Kharkiv-born Nick Bilogorskiy introduces our news series about angel investors interested in Ukrainian startups. We will talk about why Nick moved to the United States, where he started his business, and his path to becoming the director of Security Intelligence at Google. As a bonus we included a detailed table of investments done by Nick Bilogorskiy in startups with Ukrainian roots.
Location: San Francisco, California
Mentor: Accelerator Alchemist
Investment portfolio: Petcube, Ecoisme, People.ai, Reply, and 10 more investments
Education and Move to Canada
Mykola (Nick) Bilogorskiy was born in Kharkiv, but at the age of 16 he and his family moved to Vancouver, Canada. Nick says he started working in Canada as soon as he was able to, wanting to help his family. He didn’t shy away from work, and his first job was one of a gardener. He later conducted opinion polls by phone, using this opportunity to learn English and computer skills.
After graduating from college in Canada, Nick and one of his friends founded their first company Randronics, which focused on web design. He later earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and philosophy from Simon Fraser University and completed an internship at Microsoft. Having a local diploma of higher education, Nick took a job as a software engineer.
Career
Bilogorskiy’s skills were noted in Silicon Valley, and he received an offer to work in California for SonicWall, the most popular antivirus company at the time. Nick’s career later took off even more, as he became Facebook’s top malware expert, and held senior security research positions at Fortinet. In 2011, Nick became one of the founders of the anti-virus startup Cyphort (acquired by Juniper Networks in 2017) and headed the Juniper Labs Research Team, where he played a crucial role in developing the systems of malware detection and product user experience. Since 2019, Nick Bilogorskiy has held the position of Director of Security Intelligence at Google, where he is currently working to increase users’ trust and ensure their safety. He leads a global team of security experts in Identity, Chrome, Safe Browsing and Android Security to protect Google’s products and users.
During the events of 2014 in Ukraine, Nick became one of the founders of the American volunteer movement to help Ukrainian democracy protesters– MaydanSF. He also assisted NovaUkraine, a charity that participates in raising awareness of Ukrainian causes in the world, as well as in fundraising, cultural events, and round tables dedicated to Ukraine and its culture.
Investment Portfolio
Business angel Nick Bilogorskiy has been promoting Ukrainian IT startups and investing in them for a long time. He first became interested in investing when he sold his Facebook shares, and after Facebook’s IPO, Nick began investing between $20,000 and $100,000 in 3-4 companies each year.
Nick Bilogorskiy’s Investments In Ukrainian Startups
| Company | Company Profile | Collected Funds |
|---|---|---|
| Very Good Security | Secure data storage | Series B (2020) |
| AxDraft | Legal documents for corporate legal departments | Seed Round (2019) $ 1.1 M |
| Petcube | Smart pet cameras and software | Seed Round (2015) $ 1.1 M |
| Ecoisme | Smart energy monitoring system for residential buildings | Convertible Note (2016) $ 200 K |
| PromoRepublic | Social media marketing for small businesses | Seed Round (2017) $ 1.2 M |
| Rallyware | Employee Training Platform for Businesses | Venture Round (2016) $ 675 K |
| Capitan | A shopping list tailored to geographic locations | – |
| Reply | Customer messaging platform for sales | – |
| Eclypsium | Solutions to ensure the safety of devices for enterprises | Funding Round (2017) $ 2.3 M |
| YayPay | Invoice collection solutions | Venture Round (2017) $ 5.3 M |
| Time for Machine | Sets of metal and wooden 3D puzzle models | Venture Round (2016) – |
| Very Good Security | Secure data storage | Seed Round (2016) $ 1.4 M |
| Augmented Pixels | Technologies in the field of virtual and augmented reality, sale platforms, and robotics | Venture Round (2016) – |
| People.ai | CRM solution | Seed Round (2016) $ 3 M |
Investment Philosophy
Nick’s investment portfolio includes consumer technology startups (Petcube, Ecoisme, Time for Machine, Capitan) and startups that automate sales and business processes (AxDraft, PromoRepublic, People.ai, YayPay, Reply, Rallyware). Because of his professional experience in security, he has also worked with several security-related startups (Eclypsium, Very Good Security).
In 2015, Nick became a mentor at the accelerator Alchemist – a new venture initiative aimed at accelerating the development of startups whose revenues come from businesses, and not from consumers. The main condition for the accelerator’s acceptance is an effective team of founders, and priority is given to startups with excellent technical co-founders. The accelerator selects about 75 startups a year, half of which close institutional rounds within 12 months of pitching. Bilogorskiy instructs startups that are in their early stages and entering the market.
In future posts we will review other investors interested in Ukrainian startups. Our next angel investor of focus will be Victoria Tigipko – a successful venture investor, influential Ukrainian, and president of the Odessa International Film Festival.
