Dmitry Alimov

Dmitry Alimov was born in 1974 in Samara, USSR (now Russia). He studied applied mathematics and computer science at the Samara State Aerospace University. In 1998, he graduated summa cum laude from the University of Missouri - St. Louis (USA) with a major in business administration (finance).[4]

Alimov started his career at the mergers and acquisitions department of investment bank Renaissance Capital.[5]

From 1998–2002, as the vice president of a $1 billion private equity and venture capital fund Sputnik Group, he managed a number of venture capital and private equity investments.[4]

From 2001–2002, Alimov was First Deputy General Director and the member of the Board of Directors of the TV channel TNT as well as a member of the Gazprom-Media Executive Committee.[4][6]

In 2004, Alimov graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA degree.[7][8]

In the same year Leonard Blavatnik invited him to work for Access Industries (Eurasia). From 2004–2005, Alimov was in charge of the company's investment in media in Russia and CIS countries.[4][5]

In 2005, Alimov was appointed managing director of Amedia and developed the company to lead the market in TV production in Russia.[5]

In 2008, Alimov exited Amedia and sold his equity interest in the company to Access Industries.

From 2007–2010, Alimov worked as the managing partner of ru-Net Ltd venture capital fund which invested in Yandex, Russia's leading search engine, and Ozon.ru, the first Russian online shop.[4]

Alimov has backed major Internet companies in Russia. He co-founded and played a key role in financing, launch, and growth of Russia's largest online video provider Ivi.ru and, on behalf of ru-Net Ltd, invested in the group purchasing site Biglion.ru.[9]

In 2011, Alimov founded a $50 million venture capital fund Frontier Ventures to invest in Internet businesses. In 2019, Frontier Ventures launched its second fund focused on US early stage technology companies.

Dmitry Alimov is a public critic of the Russian, United States and many other governments.

Frontier Ventures is an investment fund that invests in early-stage Internet businesses globally with a particular focus on businesses with strong network effects. It was founded in 2011 by Dmitry Alimov and ivi.ru Chairman Oleg Tumanov. The fund was officially launched in March, 2012.[9][10] Frontier Ventures' investment team is based in Cupertino, California (Silicon Valley).

The fund's partners position themselves as “serial entrepreneurs” with a track record of creating successful businesses from scratch. They work closely with entrepreneurs to build leading technology driven companies in the global market.[10]

In April 2012, co-founder of Digital Sky Technologies Gregory Finger joined the Advisory Board of Frontier Ventures.[11] In May 2013, Najam Kidwai, Real Time Content founder and serial technology entrepreneur and investor joined the Advisory Board. In September 2013, Holger Laubenthal, President and CEO of GE Money Bank Russia also became a part of Frontier Ventures Advisory Board. In December 2013, Advisory Board of Frontier Ventures added Jason Downes, former General Director of ru-Net Holdings and Board Member at Yandex and Ozon.

The fund's first portfolio company was Ivi.ru, a Russia's largest professional online video site with around 30m monthly unique users (www.ivi.ru). Frontier Ventures also invested in Biglion, #1 company in daily deals in Russia, expanding into off-price goods e-commerce.[12] In March 2013, Frontier Ventures invested in Ostrovok, leading hotel booking service in Russia.[13] In August 2013, Frontier Ventures invested in Profi.ru (formerly known as Eruditor Group), the leasing online service marketplace in Russia and CIS as part of US$12m Series B investment round.[14] In December 2013, Frontier Ventures, Intel Capital and Runa Capital were awarded a Venture Syndicate of the year award for their investment in Eruditor Group.

As part of its global expansion, Frontier Ventures invested in the US$8m Series C financing of The Chope Group Pte Ltd (Singapore), owner and operator of Chope.com, a Singapore headquartered restaurant table reservation service serving Southeast Asia and China and led the A$4.1m Series A investment in Expert 360 Pty Ltd (Australia), owner and operator of Expert360.com, a global marketplace for high end consulting services with headquarters in Sydney.

Frontier Ventures is also an investor in Storyhunter (US),[15] a video production marketplace that counts CNN and National Geographic among its clients, Crater[16] (US), SaaS solution for the global moving industry, Frontier Car Group,[17] an online used car marketplace, operating in 6 large emerging markets and Albert (US), a financial advisor application that allows its users to plan their spending and save money.

Frontier Ventures also participated in the $52.8m Blockstack ICO joining Winklevoss Capital and Union Square Ventures among other investors.[18] Blockstack has created a new decentralized Internet where users own their data and identity.

In early 2019, Frontier Ventures launched its second Fund. Frontier Ventures II main focus is on investing in United States software and Internet companies with network effects. In 1H2019, Frontier Ventures invested in AmpUp, a charging as a service company for electric vehicles that was labeled a top Y-combinator startup at TechCrunch. Frontier Ventures also joined Foundation Capital and Menlo Capital as investors in Sunsama, a company that creates daily planning software for enterprise teams. Leveraging its experience in the hospitality and property space, Frontier Ventures invested in Y Combinator backed Kopa.co, a housing platform that’s partnered with Hosteeva, Vector Stay, and Mint House to offer quality mid-term rentals.

In the fall of 2019, Frontier Ventures has invested in PredictLeads, a business intelligence platform that applies AI to deliver critical market insights to leading hedge funds, venture funds and private equity firms, MoFE, a blockbuster virtual reality theater operator and VR content producer, Bridgefy, a flexible mesh network enabling mobile apps to work without internet, TrustedFor, a social network for elite Silicon Valley professionals, Vizy, office video, audio and messaging software for distributed teams, Panda, secure cross platform messaging software, and Turing, a startup that’s shaping up to be the AWS of developer talent. Frontier Ventures has co-invested in these companies alongside Worklife Ventures, Transmedia Capital, Mindset Ventures, and other prominent venture funds.

In 2003, his widely circulated e-mail exchange with the famous global investor Jim Rogers made Alimov, then a student at Harvard Business School, a prominent figure among businessmen and government officials.[5][19]

The dispute started after Rogers’ lecture at HBS when the co-founder of the Quantum Fund described Russia as a hopeless place for investors. Alimov wrote an e-mail to Rogers claiming that his statements and facts on Russia were not well-grounded. A long-lasting e-mail exchange that followed was eventually read by Alimov's fellow-students as well as businessmen and the public around the world. The story was covered by The New Yorker, The New York Post and other international media.[7][20]

In 2012, Forbes and Financial Times declared Alimov the winner of this debate after Rogers changed his stance on Russia and became an advisor to the agricultural fund run by Russian state-owned bank VTB Capital[21][22] and an investor in Russian companies.[23]

Dmitry Alimov is married. His wife Julia Korneva is the founder of Live up!,[24] a blog on healthy lifestyle and longevity. Dmitry and Julia have two sons.

• Biography of Dmitry Alimov on Frontier Ventures web-site
• Business New Europe on Dmitry Alimov