Serguei Beloussov

Serguei Beloussov (born August 2, 1971) Ph.D. is a Russian businessman, entrepreneur, investor and speaker. Beloussov is the founder, CEO and chairman of the board of Acronis, a global data protection company, and is the senior founding partner of Runa Capital, a technology investment firm.[1] He is also executive chairman of the board and chief architect of Parallels, Inc., a virtualization technology company, and co-founder and chairman of the board of Acumatica, a cloud- and browser-based enterprise resource planning software (ERP) company.

Beloussov is also active in quantum mechanics. He is a co-founder of QWave Capital, is the chairman of the board of trustees for the Russian Quantum Center and sits on the governing board of the Centre for Quantum Technologies in Singapore.[2][3]

Early life and education

Beloussov was born in 1971 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He received a B.S. in Physics, an M.S. in Physics and Electrical Engineering in 1995, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.[4]

Previous ventures

In the mid-1990s Beloussov founded and co-owned two companies, Rolsen Electronics, which has become the largest consumer electronics manufacturer in Russia, and Solomon Software, an ERP vendor. In 2000, Beloussov founded SWsoft, a privately held server automation and virtualization software company and the then-parent company of Parallels, Inc. and Acronis Inc.[5]

Current ventures

Acronis Inc. In 2001, Beloussov founded Acronis, a privately held data protection company that offers backup, storage and disaster recovery software designed primarily for small and medium-sized businesses and secure file access, syncing and sharing solutions for the enterprise. At the time, it was a business unit of SWsoft. In 2003, the company was reorganized to focus on storage management.[6]

Acronis has a long history of delivering software for image backup for virtual and physical machines. Image backup is a backup process that creates a copy of the operating system (OS) and all the data associated with it, including the system state and application configurations. Acronis also offers a consumer image backup tool called Acronis True Image.[7][8]

Acronis formed its Access business unit in 2012 with the acquisition of GroupLogic. The acquisition was made to address new demands for data availability accessibility while maintaining security and control.[9]

Acronis Access, released in March 2014, provides secure access, syncing and sharing for the enterprise, as well as ExtremeZ-IP, which offers seamless integration of Apple devices into enterprise environments.[10][11]

The company has received $11 million in funding from OpenView Venture Partners and Insight Venture Partners. Acronis currently employs over 650 worldwide and its products are sold in 14 languages around the world.[12]

Beloussov has served on the Board of Directors since 2002, however, from 2007–2011 he turned his focus on Parallels, acting as CEO of the company. During this time he also founded a pair of venture capital funds, Runa Captical and QWave Capital. He returned to lead Acronis in May 2013, replacing former CEO Alex Pinchev, to focus on overall strategy and take operational command.[13][14][15]

Runa Capital In August 2010, Beloussov, Dmitry Chikhachev and Ilya Zubarev founded Runa Capital, a $135 million technology venture capital firm that was created “to seek growth opportunities in the rapidly growing areas of the tech sector, with specific focus on cloud computing and other hosted services, virtualization and mobile applications.” Beloussov and Zubarev are senior partners at the investment firm. Since 2010, Runa Capital has invested in over 30 companies with a combined $10 billion in assets.[16]

Runa Capital’s largest investment was a $10 million Series C funding round of Acumatica on November 18, 2013. Runa Capital’s investments announced to date include: MightyCall, Nginx, Talkbits, Jelastic, Metabar, Travelmenu, BigTime® Software, Ecwid, StopTheHacker, Capptain, B2B-Center, LinguaLeo, Dnevnik.ru.[17][18]

Parallels, Inc. In 1997, Beloussov founded SWsoft, a server automation and virtualization software company. Parallels, Inc. was an SWsoft company until January 2008; each company operated as a separate entity and maintained its own distinct branding. In December 2007, Parallels' parent company SWsoft announced its plans to change its name to Parallels and ship both companies' products under the Parallels name. The merger was formalized in January 2008.[19][20]

Beloussov is currently the executive chairman of the board and chief architect of Parallels, Inc.[21]

Parallels uses Intel Core's virtualization technology to allow the virtual machine direct access to the host computer's processor. Much of Parallels' software is based on a lightweight hypervisor architecture, which provides the guest operating system direct access to the computer's hardware. Each Parallels virtual machine functions like a real computer with its own processor, RAM, floppy, CD drives, hard drive and tools.

The company currently has more than 900 employees across offices in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia and as of 2012 it had 5,000 customers and partners worldwide. In 2009, its annual revenue was $100 million.[22]

Other ventures

Beloussov is a co-founder and chairman of the board at Acumatica, a global cloud ERP company founded in 2007 with offices in Moscow, Singapore and Washington D.C.. In 2013, Runa Capital, along with Almaz Capital, made a $10 million investment in Acumatica.[23][24]

In 2012, Beloussov, Serguei Kouzmine and Zubarev co-founded QWave Capital, a VC firm “focused on seeking out early stage private companies with breakthrough quantum technology.”[25][26] The company has offices in Moscow, Boston, and New York. QWave Capital has over $300 million in funds and has invested in four quantum technology companies: ID Quantique, Nano Meta Technologies, Clifton and Centrice.[27] In October 2013, QWave Capital announced a $5.6 million investment in ID Quantique, a Geneva-based company that develops commercial encryption technologies based on the principles of quantum physics.[28]

Beloussov is also chairman of the board of trustees of the Russian Quantum Center, a quantum scientific research center located in the Skolkovo innovation hub outside of Moscow whose management board includes physicists from a number of countries including Nobel Prize winners and entrepreneurs with experience on science-based technology investing.[29]

In 2012, Beloussov joined the Governing Board of the Centre for Quantum Technologies.[30] The Singapore-based research institute is a Research Centre of Excellence hosted by the National University of Singapore. The Centre brings together quantum physicists and computer scientists to explore the quantum nature of reality and the fundamental limits of information processing.

References

  1. ↑ "Our Team". Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  2. ↑ "Quantum Wave Fund". Serguei Beloussov. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  3. ↑ "Russian Quantum Center". Board of Trustees. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  4. ↑ "CrunchBase". Serguei Beloussov.
  5. ↑ "Acronis backup strategy: Protect any data, anywhere". SearchDataBackup. 27 February 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  6. ↑ "‘I am back’: Acronis CEO Serguei Beloussov". CIO Asia. 18 February 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  7. ↑ "A conversation with Serguei Beloussov of Acronis". ZDNet. 6 September 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  8. ↑ "image-based backup". SearchDataBackup. 13 January 2011. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  9. ↑ "Acronis Acquires File-Sharing Company GroupLogic". eWEEK. 13 September 2012. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  10. ↑ "Introducing Acronis Access: The First Solution to Comprehensively Address Enterprise-Level Needs for Mobile File Access, Synching and Sharing". Acronis, Inc. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  11. ↑ "ExtremeZ-IP Overview". Acronis Inc. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  12. ↑ "Acronis". CrunchBase. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  13. ↑ "Returning Acronis CEO plans Parallels universe". The Register. 3 September 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  14. ↑ "Acronis co-founder slips into driving seat after CEO picks up P45". The Register. 6 May 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  15. ↑ "When a company founder returns". CRN. 19 December 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  16. ↑ "Strategy". Runa Capital. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  17. ↑ "ACUMATICA RAISES $10M IN SERIES C FUNDING". FinSMEs. 18 November 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  18. ↑ "Runa Capital". RusBase. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  19. ↑ Vance, Ashlee (12 December 2007). "SWsoft to abandon itself and become Parallels". The Register. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  20. ↑ Modine, Austin (30 January 2008). "SWsoft Parallels does Virtuozzo Containers 4.0 thing". The Register. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  21. ↑ "Leadership". Parallels, Inc. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  22. ↑ Khrennikov, Ilya (21 March 2013). "Parallels Nears IPO While Advancing in $40 Billion Cloud Market". Bloomberg. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  23. ↑ Starkell, Natasha (18 November 2013). "Russian Acumatica Obtains $10 Million For Growth From Current Investors Runa and Almaz". GoalEurope. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  24. ↑ "Global cloud ERP vendor Acumatica secures $10 million from Runa Capital and Almaz Capital". RUSSOFT. 21 November 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  25. ↑ "QWave Capital". CrunchBase. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  26. ↑ "Quantum Wave Fund". Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  27. ↑ Maynard, Brendan (20 June 2013). "Russian quantum technologies fund QWave invests $7 million in three tech companies". GoalEurope. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  28. ↑ Kummerlowe, Marie Ashley (21 October 2013). "QWave Capital invests $5.6 million in Switzerland’s ID Quantique". East-West Digital News. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  29. ↑ "Russian Quantum Center launches new labs and powerful laser system". VentureVolga.com. 20 December 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  30. ↑ "Governing Board Members". Centre for Quantum Technologies. Retrieved 16 April 2014.