New Russians: 6 Russian billionaires who have made money on technology

In 2020 in Russia has two more dollar billionaires — the Forbes list has been replenished by two entrepreneurs in the IT field, Ratmir Timashev and Andrey Baronov. On this occasion, we decided to recall other Russian businessmen who have reached heights in the field of information technology.

Everyone's fortune: $1.2 billion

Ratmir Timashev and Andrey Baronov

In January of this year, entrepreneurs Ratmir Timashev and Andrey Baronov entered the Forbes list of dollar billionaires after concluding a deal to sell the Veeam Softwear company they created.

Timashev and Baronov began to develop a joint business back in the mid-1990s, and in 1997 they already created their first company, Aelita Software, which collaborated with Microsoft. Nine years later, the business partners founded another Veeam Softwear company, whose activities focused on working with virtual servers, as well as data management and protection.

Already in 2017, Timashev and Baronov were included in the list of the 200 richest Russians according to Forbes, and 2020 brought entrepreneurs even greater success due to the sale of Veeam Softwear to the American venture corporation Insight Partners. After all the formalities are settled, the founders of the company will leave their leadership positions, but they will not leave Veeam Softwear at all.

Net worth: $2.7 billion

Pavel Durov, 2012

Founder of the most popular in The Russian social network VKontakte, and now the owner of the Telegram messenger, who is called the Russian Mark Zuckerberg, in 2019 took the 39th line of the Forbes rating "200 richest businessmen in Russia".

While studying at the University of St. Petersburg State University Pavel Durov created a forum for student communication " <url>", which later turned into the largest social network in the Russian Federation. However, in 2014, the paths of Durov and the shareholders of the social network diverged — on April 1, the entrepreneur announced his departure from VKontakte, explaining his decision with total restrictions on freedom of action.

Pavel Durov, 2012

Durov's next project was the Telegram messenger, the idea of which came to the entrepreneur a year before he left VKontakte, when he thought about a safe way to communicate online. Pavel Durov's new project caused a negative reaction from some departments, since the messenger is based on MTProto encryption technology, which excludes any disclosure of users' personal data.

In 2018, the Tagansky Court of Moscow officially announced the blocking of the Telegram project, but Durov took a number of measures to restructure the messenger. Today, the billionaire calls himself a citizen of the world and moves from one country to another in the company of his team. In his interviews, Durov notes that he is unlikely to ever return to Russia.

Everyone's fortune: $1.2 billion

Igor and Dmitry Bukhmans

Brothers from Vologda Igor and Dmitry Bukhman founded the game company Playrix in 2004. The most famous free-to-play entrepreneur games are Homescapes and Township, which were downloaded by seven million players in the first week after release.

Future billionaires were born into a simple, poor family, where the day when they were given a computer became one of the most memorable and, no less importantly, opened up new horizons for the brothers.

Dmitry and Igor Bukhman started developing games during their studies. The first commercially successful project was a simple game in the Xonics genre. It was she who began to bring entrepreneurs the first income — about $ 70 per month.

A year and a half later, the businessmen began developing the next project, diluting their two-person team with a graphic artist. The new game began to bring even more profit, and this became a decisive argument in favor of creating a company that today occupies a leading position in the gaming industry market in Russia and abroad.

At the moment, Igor and Dmitry Bukhman are included in the list of dollar billionaires according to Bloomberg, and the capital of each of the entrepreneurs is estimated at $ 1.4 billion. Today, entrepreneurs plan to release three or four new mobile games, which the Playrix team is already working on, expanding the audience and, of course, multidimensional development in the Russian and foreign markets.

Net worth: $1 billion

Philippe Gens

Billionaire Philip Gens is the owner of one of the largest information technology companies in the Russian market, Lanit. The entrepreneur occupies the 139th place in the Forbes ranking of the "200 richest businessmen of Russia 2019", and, according to financial analysts, the billionaire's assets continue to grow.

Gens' path to success began long before the entrepreneur took over the family business in 2018. A few years before that, Gens worked for several large Russian companies, including Uralsib and Agromashholding, explaining his decision by saying that he wanted to gain experience and go through a career path on his own. And already in 2008 he joined the company of his father, businessman George Gens, as vice president.

In 2018, Philip's father died, and he took over the post of head of the Lanit IT holding, stating that he had been involved in the affairs of the corporation for the past ten years, and therefore employees and partners should not expect any drastic changes. At the moment, the billionaire is making plans for the development of Lanit, focusing on the acceleration of external and internal startups and innovative projects.