Max Polyakov

Max Polyakov (born 30 June 1977) is a global entrepreneur.[1] He is a founder of Firefly Aerospace, Cupid, and Renatus, among other companies.[2][3] Polyakov is a general partner in the venture fund Noosphere Ventures Partners LP.[4]

Max Polyakov
Personal details
Born
Polyakov Maxim Valeryevich
Поляков Максим Валерійович

(1977-06-30) 30 June 1977
Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine
NationalityUnited Kingdom
Children4
ResidenceScotland
EducationOles Honchar Dnipro National University
OccupationBusinessman and philanthropist. Managing Partner of Noosphere Ventures and co-owner of Firefly Aerospace

Education

Maksym "Max" Polyakov was born in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. His parents were engineers at JSC Khartron" (Hartron), a Ukrainian rocket and space enterprise engaged in the development of control systems and electronics.[5]

In 2011, Polyakov graduated from the Dnipro Polytechnic University.[6]

In 2013, Polyakov was awarded a Ph.D. in International Economics and in 2019, earned a Doctor of Economic Sciences.[7]

Business

Polyakov co-founded the IDE Group which included the companies Cupid, Murka, HitDynamics and Maxymiser in 2005.[8][9][10][11][12] Polyakov took Cupid public on the London Stock Exchange in 2010.[13][14] In 2015, Polyakov’s startup Maxymiser was bought by the American corporation Oracle.[15][16] Blackstone bought out Murka project group in 2019.[17][18][19][20][21]

Noosphere Ventures

In 2014, Polyakov founded Noosphere Ventures, an international asset management firm dedicated to the development of space technology.[22] The same year, Polyakov created Noosphere Engineering School (NES).[23] Noosphere Ventures hosted the 2016 FAI World Championships for Space Models in Ukraine.[24] On June 7, 2021, Noorsphere Ventures co-sponsored the 11th Annual Space Foundation Student Art Contest.[25]

EOS DATA Analytics

In 2015, Polyakov's Noosphere Ventures created EOS DATA Analytics, a company for processing and analyzing satellite data.[26] Four years later, EOS implemented the World Bank partnered with the EU to launch a project on satellite-based monitoring of agricultural land use.[27][28] EOS DATA Analytics also partnered with the €10 million Goldeneye Project[29][30] will run real time monitoring of five mines in Europe (Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Kosovo and Romania) to improve safety, environmental impact, and mine profitability by creating a platform that combines Earth observation technologies with on-site sensing.[31]

Firefly Aerospace
Main article: Firefly Aerospace

Polykov's Noosphere Ventures acquired assets of Firefly Space Systems and later launched a new company keeping the original Firefly brand in 2017.[32][1][33] By May 2018, a Firefly research and development center was opened in Polyakov's hometown of Dnipro.[34] In November of the same year, Firefly Aerospace entered the list of companies selected by NASA for its lunar exploration program with a total budget of $2.6 billion.[35][36][37]

In 2019, the U.S. Air Force selected Firefly to participate in the Orbital Services Program-4 (OSP-4) along with Rocketdyne.[38][39][40] In 2021, NASA awarded Firefly a $93.3 million to deliver a suite of 10 science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon in 2023.[41][42][43] Firefly The team successfully performed pre-flight of their alpha rocket in September 2020.[44][45] On May 4, 2021, CBInsights listed Firefly Aerospace as a 'unicorn' startup having achieved $1 billion valuation.[46]

On September 3, 2021, a two-stage orbital expendable launch vehicle Firefly Alpha exploded a few minutes after launch from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.[47][48] Firefly Aerospace has raised $75 million to prepare for this launch.[49]

Dragonfly Aerospace

In April 2021, Max Polyakov bought majority stake in Dragonfly Aerospace, a South African satellite engineering company.[50][51]

Controversies

Numerous journalistic investigations, in particular, a two-year study of the fact-project "Snopes",[52][53] show that before working in the space industry, Max Polyakov earned on the market of dating sites.[54] The connection between Polyakov and a number of dating sites was revealed through the company "Cupid plc", which was investigated by the BBC and Kyiv Post.[55][56]

Private life

Polyakov moved to Silicon Valley where he co-founded the venture capital fund Noosphere Venture Partners in 2012.[57] In 2016, Polyakov created the non-profit public government organization Noosphere Association, which is engaged in the organization and holding of specialized scientific and technical events. Among the most famous events are the BestRoboFest robotics festival and the Noosphere Vernadsky Challenge engineering startup competition.[58][59][60] In 2021, Polyakov moved to Edinburgh, Scotland.

Family

Max Polyakov is married with four children.[61]

References
  1. "A Rocket Mogul Is Preparing to Launch a Union of U.S. and Soviet Technology". Bloomberg.com. 22 September 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  2. Desk, News (22 October 2020). "EOS Data Analytics to launch a satellite with dragonfly multispectral imagers in 2022". Geospatial World. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  3. "Max Polyakov: An Entrepreneur and Philanthropist". 19 July 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  4. Cronin, Mike (20 March 2020). "From Bankrupt to Blasting Off". Austin Business Journal. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  5. ""Синку, ракетником ти не станеш": історія Максима Полякова та його космічного стартапу Firefly". Економічна правда (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  6. "Как Макс Поляков превращает Украину в Кремниевую долину". ukranews_com (in Russian). 19 November 2018. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  7. "Max Polyakov | Noosphere". noosphereglobal.com. 24 February 2017. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  8. Northrop, Alasdair (6 October 2011). "THE BIG PROFILE- Bill Dobbie of Cupid: Boom time for online dating boss". Business Insider. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  9. "Cupid buys Uniform Dating for £7m". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  10. Hesse, Jason (2 March 2010). "EasyDate: taking online dating to the next level". realbusiness.co.uk. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  11. Berger, Eric (11 February 2019). "After a remarkable resurrection, Firefly may reach space in 2019". Ars Technica. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  12. Reuters Staff (13 December 2010). "Easydate plans name change after Cupid.com buy, easyJet spat" – via www.reuters.com.
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  14. "Украинский предприниматель спас ракетную компанию Firefly: рассказываем ее историю". AIN.UA (in Russian). 16 February 2019. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
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