A YOUNG Belarusian man whose entrepreneurial spirit was sparked on summer trips to Dublin organised by the Chernobyl Children’s Appeal has attracted a €750,000 investment for the technology company he subsequently founded here.
Dmitry Vysotski spent his first of 10 summers in Dublin in 1994 and was placed with a family in Skerries who ran their own business and encouraged their children to take summer jobs.
“I had no experience of business before coming to Ireland,” said Mr Vysotski.
Profitero, which Mr Vysotski co-founded with childhood friend Kanstantsin Chernysh and former Google employee Volodymyr Pigrukh, has received backing from Irish venture capital firm Delta Partners through a Bank of Irelend seed fund, Enterprise Ireland, Simon Murdoch, a former vice-president of Amazon.co.uk and British investors Seedcamp.
Profitero describes itself as a provider of “pricing intelligence for retailers”.
Its web-based system monitors the price and stock availability at a variety of online retailers, primarily in Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, the US, Canada and China.
Customers who have already signed up to use the information include British retailer Tesco, market research firm Nielsen and Spanish consumer electronics retailer Worten.
Mr Vysotski said the new investment would enable the company to develop its product further and sign partnerships with large technology companies.
Last night Profitero won the IBM SmartCamp competition in London having been selected as one of five European start-ups to take part in the two-day event.
Having completed a Masters in mathematics in Belarusia, Mr Vysotski said he had a desire to return to Ireland as he felt a “great synergy” with the country. He landed a job with IBM’s Dublin office in 2007 as a software engineer and met Mr Pigrukh in Dublin.
When his friend Mr Chernysh explained the idea for Profitero the two decided to leave their jobs to establish the company in Dublin.
Profitero now employs 13 staff which are split between offices in Dublin and Belarus.
