Serg Bell

Serg Bell (born Sergey Mikhaylovich Belousov, Russian: Сергей Михайлович Белоусов, 2 August 1971) is a Singaporean businessman entrepreneur, investor and speaker, the founder and chairman of the board of Constructor, formerly known as Schaffhausen Institute of Technology (SIT) and multiple global IT companies, including Acronis, a global data protection company, and was the senior founding partner of Runa Capital, a technology investment firm.^[1] He is also executive chairman of the board and chief architect of Parallels, Inc., a virtualization technology company,^[2][3] co-founder and chairman of the board of Acumatica, an enterprise resource planning software (ERP) company,^[4][5] and co-founder of QWave Capital.^[6]

Serg Bell
Born	Sergey Mikhaylovich Belousov (1971-08-02) August 2, 1971 (age 52) Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	Russian
Other names	Serg Bell, SB
Education	Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
Occupation(s)	Businessman, investor, speaker, entrepreneur
Years active	1992–present
Known for	Founder of Acronis
Board member of	Parallels Odin Acumatica Acronis
Spouse	Oznur Bell
Website	https://arici.com/

His employees have filed more than 350 U.S. patents for him and an h-index of 45.^[7]

In 2021 he officially changed his name to Serg Bell.^[8]

Early life and education

Bell was born in 1971 in Leningrad and studied at the 45th Physics-Mathematics School.^[9] Bell later attended the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, graduating in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in physics. He received his master's degree in physics and electrical engineering in 1995, and a Ph.D. in computer science in 2007.^[10] Bell came to Singapore in 1994 and became a Singaporean citizen in 2001.^[11][12]

Career

While earning his master's, Bell co-founded his first business, Unium (Phystech College), which provided science students with course materials.^[13] In 1992, he began working at a Russian computer company called Sunrise. Bell expanded the company's operations to 10 subsidiaries, becoming one of the largest PC retailers in Russia by the time he left in 1994. After leaving Sunrise, Bell founded and co-owned t Solomon Software SEA. Solomon Software SEA was a distributor and developer arm of mid-market ERP vendor Solomon Software in Southeast Asia. Solomon Software was later acquired by Microsoft and is now known as Microsoft Dynamics SL.^[14]

In 2000, Bell founded SWsoft, a privately held server automation and virtualization software company and the then-parent company of Parallels, Inc. and Acronis, Inc.^[15]

Bell‘s family office is located in Luxembourg as Arici Lux Sarl.

Acronis

In 2001, Bell founded Acronis as a storage management business unit of SWsoft. In 2003, Acronis was reorganized as a separate entity focused on backup and data protection software.^[16] In 2022 Acronis employs over 2,000 people worldwide, and its products are available in 26 languages in over 150 countries.^[17]

Bell has served on the board of directors since 2002. From 2007 to 2011, he turned his focus on Parallels, acting as CEO of the company. During this time, he also founded a pair of venture capital funds, Runa Capital and QWave Capital. He returned as CEO of Acronis in May 2013, replacing former CEO Alex Pinchev.^[18][19][20]

Chief Constructor & Founder & Executive Board Member of Acronis, SB previously served as Acronis’ Chief Executive Officer from 2013-2021. As of July 1, 2021, SB has stepped down as CEO of Acronis to focus on the company’s technology and research strategy as Chief Research Officer.^{[21] [22]}

Parallels, Inc.

Parallels, Inc. was initially a server automation and virtualization software unit of SWsoft before it was spun off into a separate entity and maintained its own distinct branding. In December 2007, SWsoft announced its plans to change its name to Parallels and ship both companies' products under the Parallels name. The merger was formalized in January 2008.^[23][24] From 2007 to 2013, Bell led the company as CEO while remaining on the board of directors at Acronis.^[14][25]

Bell stepped down as CEO and serves as the executive chairman of the board and chief architect of Parallels, Inc. The company has more than 900 employees across offices in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, and as of 2012 it had 5,000 customers and partners worldwide.^[26] Odin Automation, a service automation platform company owned by Parallels and founded by Beloussov, was sold to Ingram Micro in December 2015.^[27]

Runa Capital

Bell co-founded Runa Capital in 2010 together with university mates Dmitry Chikhachev and Ilya Zubarev. The three put in around $30 million in addition to capital raised from friends, family members, private investors, Goldman Sachs, UBS, etc.^[28] The firm invested in Europe and USA-based startups in the fields of deep tech, open-source software, machine learning, quantum computing, finance, education, and healthcare. By 2022, Runa Capital raised around $500 million for 4 funds and made over 100 early-stage investments.^[29] Bell was also the venture partner of Qwave, a quantum computing-focused venture fund, which effectively served as the "material science arm" of Runa Capital.^[30][31]

Since 2013, Bell scaled down executive functions in Runa Capital to focus on Acronis. In 2023, he stepped down as the general partner and stopped his involvement with the firm.^{[32][33][34][35][36]}

Constructor group, formerly known as Schaffhausen Institute of Technology

Bell founded Schaffhausen Institute of Technology in 2019 in Switzerland.^[37] Schaffhausen Institute of Technology is an international research-led university for selected areas in computer science, physics, and technology transformation. Due to slow development in Switzerland and for expansion of the market, Bell invested in private Jacobs university in Bremen, Germany, becoming its major shareholder.^[38]

Other ventures

Bell is a co-founder at Acumatica, a global cloud ERP company founded in 2007 with headquarters in Bellevue, Washington.^[39][40]

In 2012, Bell co-founded QWave Capital. The company's headquarter is in Boston.^[41] QWave Capital has over $300 million in funds and has invested in four quantum technology companies: ID Quantique, Nano Meta Technologies, Clifton and Centrice.^[42]

Between 2012 and 2017, Bellv sat on the Governing Board of the Centre for Quantum Technologies.^[43] The Singapore-based research institute is a Research Centre of Excellence hosted by the National University of Singapore. The Centre brings together quantum physicists and computer scientists to explore the quantum nature of reality and the fundamental limits of information processing.

In 2021, he contributed to funding a new quantum computer startup company, QuEra, which is developing a 256-qubit machine.^[44]

See also

• Acronis
• Parallels, Inc.
• Runa Capital
• Acumatica
• Constructor, formerly known as Schaffhausen Institute of Technology

References

1. "Our Team". Runa Capital. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
2. Loukianoff, Peter N. (September 22, 2009). "Russia's Other Natural Resource". Forbes. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
3. "Russian VC Invests $60 Million ($16.6 Million) In Israeli High Tech". Jewish Business Journal. October 16, 2013. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
4. Taleski, Julia (December 3, 2014). "Q&A: Acronis CEO Serguei Beloussov". ARN. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
5. Shirikov, Anton (May 27, 2014). "Serguei Beloussov is Turning Acronis Back into a Startup". Software Russia. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
6. "QUANTUM WAVE FUND". quantumwavefund.com. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
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8. "From Russia with money: Silicon Valley distances itself from oligarchs". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved April 1, 2022.
9. "Монетизация квантов". Expert. No. 835. January 21, 2013.
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12. Teng, Angela (October 29, 2017). "'Titles culture' in Singapore stifles entrepreneurial streak, say foreign-born businessmen". Today. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
13. Philip, Joji Thomas (January 8, 2015). "Serguei Beloussov: A hands-off approach to start-ups". Live Mint. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
14. Tay, Daniel (October 21, 2014). "From Russia to Singapore, this serial entrepreneur's 21-year journey is astonishing". TechInAsia. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
15. . SearchDataBackup. February 27, 2014. Archived from the original on March 4, 2014. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
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17. "Acronis Company Information and Details". Acronis. Retrieved March 29, 2022.
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25. Anjum, Zafar (February 18, 2014). "Acronis CEO Serguei Beloussov". MIS-Asia. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
26. Khrennikov, Ilya (March 21, 2013). "Parallels Nears IPO While Advancing in $40 Billion Cloud Market". Bloomberg. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
27. "Parallels Holdings Sells Odin Service Automation Platform to Ingram Micro". Finsmes. December 7, 2015. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
28. Joji Thomas Phillip (April 17, 2015). "Dmitry Chikhachev. The need for home run in portfolio". Mint. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
29. Mike Butcher (September 13, 2022). "Runa Capital kicks off new fund as it joins the VC 'Scramble for Europe' by moving to Luxembourg". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
30. Bob Yirka (December 14, 2012). "Venture capital firm – Quantum Wave Fund – looking to invest $100 million in quantum physics". Phys.org. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
31. Mike Butcher (July 11, 2019). "Runa Capital closes $70M for its third fund aimed at early-stage 'deep tech'". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
32. "Business ventures". SB Serg Bell. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
33. "Our Story". Runa Capital. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
34. "Acumatica Raises $10M in Series C Funding". FinSMEs. November 18, 2013. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
35. "Runa Capital". RusBase. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
36. "Runa Capital". RunaCapital. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
37. swissinfo.ch. "Private university thinks like a business to tackle skills shortage". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
38. Zier, Jan (January 10, 2022). "Bremer Universität geht an Investor: Der russische Retter". Die Tageszeitung: taz (in German). ISSN 0931-9085. Retrieved July 15, 2022.
39. Starkell, Natasha (November 18, 2013). "Russian Acumatica Obtains $10 Million For Growth From Current Investors Runa and Almaz". GoalEurope. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
40. "Global cloud ERP vendor Acumatica secures $10 million from Runa Capital and Almaz Capital". RUSSOFT. November 21, 2013. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
41. Tibken, Shara. "Quantum computing goes mainstream? New VC fund debuts". CNET. Retrieved March 29, 2022.
42. Maynard, Brendan (June 20, 2013). "Russian quantum technologies fund QWave invests $7 million in three tech companies". GoalEurope. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
43. "Governing Board Members". Centre for Quantum Technologies. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
44. "News".