Rodion Shishkov (born July 9, 1980, in Leningrad, USSR) is a Russian-born Israeli-British tech entrepreneur, the founder of Samokat and Buyk dark store rapid delivery services. His company TRA Robotics designs and builds highly automated microfactories, including the production facilities for the British unmanned commercial electric vehicle manufacturer Arrival. He's also a former Yota and Russian Post executive responsible for developing and delivering new digital services.
Rodion Shishkov | |
|---|---|
 Rodion Shishkov | |
| Born | July 9, 1980 |
| Education | Saint Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance (2002) |
| Occupation | entrepreneur |
| Years active | since 1999 |
| Known for | Samokat and Buyk rapid delivery apps |
Background
editRodion Shishkov was born in Leningrad on July 9, 1980. He holds a degree in Marketing from Saint Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance (2002). He started his career at 19 and worked in several fields, such as retail, real estate development, telecommunications, and IT.[1][2]
Rodion Shishkov held executive positions in Yota from 2008 to 2013. He was the head of the company's R&D center Yota Lab.[2] He managed the creation of the music streaming service Yota Music[3][4] and movie streaming platform Yota Play which was later rebranded to Okko and became Russia's second largest video streaming service by 2019.[5][6][7][8] Shishkov resigned from Yota as the company's vice president of innovations.[1]
From 2013 to 2017, Rodion Shishkov was the deputy CEO of the Russian Post, responsible for digital services, new products, and integrations with public services.[1][9] He set the basis for the company's information technology and digitalization team (Pochta Tech)[10] and started the digital transformation of the Russian Post.[11] Under his management, the company launched its own payment gateway, API for delivery services automation,[12][13] online subscription to newspapers and magazines,[14] a digital official mail service with acknowledgment of receipt,[15] and a web portal focused on all the new digital services provided by the Russian Post.[16]
Entrepreneurship
editTRA Robotics
editRodion Shishkov is the founder of TRA Robotics. The company designs and builds automated microfactories allowing for flexible, software-driven manufacturing with capital expenditures a dozen times less than traditional factories.[17][18] TRA Robotics became a part of autonomous electric vans designer and manufacturer Arrival[19] and built its facility in Banbury, Oxfordshire, considered one of the UK's most technologically advanced factories[20][21][22]
In 2017, Rodion Shishkov and Slava Bocharov founded Smart.Space, a company and app focused on improving service convenience in business centers and residential complexes. Among other services, it provided a rapid delivery of grocery and consumer goods under the name Magazinchik (Russian: a small shop). In January 2018, it was split into a separate company Samokat, which became the first dark store delivery service (according to Inc. magazine) and was the fastest-growing food technology company in Russia.[6]
Samokat's complex technological background included demand forecasting and delivery control systems.[23] It became the world's second app (after Getir) to offer a 15-minute delivery.[24] By 2021, Samokat made up to 900,000 deliveries monthly.[25] In April 2020, a controlling share in Samokat was acquired by Sberbank and the Mail.ru Group.[26] Samokat became No. 1 in the E-grocery market by revenue, number of orders, and market share in online food sales, holding a 17% share, and broke into the top 5 FMCG retailers.[27]
Buyk
editFollowing the success of Samokat in Russia, Shishkov and Bocharov launched a US-based dark store delivery company Buyk,[28] which used some elements of Samokat's technological backend.[29] Buyk began operations in New York City in September 2021 and in Chicago in December. By the end of 2022, the company planned to expand to Boston, Houston, and Miami. The growth was supported by investments from Fort Ross Ventures and Lev Leviev's LVL1 venture fund.[30]
By the time Russia launched the full-scale invasion into Ukraine, Buyk was between the funding rounds and fully dependent on bridge financing from its founders. The sanctions against Sberbank (also the investor of Fort Ross Ventures) hampered their ability to continue funding Buyk.[31] On March 17, 2022, the company filed for bankruptcy.[32]
References
edit- ^ a b c Andrey Fedoseev (October 3, 2013). "Russian Post found a deputy CEO from Yota". Comnews. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ a b Arseny Vladimirsky (October 4, 2013). "Maksim Parshin resigns as deputy CEO of Russian Post". Digital Russia. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ Igor Korolev (July 2, 2012). "Yota turned off the Music". CNews. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ "Rodion Borisovich Shishkov". Labyrinth Database. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ Maria Istomina (July 29, 2020). "Sberbank will get control over Rambler Group". Vedomosti. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ a b "Rodion Shishkov". Pravila Zhizni (ex-Esquire). Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ "Appointments and resignations: September 28 — October 4, 2013". Executive.ru. October 4, 2013. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ Ksenia Boletskaya (September 5, 2014). "Russian audience gets more interested in Smart TV". Vedomosti. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ "Rodion Shishkov and ex-Tele2 top managers left Russian Post". Roem. January 13, 2017. Retrieved August 17, 2022.
- ^ Natalia Zhutova (September 3, 2020). "A tour to Pochtatech office in Saint Petersburg". Habr. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ Alexey Yesaulenko (April 15, 2016). "Russian Post's Digital Renaissance". OSP. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ "Russian Post to launch its own online payments gateway by Summer 2017". The Village. October 12, 2022. Retrieved August 17, 2022.
- ^ "Russian Post launched an API for automated". VC.ru. December 26, 2016. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ "Russian Post tests the online subscription service". Retail Loyalty. December 15, 2015. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
- ^ Oleg Salmanov (October 20, 2014). "Russian Post introduced a new mail service for communication between state institutions, businesses, and citizens". Vedomosti. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ "Russian Post launched a new services-centered website". Retail Loyalty. September 17, 2022. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ Neal E. Boudette (April 21, 2022). "An E.V. Start-Up Backed by UPS Does Away With the Assembly Line". The New York Times. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ Ksenia Goschitskaya (April 17, 2020). "How Rodion Shishkov created "Samokat" rapid delivery service, acquired by Sberbank and Mail.Ru Group". Sobaka.ru. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ Denis Ilyin (July 17, 2019). "Concepts for TRA Robotics". Breadhead Stories. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ Daria Sofina (December 27, 2017). "UK-based TRA Robotics became an industrial partner of ITMO University". ITMO.News. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ "Flexible production provider TRA Robotics looks for the startups at GoTech". GoTech Innovation. August 23, 2020. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ Julian Rendell (April 11, 2022). "How Arrival is shaking up factory production". Autocar. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ Ksenia Demidkina (February 25, 2020). "Samokat: a USD 700 million business on rapid delivery that has beaten Yandex". Forbes. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ Ekaterina Yinkova. "Vyacheslav Bocharov and Rodion Shishkov". Business Propaganda. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ "The companies that work "like everyone else" will be gone. Samokat founder Rodion Shishkov on the future of Food tech and retail trends". March 1, 2022. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ Ksenia Morozova (April 17, 2020). "The story behind Samokat: the fast delivery service acquired by Sberbank and Mail.Ru Group". Sobaka.ru. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ https://foodretail.ru/news/samokat-stal-liderom-na-rinke-e-462911
- ^ Callum Burroughs (August 16, 2021). "An instant grocery app founder showed us the pitch deck he used to raise $46 million and explains why VCs are throwing wild amounts of cash at the sector". Business Insider. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ Valeria Zhitkova (June 2, 2021). "Samokat, the Russian rapid delivery service, will launch in the US". The Bell. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ "How two Russian-founded startups in the US became collateral victims of Putin's war on Ukraine". bne Intellinews. March 14, 2022. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ Soo Youn (June 2, 2022). "How Russia sanctions helped kill 15-minute delivery in New York". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
- ^ Jeremy Hill, Jackie Davalos (March 17, 2022). "Instant Grocery Delivery App Buyk Files for Bankruptcy After Russian Sanctions". Bloomberg. Retrieved October 11, 2022.