Viktoriya Tigipko
Viktoriya V. Tigipko is a businesswoman, public figure, founding partner and managing director of venture capital firm , president of Odesa International Film Festival, Head of the Supervisory Board of , mastermind of the "IDCEE. Internet technologies and Innovations" conference. Initiated the establishment of Code Club UA - the Ukrainian chapter of Code Club. Co-creator of Wtech - a community for women IT and tech business leaders.
Currently, Victoria Tigipko is engaged in the venture business and is the managing partner of the venture fund TA Ventures, which invests in innovative technology startups that use AI/ML technologies in the fields of mobility and digital healthcare, as well as startups that provide SaaS solutions and marketplaces. TA Ventures focuses on the stages of seed investment and the early round A with checks from $250,000 to $1 million. The investment company operates a $50 million fund.
TA Ventures has been investing in technology companies since 2010. The portfolio of the fund includes such companies as Wunder Mobility, Caroobi, Klara, Sense.ly, Azimo, SumUp, Dreamlines, FinanzCheck, Wallapop and over 100 other projects. Since its founding the company has invested in more than 130 companies and completed 45 exits.
Biography
Viktoriya was born on August 17, 1973 in a family of a military musician and a music teacher Viktor Lopatetskyi and a speech therapist Lidiya.In 1990 Viktoriya graduated with honors from a Kyiv School №191. In 1996 she graduated from a faculty of "International Economic Relations and Law" from Kyiv Institute of National Economy also with honors diploma. After, she continued her studies in Austria, in Vienna University and Vienna Economic University, where she studied financial management and international insurance. Viktoriya also completed an Executive Education program in a University of California in Berkeley.
Besides native Ukrainian and Russian, she also masters English, German, French and Italian.
Career
First income Viktoriya Tigipko earned while still at school, in the 9th grade. She was an interpreter for an international exhibition. Her professional career started when she was a freshman at University. Viktoriya was the youngest broker at Ukrainian universal trade stock. In the same time she was working as an English interpreter in a banking school at the International Management Institute."Karcher"
Viktoriya Tigipko founded her first company in 1996. Eventually, her company became the biggest Ukrainian dealer of a German "Karcher". Viktoriya was dealing with engineering, construction and special industrial equipment delivery. For the time being, her main realm of activities include investment and Internet projects.TA Ventures
Today Viktoriya is a managing director of TA Ventures, organizer of the "IDCEE. Intetnet Technologies and innovations" conference for Internet entrepreneurs in CEE. More than 200 people are working under her management.Hobby, which has always been cinema, has grown into a large-scale social and cultural event: she is a president and organizer of Odessa International Film Festival.
In 2010 she was rated among "25 most successful business ladies in Ukraine", and in 2011 she was rated 10th among "100 most influential women of Ukraine". In 2012 sha was named one of the "TOP-100 most influential Ukrainians". Besides, the same year she became one of the TOP-5 most influential persons in Ukrainian Internet.
Currently, Victoria Tigipko is engaged in the venture business and is the Founding Partner of TA Ventures – globally-focused venture capital firm investing in tech startups across the USA and Europe primarily in the sectors of Mobility and Digital Health, opportunistically – fintech, property tech and enterprise software.
TA Ventures focuses on the stages of Seed investment and the Series A round with tickets from $250,000 to $1 million. TA Ventures has been investing in technology companies since 2010. The portfolio of the fund includes such companies as Wunder Mobility, Caroobi, Klara, Sense.ly, Azimo, SumUp, Wallapop, Tandem, Dreamlines, CUJO, JuneHomes and over 100 other projects. The fund provides operational support to its portfolio companies, helping them grow, stay competitive, and achieve their most ambitious R&D goals.
iClub
TA Ventures also founded iClub - the largest investor club for business-angels in Ukraine, and which gives an opportunity to make small-ticket investments in the world successful technological companies – in partnership with TA Ventures. The fund hosts regular meetups at prominent Ukrainian tech-companies’ offices and educational events on venture capital 101 latest tech-trends.IDCEE
In 2010-2014, the fund also was a general partner of the largest tech conference in Ukraine and CEE, "IDCEE. Internet Technologies and Innovations”. Such top entrepreneurs and VC funds' partners as Alan Patricof, Esther Dyson, Drew Guff, Fabrice Grinda, Tomasz Czechowicz, Florian Heinemann, Limor Schweitzer, Chris Chabot, Philippe Botteri, Alan Caffi, Bessie Lee, Andreas Haug, Jose Marin, Tim Draper, Avishai Abrahami, Bernhard Niesner, Martin Weber, Jan Henric Buettner, Joachim Schoss, Glenn Fogel, Mark Zbikowski, Gareth Williams, Rasmus Lerdorf, Steffen Krause were among 2500 attendees from 39 countries.Wtech
In 2018, Victoria Tigipko, together with Veroslava Novosilnaya, created Wtech - a community for women IT and tech business leaders. Tasks of the platform: networking and exchange of experience, mentoring support, career development, communication with potential investors, grants, assistance with business development, finding the right business contacts through the international community. Wtech also supports girls who have technology projects on their trips to international conferences in order to establish a contact base.The first Wtech meeting was held in Kyiv on November 1, 2018. In September 2019, the Wtech community has more than 1,250 participants. The Wtech Advisory Board has over 30 members. In 2019, 4 representative offices were opened in the regions: Dnipro, Odesa, Lviv, Kharkiv.
KinnernetOdesa
KinnernetOdesa is an invitation-only event, structured as an 'conference'. Kinnernet has a format, where all the participants give their contribution, by collaborating in the different sessions, encouraging discussion, interaction, and creativity among the attendees. The Kinnernet community is formed of entrepreneurs, technology visionaries, startup founders, scientists, media professionals, and creatives.Yossi Vardi, one of the major figures of worldwide innovation eco-system, is a Co-Host of this event. The event originated in Israel in 2003 and is held several times a year in various parts of the world. Previous Kinnernet unconferences have taken place across the world from Israel, France, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Sweden to Estonia. in Ukraine Kinnernet was held for the first time in 2019 in Odesa.
EscapeLAB
EscapeLAB – a national network of educational spaces with a focus on English, Entrepreneurship, Science and Coding for children 7-16 y.o. The mission is to help school students be competitive in the global market, educate innovators and create a new high-quality cluster of society that will focus on creating global technological products and services.EscapeLAB school has offices in major Ukrainian cities and offers students weekend courses.