Belarusian Billionaires: Who are they? And how do you become one?

Recent history knows only two Belarusian businessmen who have officially been recognised as billionaires: Alexander Lutsenko, co-owner of the agro-industrial holding ‘Sodrugestvo’, and Viktor Kislyi, the major shareholder of Wargaming.net, creator of the ‘World of Tanks’ game. Forbes included Alexander Lutsenko into its 2013 world rating. Victor Kislyi appeared on Bloomberg’s list of billionaires in February 2016. Both businessmen didn’t remain in the ratings long.

Belarusian IT entrepreneur Viktor Prokopenya is probably the next most promising candidate for the updated list of billionaires, due to his big thinking and quickly amassed fortune. The businessman himself has already decided that he will become a billionaire and he knows exactly what his first project will be once that aim is reached:

«My favourite place in Minsk is the bike lane. Many European cities have bike lanes too. However, 27 kilometres of an incredibly beautiful road spanning across Minsk with no need to cross traffic lights is a rare thing. I will definitely build another one in Minsk once I become a billionaire,” Viktor Prokopenya shares his plans in an interview.

Five years ago, Viktor Prokopenya was famous only in the Belarusian IT community. Today, he has millions of dollars, was recognised as the biggest private taxpayer in Belarus in 2016, and is the author of a project to turn Belarus into an IT country, a goal supported by President Alexander Lukashenko.

 

The most prominent deal in the Belarusian IT history

Viktor Prokopenya made his first real money when he was a student. He had to in order to support his family after a car crash that killed his father. Read on for an account of the Belarusian businessman’s rise to success.

During his studies towards a degree in law at Belarusian State University, Viktor Prokopenya also studied IT at the European Humanities University and completed a computer science bachelor’s degree at the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics. His studying skills and self-education would later result in seven higher education degrees. In 2001, Viktor became a businessman by founding his own company, Viaden Media.

It started as an outsourcing company, developing IT products for various clients. But everything changed in 2006, when Viktor Prokopenya decided the company should develop and distribute its own products. Ten years later the businessman met with Alexander Lukashenko to suggest the same reorientation for the whole Belarusian IT industry. Impressed by the new idea, the President ordered a reboot of the entire industry. 

“I’ve recently met with IT guys. And I assure you – there will be an IT boom in Belarus! During the first stage, we worked for the development of an outsourcing industry. Now, we aim to develop and sell our own software solutions,” said Alexander Lukashenko.

Viaden Media was focused on developing proprietary IT solutions. First, it catered to the online entertainment industry, then it developed health applications and mobile games. The company’s portfolio totalled over 100 apps, including such well-known titles as All-in Fitness, Smart Alarm Clock and Yoga.com. In 2009, Viaden Media’s ‘mobile’ division was headed by Yuri Gursky, who became Viktor Prokopenya’s ‘junior’ partner.

In 2011, the promising IT company in Minsk attracted the attention of Teddy Sagi, a billionaire from Israel and shareholder of one of the largest gambling software developers ‘Playtech’. Arriving on a private plane to the Belarusian capital, he met with Viktor Prokopenya to negotiate the terms of the sale of Viaden Media. The deal finally closed in 2012. The Israeli investor bought Viaden Media for €95 million, and Victor Prokopenya became a multi-millionaire at the age of 27.

In the Belarusian IT industry, the sale of Viaden Media was a ground-breaking deal in terms of its size and prominence. On the one hand, it encouraged Belarusian ‘IT guys’ to develop solutions in-house. On the other hand, it brought the attention of global investors to the possibilities of ‘IT Belarus’.

 

Fintech startup owner

In 2012, Viktor Prokopenya launched a new project. He founded his own investment fund, VP Capital, and invested in exp(capital). One of the company’s divisions developed and sold software solutions to trade financial instruments, the other division created mobile applications to analyse financial markets and products. Viktor Prokopenya co-founded the business with Yuri Gushchin.

To unlock the new challenges of the financial world, Victor Prokopenya continued his education. In addition to the Executive MBA programme at the IPM Business School, he studied Internet Marketing at Full Sail University, Strategic Marketing at Stanford University, earned a Master’s degree in finance at Northeastern University and completed a Doctor of Business Administration programme at the Swiss Business School.

He found time to study between meetings and business negotiations, during flights from Minsk to London and back. Viktor opened an office in the UK and took his family to live in London. He attended lectures delivered by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, head of Oracle Safra Catz and other famous personalities.

exp(capital)’s list of clients included Citi, ABN Amro, Renaissance Capital, Equinix, KCG Hotspot and Nadex. For some time, exp(capital) and IG Dev worked side by side in the ‘Velcom’ business centre in Minsk. But in 2015, the British organisation decided to relocate to Krakow, Poland.

 

Venture Capitalist

Viktor Prokopenya started a new era in his business career in 2016. Having joined forces with Larnabel Enterprises, Viktor revealed his plans to invest $100 million in projects powered by AR technologies.

“Today innovative AI technologies can affect the world in a very positive way and even outperform the impact of smartphones and internet. Over the past years I have been involved in a few IT projects backed by machine learning technologies. I am sure that now we are on the brink of something great,” said Prokopenya.

Banuba Development became the first startup to receive financial backing from Larnabel Ventures and VP Capital. The company was set up in 2016. The head office is based in Hong Kong, while the development centre is located in Minsk. 

Banuba designs and develops mobile AR apps. The core technologies behind the app are neural networks and high-end machine learning algorithms capable of detecting and recognising the face mimics in real time. The first products are expected to be released during 2017. 

In March 2017, VP Capital and Larnabel Ventures invested $16.65 million in a space project. Headquartered in California, Astro Digital models and creates space satellites designed to produce high-quality images of the Earth’s surface. Significant financial backing from Viktor Prokopenya will drive the process. The first satellites will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 3 August 2017. The received images can be widely used in agriculture, forestry, urban development, business analytics and more. 

During the course of 2017, Astro Digital plans to launch 8 satellites. While 20 satellites are scheduled for 2018. It is expected that starting 2018 the satellites will be providing full-scale daily space monitoring.

In June and July 2017, VP Capital invested in two more startups alongside other venture capitalists. The first one is Dronefence. The team creates tracking systems that track drones and prevent unauthorised intervention.

Capital.com is one more project in the VP Capital portfolio. It is a fintech startup headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus. In July 2017, the startup received $25 million from VP Capital and Larnabel Ventures. Capital.com develops a trading app that allows people to trade financial instruments on the go. The personalised Smart Feed provides a tailored exclusive news feed based on a trader’s in-app behaviour. In summer 2017, the app became available in iTunes and Google Play across Europe. 

 

Street-retailing

One of Prokopenya’s investment interests lies in real estate. The entrepreneur sports the largest private real estate fund in Belarus. VP Capital Real Estate specialises in urban retail properties across Minsk’s high-end streets:  banks, restaurants, beauty shops, etc.

Viktor Prokopenya has pioneered IT-product development in Belarus. His idea is to transform the country into a world-leading IT-hub. In March 2017, he presented his business proposal to President Lukashenko, who in turn ardently supported Prokopenya’s vision. 

“This is a truly ambitious task – to transform Belarus into an IT-country. The government will see to it that the legal framework supports such a course of events,” says Alexander Lukashenko.

At the moment, new laws that have the potential to help Belarusian IT-businessmen in this mission are pending approval. 

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