Oleg Ilichev
Founder and Managing Partner, Altai Ventures
Biography
Oleg A. Ilichev is the Founder and Managing Partner of Altai Ventures. Mr. Ilichev has over 15 years of investing (venture capital and growth equity) and operating experience within the financial services sector. In 2017 Mr. Ilichev founded Argo Ventures, an early- and growth- stage investment practice with a focus on financial technology businesses. Argo Ventures was backed by and part of Argo Group International Holdings, Ltd., a publicly traded international specialty insurance and reinsurance business. As part of this mandate, Mr. Ilichev defined the fund’s vision and go-to-market strategy, hired and developed an investment team, and oversaw all investment and portfolio company management activities. Mr. Ilichev serves on the boards of Altai Ventures portfolio companies Leap Financial Guaranty and observes the boards of Yallacompare and Union POS. Prior to starting Argo Ventures, Mr. Ilichev was a Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Argo Group’s US Operations (approximately $1 billion of gross written premium and 650 employees). Previously at Argo Group he was the CFO of the Excess & Surplus Lines segment where he was part of a leadership team that restructured that business over 3 years and prior to that a Director of Finance, responsible for corporate finance and corporate development, including internal financial analysis, capital allocation, add-on M&A activity, business development, and special projects for the CEO and CFO of the company. Prior to joining Argo Group, Mr. Ilichev was at Bear Stearns Merchant Banking, a middle-market private equity firm, where he worked on the fund’s growth equity investment opportunities, including portfolio company management of the fund’s investment in Harbor Point Limited. Before that, he was an investment banking professional within Bear Stearns’ Financial Institutions Investment Banking Division where he assisted with coverage of Argonaut Group, Argo Group’s predecessor company. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Columbia University, an MBA degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has continuously attended executive education programs at Harvard Business School.
About Altai Ventures
Altai Ventures invests in early and growth stage technology ventures (predominantly Seed and Series A stages) with an exclusive focus on InsurTech, FinTech, and Enterprise Software where it has application to Financial Services.
Learn more about Altai Ventures at https://www.altaiventures.com/