Co-founder and General Partner at Roosh | Co-founder at SET University | Tech Entrepreneur | Initiator of the STEM is FEM charity project | Investor
Serhiy Tokarev is the co-founder and general partner at Roosh, a Ukrainian investment group based in Kyiv and London, that scales remarkable tech businesses focused on capitalization (by Roosh Ventures) and profitability (by Roosh X) and scales them globally.
With over 20 years in the tech industry, Serhiy is a renowned AI visionary, tech entrepreneur, and dedicated international investor with a specific focus on the Ukrainian IT sector. Over the past decade, he has invested in emerging tech startups from various sectors, including gaming, fintech, and healthtech. One of those investments was into Reface, the company behind the viral face-swap video app, in which Serhiy was the first angel investor. The product gained the #1 spot in the US app store in 2020 and was backed by A16Z, quickly becoming a success story of the Ukrainian tech scene.
Serhiy was also an early investor in Zibra AI, a deep-tech company creating AI-generated assets for virtual worlds and experiences. In May 2023, out of 1600 companies Zibra AI became a finalist in A16Z's SPEEDRUN accelerator program and proudly stood as the sole representative from Eastern Europe, securing an investment of $500,000 from A16Z that kick-started Zibra AI's seed round, bringing its total investment to $2.5M to date.
Wanting to continue backing groundbreaking companies based on AI and ML and supporting the evolution of the Ukrainian IT sector, Serhiy launched Roosh in 2020 together with Den Dmytrenko and Kyle Ukho.
Serhiy is passionately working to transform Ukraine into a leading hub for AI and ML, elevating the country's IT industry and overall business climate. Serhiy was one of the earliest and most prominent supporters of establishing "Diia.City", a unique legal and tax framework tailored for IT enterprises. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised this initiative as one of the world's best tax and legal systems, poised to reshape Ukraine as a thriving business nexus. Subsequently, Roosh was one of the first companies to become a member.
In collaboration with the Kyiv School of Economics, Serhiy co-founded SET University, a premier educational platform for IT professionals and budding entrepreneurs. These endeavours underscore Serhiy's unwavering commitment to positioning Ukraine as Europe's tech epicentre.
Serhiy is deeply involved in education and charitable efforts in Ukraine and pioneered the "STEM is FEM" project, which champions gender equality in tech fields for Ukrainian girls.
In addition, Serhiy is a consistent supporter of Reactive Post, a charity organization founded in 2014 by a former Roosh employee, which provides spare parts, equipment, and other critical supplies to Ukrainian artillery brigades. In September 2023, Serhiy and Reactive Post launched 'Creative Post', a competition inviting participants to create imaginative videos showcasing artillery work, with the goal of raising awareness about artillery equipment needs and encouraging donations for the cause.