The most promising Russians under 30, Forbes 2022 rating
Contents:
For the fourth year in a row, the Russian division of Forbes magazine has been publishing list of the most promising Russians under the age of 30. The long list consisted of 100 nominees – entrepreneurs, managers, investors, musicians, etc. – which are known in various fields.
• Then, 30 candidates were selected from the full list with the help of reader and editorial votes – 3 people in each of 10 areas. And here is what the top ten of the youngest and most promising Russians in 2023 looks like.
10. Alexander Zheltov
Age: 29 years
Field of activity: internet education
• Thanks to Zheltov, the Educate Online platform was created. It allows Russian students to study abroad remotely and receive a secondary education, without interrupting their main education.
• Educate Online allows you to study over 200 subjects, including such promising ones as robotics, blockchain, e-sports and programming.
• The startup was launched in 2018 with the financial assistance of Igor Borovikov, the founder of Softline. These were not the only investments, at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the project raised $650, and last year another $4 million from large investors such as Angelsdeck, Softline, Xploration Capital, etc.
9. Maxim Pustovalov, Marcel Gumerov, Igor Yaremenko
Age: 28 years
Field of activity: express delivery of chemicals
• Young people launched their project in 2020. Initially, they were engaged in the synthesis of molecules for domestic laboratories, but then switched to the rapid delivery of reagents from abroad. To do this, the partners had to establish logistics chains from the USA, Europe and China.
• AppScience delivers chemicals in 2-3 weeks. After the start of the special operation, it opened its branches in Armenia, Turkey, Latvia and Kazakhstan. This allowed us to continue to supply our partners, of which there are already 180, including Moscow State University and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, without hindrance.
8. Kevin Handa
Age: 25 years
Field of activity: Internet trading
• The son of a Russian woman and an Indian (hence the surname so unusual for Russian hearing) in 2017, together with a Kazan entrepreneur Linar Khusnullin, founded the KazanExpress marketplace.
• In 2018, this project raised $2 million from the Fix Group IT holding, which received 80% of the company. And in 2021, Aliexpress Russia acquired a 50,1% stake in the startup for an undisclosed amount. Khusnullin and Khanda have 10% of the business, Fix Group has 39,9%.
• Thanks to fast delivery in 1 day, the platform managed to attract a large number of orders, and its turnover amounted to 9 billion rubles. Now KazanExpress is trying its hand at the Uzbek market.
7. Xenia Proca
Age: 30 years
Field of activity: rental of electric vehicles and gadgets
• The only woman in the top 10 youngest and most promising Russians. Together with her husband, Ksenia created a daily rental service for electric scooters. Moreover, this idea came to the spouses after they themselves could not buy an electric scooter – it was expensive, and there was no understanding which one was better.
• Currently, My Device offers subscription rentals not only of electric scooters, but also bicycles, home exercise equipment and even game consoles. This service entered the American market under the Whizz brand.
6. Nikita Shevchenko
Age: 22 years old
Field of activity: website and application development
• After watching the film "How the IT Capital of the World Works" by Yuri Dudya (recognized as a foreign agent), Shevchenko set about getting to know Nikolai Davydov, the owner of the multimillion-dollar venture fund Gagarin Capital. It took the young man a year to realize this intention.
• Shevchenko shared with Davydov the idea of the WeLoveNoCode platform, which would allow small businesses to create websites and applications without code. The project was launched in 2020, and the very next year it raised $1 million from Davydov and various investors. Within two years of the startup's operation, its annual revenue increased to $3 million.
5. Marat Zhanabekov
Age: 28 years
Field of activity: IT
• Before creating his startup, Marat managed to work in such well-known projects as Edadil, Scentbird and Donut Lab.
• And in 2021, Zhanabekov, together with Alexander Sergeev, launched the Ngrow.ai service. It allows you to send code-free mobile app push notifications and manage push notifications.
• This direction turned out to be so promising that it attracted foreign investment from Musha Ventures. And even recent events have not prevented the growth of a startup. Its creator claims that the majority of Russian clients have moved their business abroad and signed contracts in foreign currency.
4. Yuri Vilensky
Age: 21 year
Field of activity: relocation
• Although Vilensky was born in Kaliningrad, by the age of 18 he decided to move to the Netherlands on a start-up visa. His first project was an analogue of YouDo, a Russian service for finding contractors for solving household and business services.
• However, Yuri and his business partner Natalya Semina decided to switch to a more promising direction – to create a service that would help people move to other countries. Thus, the Hello Move startup was born.
• Thanks to artificial intelligence, Hello Move almost completely eliminates the need for human presence in the process, and the visa and residence permit approval process is 95%. The project allows you to move to 9 countries of the world and includes various relocation programs. According to estimates, its cost at the moment is $15 million.
3. Artem Semyanov
Age: 30 years
Field of activity: IT
• The top 3 most promising young Russians in 2023 according to Forbes are opened by the creator of the service for selecting sneakers by foot scan. The Neatsy app lets you scan your foot using your iPhone's camera, and even assesses the risk of your foot falling on the inside, although this is a paid feature.
• The application is available not only, but also in other major countries of the world. Neatsy.ai has partnered with Puma, Lamoda and Streetbeat.
2. Mark Turovetsky
Age: 23 years old
Field of activity: aerial photography, technology
• As a high school student, Mark bought his first aerial video camera and later built his own drone based on it. Having discovered that there is no service offering video and photography services from drones, Turovetsky launched his own marketplace on this topic. The project, implemented in 2016, was named PilotHub.
• However, Turovetsky did not stop at one innovative business. He raised 15 thousand dollars to develop a universal charger with modules of different sizes. The prototype, showcased at CES 2022, has already attracted a lot of pre-orders.
1. Vitaly Davydov
Age: 28 years
Field of activity: IT
• The creator of the service for analytics and growth of mobile subscriptions Adapty helps developers to monetize their applications.
«We jumped into the fast-growing mobile subscription niche – 96% of mobile apps use subscriptions, 500 new apps are launched every year, and the number of mobile developers is growing by 000% every year”, — quotes Davydov edition of Forbes.
• In March of this year, the founders of Adapty received $2 million from various funds, including one of the top venture capital firms, RTP Global.
