Slava Solonitsyn is a tech entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and ESG expert with more than 17 years of experience in designing and developing new products, mentorship, investing, and community building in Europe, the US, and Asia.
His expertise includes scaling up and launching startups. His primary areas of interest include IoT, hard tech, and construction. Slava is passionate about tech startups with a long-lasting impact. Slava is currently working towards his impact goal, which involves advancing the construction sector through automation and 3D printing. He also assists selected founders as an advisor and angel investor, helping them to achieve their high-impact missions. While he is familiar with the American and Singaporean markets, he is now exploring the potential of SEA and LATAM as key drivers of the future of humanity (from the perspective of impact and population).
Slava is a notable global expert who is frequently invited to present and speak at the most prominent startup and global business events, such as Collision, F.ounders, Web Summit, and the World Economic Forum. His unique experience in scaling complex startups, solving ESG problems, as well as his VC background, make him a highly sought-after angel investor.
Current occupation
Mighty Buildings
Slava is CEO and Co-founder of Mighty Buildings, a tech company that is revolutionizing the construction industry by creating beautiful, sustainable, high-quality homes by using advanced materials, patented 3D-printing technology, and robotic automation. Mighty Buildings is headquartered in Oakland, California. Slava Starodubcev and Dmitry Starodubcev founded the company in 2017. Later, Russ Atassi and Rene Griemens joined the team to form Mighty Buildings.
Under Slava’s leadership, Mighty Buildings has raised over $100 million and established the company as a leader in sustainable 3D-printed housing. It counts among its investors such noteworthy names as Khosla Ventures, Bold Capital, Core VC, YCombinator, ArcTern Ventures, Core Innovation Capital, and others. Mighty Buildings is also included in the top YC companies (5% of YC companies).
Solonitsyn describes Mighty Buildings as: “We are hard at work to find a solution to humanity’s double-edged climate crisis and housing crisis. Once we identify a path, we will be able to open our platform to real estate developers to unlock production of sustainable homes at scale”.
Mighty Buildings’s Impact
The construction industry and related building operations generate around 40% of annual global CO2 emissions, according to reports. But the world still needs more housing. Mighty Building believes it’s not an “either/or”. Mighty Buildings developed technology that can increase productivity and reduce construction-related emissions. It allows for virtually zero waste construction, a reduction in embodied carbon and the building of cost-effective zero net energy homes. These methods progress the company closer to its 2028 Carbon Neutrality goal.
Mighty Buildings is a member ASTM International and Sustainable Brands. Housing Innovation Alliance, Climate HUB and other organizations that address climate change. It has also committed to The Climate Pledge initiative by Amazon alongside more than 300 of the world’s most influential companies.
Ruvento Ventures
Another of Slava’s great achievements is co-founding Ruvento Ventures, a startup incubator and a seed capital firm in Singapore in 2012. Slava started with the incubation of 12 IoT startups, some of which raised follow-on funding and two of which were later acquired.
Slava was Managing Partner between 2015 and 2017. He raised a private fund, made 17 seed-stage investments and two of them became unicorn companies. Two more were valued at over $500M. The fund he managed was able to bring in huge returns for investors (MOIC 3.7x). Among the startups where he invested, there are two unicorn companies working towards high-impact goals: Boom Supersonic (making supersonic flights accessible in a sustainable way) and Solugen (bringing clean, sustainable chemistry to every industry).
Slava is still a member of the Board at Ruvento Ventures and serves as a partner in ventures. He also helps the firm pursue an ESG agenda for developing markets such as Southeast Asia.
Early career background
Slava started his career at G5 entertainment where he managed projects for Sony, Disney and Electronic Arts. He was active in the development of Russia’s startup ecosystem since 2007. He developed a variety of support measures, including tax incentives for tech project. These were later used to incentivize more than 1000 startups.
Education, community service, and eco-activism
Slava graduated from Nizhniy Novgorod State Technical University named after R.Y. Alekseev ( NSU) graduated from Nizhniy Novgorod State Technical University named after R.Y. in 2004 with a MSc in Physics. In 2007, he earned an MBA from Imperial College London, where he studied Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital. He was a student and participated in many clubs. Upon earning his MBA, Slava focused on commercialization of technology, working closely with Imperial College scientists on commercialization feasibility studies.
Slava is completely committed to the cause of saving the planet. This commitment extends far beyond his work. Slava actively promotes the mission through launching eco-friendly initiatives such as beach clean ups. Slava regularly shares valuable articles, research and personal insights via his Twitter account.
Slava is a keen kitesurfer and paraglider. After learning Mandarin in China and Singapore, he adopted the nickname “Si Lei” (SiLei). He loves using this nickname in his interactions with people from all over the world.
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