knowledge of German, and Spanish. Brad currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Nadine, and son, Max.
Andrei Komarovski
CEO, Sector X Acceleration Platform
Entrepreneur, co-founder of startups Cupli Surveys, Personik, Friends Forever. Sold the hardware startup to the to international company. Ex-director of Founder Institute in Saint-Petersburg.
CEO of acceleration platform Sector X at the largest innovation park in easter Europe - Unit.City (Kiev). The Accelerator helps technology companies and teams enter the western markets. The admission for b2b and b2c verticals is now open.
Anton Pushkov
Managing partner of Skolkovo Legal (IP Center Skolkovo), qualified lawyer and patent attorney
Skolkovo Legal is a 100% subsidiary of Skolkovo Foundation, the largest innovation center in Russia, which unites more than 2 thousand innovation companies from different areas of science and technology.
Skolkovo Legal provides the full range of legal services in structuring venture deals, including a due diligence, world novelty and freedom to operate checks, drafting agreements from term sheet and convertible loan to shareholders agreement and IPO/ICO listings.
In the preceding year lawyers of Skolkovo Legal closed more than 60 transactions having a total value more than 2,5 billion roubles, including international transactions governed by foreign law.
Before joining Skolkovo, Anton had managed the Moscow division of the Technology Media & Telecoms practice of international law firm Linklaters, which constantly was ranked as top tier firm in law firm rankings Legal500 и Chambers.
Contacts: APushkov@sk.ru, Mob. +7 (925) 772-84-22
Charles Sidman
Managing partner, ECS Capital Partners
Dr. Sidman is an MBA, PhD, an angel investor and managing partner of ECS Capital Partners, LLC, an innovative early-stage venture fund based in Bar Harbor, Maine, USA, but operating globally.
He is a founding member of the American Angel Capital Association, past president of the Crowdfunding Professional Association, and a frequent advocate for, contributor to and speaker on financial and entrepreneurship issues in Washington, D.C. and beyond.
Dr. Sidman retired as Professor of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology from the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, where he also served for many years as Professor of Management in the College of Business and in the university-wide Honors Scholars Program. His education includes a PhD in Immunology from Harvard University, an MBA specializing in Management from the University of Cincinnati, and sabbatical study in Complex Systems at the Santa Fe Institute.
Michael Volker
President, Vancouver Angel Network
Michael Volker is an Entrepreneur active in the development of new high technology ventures. A University of Waterloo Engineering grad, Mike started his own company (Volker-Craig Ltd) in 1973. After selling his company in 1981 he decided to work with entrepreneurs in building new companies. Recently he directed Simon Fraser University's Innovation Office.
Presently, he is chairman of TIMIA Capital (TCA.V) a public company that invests in young growth companies. He is CEO of WUTIF - the Western Universities Technology Innovation Fund - an "angel" fund for start-ups. Mike is President of the Vancouver Angel Network, VANTEC and the Vancouver chapter of Keiretsu Forum. He's chairman of New Ventures BC - an annual business competition. Mike was chairman of the Vancouver Enterprise Forum for several years.
Cyril Golub
Member of the Board, Angels Band
Co-founder of two business angel associations: Angels Band (Belarus) and LitBAN (Lithuania). The members of both networks invest in early stage technology startups located at the regions of Central and Eastern Europe, Belarus and the Russian Federation.
Since 2003, Aheadworks company under the leadership of Cyril Golub created and sold a wide range of e-commerce and internet marketing software products. More than 70,000 online stores around the world are powered by Aheadworks software, including brands such as Nike, Swatch, NY Times, Olympus, Adidas, Nestle, Lenovo, T-Online, Lindt Chocolate, Jysk and other major online retailers.
Ramesh Haridas
Entrepreneur and an early stage investor
Ramesh has started and sold three internet companies. His last company was an AI powered email assistant that was sold to Google. He has also invested in over 60 startups, 15 of them have been sold to companies such as Coinbase, Linkedin, Amazon, Intel etc.
Oleg Dronov
COO ADFirst
Oleg has been investing since 2016 when he headed the investment fund AD.ru. Today the fund has 10 portfolio companies which operate in different countries of the world. AD.ru provides opportunities to an expansion of projects to international markets, product localization, and marketing activities. The Fund has a strong expertise in developing countries and is ready to invest in projects in these regions. Priority areas: advertising technologies, b2c businesses, education, e-commerce and mobile applications. The volume of investment is $ 100,000 - $ 1,000,000.
AD.ru fund has expertise in international marketing and is ready to invest in companies that are interested in expanding into emerging markets.
Aliya Prokofeva
Founder, owner private space company Galaktika, Founder of Kosmos Foundation, Forbes contributor
Beginning in 2006, she worked in the MT Service telecommunication company. In parallel, she developed her own consulting projects in the field of strategic management and crisis management for the Russian and foreign companies.
In 2009, Aliya Prokofeva became a member of the Board of Directors, and in 2010, the co-owner, of the Energy Group of Companies. The Energy Group is a unique import-substituting scientific and industrial holding company active in engineering, metallurgy, the pipe industry, and industrial real estate development. During her time at the company, she managed projects to modernize the existing production facility and launch a new drive shaft production line at the Uraltrubmash factory in Chelyabinsk, as well as the development of projects in the field of technologies for processing industrial waste.
In 2012, Aliya initiated developments in the field of new energy sources, as well as new types of industrial materials.
As a member of the Board of Directors and co-owner of the Energy Group of Companies, Aliya oversees the following business segments: production of components for the aircraft industry, mechanical engineering (the Bogoslovskiy industrial park in the Sverdlovsk Region, the Komsomolsk special economic zone (TOSER) in the Khabarovsk Territory), R&D in the field of additive manufacturing and the development of new materials.
In 2016, Aliya founded the group of companies Galaktika. CG Galaktika is an international corporation of a new type changing the traditional approach to the space industry. This holding binds together different projects such as satellite and rocket engineering, earth observation services, Internet of things technology, 3D -printing, etc.
Aliya is engaged in the development and support of research projects in the fields of new materials, new energy sources, energy transmission, and aviation. She is the initiator and leads research in the field of new technologies in energy and power generation and developments in the field of mechanical engineering. She is the author of several scientific works.
Andrey Laptev
Director of Business Development and Corporate Venturing, Severstal
Since 2004 Andrey has been working in Severstal, from 2005 as Head of Strategic Planning and since 2008 as Head of Corporate strategy department. Since 2018 Andrey works as Director of Business Development and Corporate Venturing.
Andrey holds BSc (Honours) in Economic Geography from Moscow State University. In 2003 he received Diploma in Economics from University of Cambridge. In 2004 - MSc (Honours) in Management from London School of economics and political science. Doctor of Business Administration (Cranfield University).
Denis Fonov
Senior Managing Director of Sberbank
Denis is engaged in the development of digital innovations in Sberbank of Russia. He manages the Accelerator project. Previously, he was the head of the Sberbank International digital business. He has extensive experience in commercial and investment banks.
Fonov began his career in top tier international companies such as McKinsey and Accenture. He graduated from the National Research University - Higher School of Economics. He is fond of developments in the field of artificial intelligence, especially their usage for the treatment of cancer. Co-founder of the Cancer Research Foundation.
Paweł Bochniarz
Partner, ValueTech Seed
Serial entrepreneur, advisor, mentor, and expert in commercialization of new technologies. Alumnus of Economics studies at the Warsaw University and postgraduate studies – Advanced Management Program at IESE Business School. Expert and Adviser experienced within the field of startups creation and acceleration. Chairman of MIT Enterprise Forum Poland and coordinator of Acceleration Program for technological projects realized by this organization. Previously, i.a. Innovation Advisory Director at PwC, co-founder of Coalition For Polish Innovations. Partner at ValueTech Seed – polish seed investment fund.
Kendrick White
Founder and CEO of Marchmont Capital Partners
Kendrick White is the Founder and CEO of Marchmont Capital Partners, an investment advisory firm active in Russia during the past ten years.
He is the former Vice Rector for Innovation, at Lobachevsky University (2013-2015) where he created a comprehensive tech transfer and commercialization infrastructure, including Russia’s first Proof of Concept (POC) Center.
During 2015-2017 Kendrick worked as an Advisor to the UNN Rector assisting the Russian Ministry of Science & Education in developing the new NTI “University 3.0” program focused on modernizing Russia’s tech transfer and IP protection policies. During the past 25 years, he has built unique know-how in commercializing early stage investment projects in Russia. Following SME development work as an advisor to the Nizhniy Novgorod admin (1993-1997), he built a strong VC track record as Director of the EBRD’s $50.0 million Central Russia Regional Venture Fund, (1998-2005).
Kendrick completed his MBA in international finance from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management (1990) and has a BA in international economics from Stetson University.
Arsen Savva
Deputy Director of NPO "IVF RT"
Arsen is responsible for search, selection and investments in startups of seed and pre-seed stages. He is the head of the Russian Venture Forum organizing process - one of the largest Russian VC events with the participation of Russian and foreign investors, mentors, start-ups and industry representatives. Investment portfolio under his leadership is more than 200 companies.
Member of the Board of the Russian Venture Capital Association (RVCA).
He has more than 8 years of experience in creating a regional innovation ecosystem, making the connection between students and university teachers, manufacture representatives and investors possible.
Oleg Teplov
CEO, VEB Ventures
Oleg Teplov is the Chief Executive Officer of VEB Ventures, a subsidiary of VEB.RF Group, a Russian economist, banker, and financier. He is one of the creators of the National Technology Initiative state program.
Oleg Teplov has been working in the finance industry and public sector for about 20 years, specializing in technological development of the Russian economy. Before joining VEB Ventures, Oleg held the position of referent at the Expert Directorate with the President of the Russian Federation, where he was involved in the development and implementation of the National Technology Initiative (NTI) and drafting the Digital Economy of Russia state program. As a referent at the directorate, he created the system of NTI governance and expansion and developed the National Ranking of Investment Climate in the Constituent Territories of the Russian Federation.
Oleg also leads the Strategic Planning Unit of the Economy and Finance Department at the Executive Office of the Government of Russia, as well as the Strategic Planning Department at the Ministry of Economic Development, where he coordinated the activities of the Strategic Initiatives Agency, Industrial Development Fund, Roseximbank, MSP Bank, and Russian Direct Investment Fund. He also held executive positions in major Russian banks and the global “Big Four” auditing firms.
At present, VEB Ventures under Oleg Teplov's management makes high-risk direct investments in technology-related projects, creates venture funds jointly with major Russian corporations and global partners, as well as fostering investment and technology cooperation with R&D centers, major businesses, and development institutions.
Special attention in his activities is paid to high-potential ICT (information and communication technology) and other projects for the space industry, vertical marketplace initiatives, as well as investments in artificial intelligence, robotics, online education services, and telemedicine. Pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and new energy-related technologies are prioritized as well.
Sergey Dashkov
1993 Sergey has graduated from MIPT, Faculty of Physical and Chemical Biology
1995 co founder of SDC Foods, the exclusive partner of Ahmad Tea in Russia
2002 co-founder of Factory Ahmad Tea Russia
2012 Sergey is an active venture investor, enters the top business-angels of the Russian Federation in 2017 and 2018, some of his portfolio projects are here
From 2017 Sergey is an active member of the MIPT alumni organization Phystech Union
In 2018 Sergrey founded Phystech Accelerator
Alexei Okishev
Partner, Risk Assurance Leader and Technology Leader at PwC Russia. Member of PwC Russia's Board of Directors.
Alexei joined PwC in 1995 and has worked at the firm for 24 years, and he has been a partner for 12 years. Alexei has extensive experience in delivering assurance and advisory services to clients in various industries.
Leader of PwC Russia Accelerator, a corporate innovation programme for finding and implementing promising solutions to improve business performance for both PwC and its clients. Pilot programmes have launched in 12 start-ups, and these programmes include a new type of security monitoring for mining operations; predictive analytics for advertising; automated assistants for personnel; and a new approach to monitoring business processes to prevent abusive practices.
Supervised the Digital Ambassadors programme, which both accelerates internal projects led by PwC employees by using digital technologies and supports internal entrepreneurship.
Delivered dozens of projects based on PwC's technology solutions.
Dmitry Kalaev
Head of IIDF Aceelerator
- Investor, entrepreneur and professional manager with 20+ years experience in tech sphere.
- Invested 400+ early stage startups as Head of IIDF Accelerator.
- Member of the Board of Directors and shareholder at Naumen.
- Co-founder of Silicon Valley internship program GoValley.ru and an acceleration program in the USA — TechMafia.
Danila Shaposhnikov
Partner at TerraVC
TerraVC is a global investment firm with $70 millions under management which focus on enegytech, robotics and industry 4.0. In 2009, Danila graduated from the HSE Faculty of Management, and with his partners founded North Energy Ventures in 2013. Danila has invested together with 27 venture funds, leading business angels and corporations (including Bright Capital, AYR, Elmont, Morton).
Pavel Mazitov
Partner at TerraVC
TerraVC is a global investment firm with $70 millions under management which focus on enegytech, robotics and industry 4.0. Pavel is also an investor and a board member RFSens, Russian technological startup developing breakthrough industrial IoT platform based on passive, wireless & super-resistant SAW sensors. Previously Pavel held the position of HR partner in North Energy Ventures. Graduated of the Higher School of Economics, MBA Project Management & Business Development.
Mikhail Erman
CEO, HSE Business Incubator
Mikhail founded several IT-startups during last 7 years and started to work with tech-entrepreneurs as adviser because of his experience. Mikhail started his professional way as a programmer in 2005 (had a degree in computer science) and then was team leader, project manager, CIO, CTO at different types of organizations: government, universities, software companies.
At last he found himself as a cofounder and CEO of private incubator 6 years ago. Since that time, he's working with startups as an adviser trying to create the most efficient programs for yearly stage startups. Mikhail is the head of HSE business incubator – one of the best incubator in Russia and in Europe as well (Ranked as 7th European university business incubator by UBU Global).
Jason E. Barkeloo
Founder, Board Chair Knowbella Tech
Jason E. Barkeloo has over thirty-four years of experience as an entrepreneur, patented inventor, researcher, investor, and educator.
He began his career as a US Army air defense operations and intelligence assistant. Later, after the US Army sponsored his higher education, he was selected as a medical service corp officer and managed military medical facilities and research laboratories.
At the end of his US Army career with a final assignment as the lab operations officer of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) Medical Detachment at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Jason was selected for the prestigious Department of Defense "Troops to Teachers" program.
In that role, Jason spent 5-years as an economically challenged student population high school science teacher. He received national recognition and awards for innovations in science education including the Sam's Club/Walmart Teacher of the Year. He was also a founder of a virtual high school focused on prescriptively delivering physical and life science content to students.
After teaching, Jason became an entrepreneur and launched a number of startups.
Jason's first company, TouchSmart Publishing, was an educational content company providing science content to special needs students. His second company, Somatic Digital, created the touch user interface (TUI) human-computer interface technology and had relationships with NASA, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Freescale Semiconductor, and the National Federation of the Blind. His third company, Pilus Energy, was a synthetic biology company. It was purchased by a publicly traded company in 2014.
One of Jason's current efforts is Open Therapeutics, LLC; an open science and open access company that provides free tools, services and orphan therapeutic intellectual properties (IP) to the global scientific community, particularly underserved scientists in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The blockchain-enabled collaboration platform is Therapoid.net, which is currently in alpha testing.
His second effort is Knowbella Tech, LLC and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Knowbella Helix, Inc.; another blockchain-based open science effort that provides free tools, services, and IP to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students and researchers around the world. Knowbella will provide AnthroTokens ("cryptocurrency") using the Ethereum blockchain to researchers who collaborate within the Knowbella Platform. He is also launching a U.S. SEC compliant Security Token Offering (STO). Knowbella Helix filed a Reg A and received only 57 questions back from the SEC. With the mission accomplished of the application being published to the SEC website, Knowbella is pivoting to the Reg S and Reg D 506c for the STO. In a world's first return-on-investment (ROI) breakthrough model, Knowbella is selling equity with matching Helix security tokens that have a merger/acquisition payout to investors.
Jason speaks internationally on the advantages of open science, open access publishing, and STOs. He has patents in synthetic biology, identity security, digital rights management and he has patents pending in blockchain-enabled technologies.
He holds an Bachelor's degree in Anthropology from The Ohio State University and a Master's degree in education with certifications in biological sciences and social studies from Antioch University. He dropped out of a PhD program to launch his first startup.
Arkady Moreynis
Angel Investor, Co-founder of United Investors
Entrepreneur and business angel. Founded Price.ru, sold it to Rambler. Invested in YClients, bought out by its management. Invested in Podorozhniki, which was acquired by BlaBlaCar to became BlaBlaCar Russia. Investor in a few other startups which are too early to brag about. Cofounder of Russian investors syndicate United Investors.
Ilya Kurmyshev
Director for Businesses Growth Support NTI Office, RVC
2006 — graduated from the Economics Faculty of St. Petersburg State University with a degree in Business Economics. Candidate of Economic Sciences.
2005 — 2006 worked in the St. Petersburg media.
From 2006 to 2007- an editor, head of the Rating, Research and Special Projects Department at the Bonnier Business Press media holding company.
Since 2007 — Deputy Chief Editor of Kommersant newspaper.
2009 — became Director of the group of business publications of the Aktion-Media holding company, a publisher of Finance magazine.
Since 2011 — Head of the RVC Directorate of Innovation Activity Promotion.
A member of the Expert Council (top expert) of the Institute for Internet Development, Executive Council of the RASO, Expert Council of the Tech in Media Contest, a member of the NTI Circle Movement Working Group.
A laureate of international professional awards: THE SABRE AWARDS (2014, 2015), IPRA Golden World Awards (2014), IABC Gold Quill (2015).