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Russian couple founded online mentorship platform Vektor AI raises $2.5M pre-seed funding

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Online mentoring platforms have become prevalent for people to find their mentors worldwide, and here’s another one from London. Vektor AI founded by a Russian woman in tech Anna Buldakova and her half-Russian, half-Belarusian husband Victor Buldakov, recently announced a pre-seed round of $2.5M led by leading early-stage European VC firms Cherry Ventures and Mosaic Ventures, with further investment from angel investors including Bradley Horowitz (Google), Deborah Liu (Ancestry), Ujjwal Singh (Meta), Paul Forster (Indeed), Phillip Chambers (Peakon), and many more. 

The team, which is less than a year old, already has 10 people, with 4 women (40%) and 6 men (60%) coming from Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Germany, US and the UK. They’re mostly hired from Yandex, Klarna, Figma, and Uber, plus product experts from Meta and YouTube. 

Mentor for a career transition

While there are many online mentoring platform, Vector claims to be different, and an easy-to-use platform assisting employees as they interact in real-time with a chosen mentor experienced in the role and field the mentee seeks to succeed in. 

“If you want to transition to a new career or learn a new skill, mentorship is the most effective way to reach that goal. But, due to the changing employment landscape, finding relevant mentors is harder than ever, especially for startup employees. With Vektor AI, you get direct professional guidance from someone who has been in your shoes and can help you get to where you want to go.”–Anna Buldakova, co-founder and CEO of Vektor AI 

While some mentors offer their advice and expertise free of charge, others do so on a paid basis on the platform. “We created Vektor because we want to ensure that individuals who choose to work in small organizations have access to the same level of career growth and support as those at larger companies.”–Victor Buldakov, co-founder and CTO of Vektor AI. 

On Vektor’s advisory board, the team has welcomed Nikhyl Singhal, VP of Product at Meta, and Jules Walter, Product Lead at YouTube.

“Millennials and Gen Z are ditching the corporate ladder for remote work, startup roles, and greater flexibility. While this has many upsides, many lose out on the benefits of working at a corporate, such as the opportunity to organically build relationships with experienced leaders and access to potential mentors. Vektor aims to solve this by connecting tech talent with mentors within their field. We can’t think of a better duo to scale this business than Anna and Victor.”–Toby Coppel, Co-founder and Partner at Mosaic Ventures.

“People’s careers matter. However, accessing, navigating, and creating meaningful career paths is not nearly as simple as it should be. Anna, Victor, and their growing and diverse team are changing this, helping mid-level and senior tech professionals gain more career clarity. With their AI-know-how, science-guided program, and community-driven background and mindset, Vektor is set to make careers a journey, not a ladder.” – Dinika Mahtani, Principal at Cherry Ventures. 

Russian founders in the UK

Founded in December 2021, by a husband and wife team who had left Russia in 2016 and moved to Berlin and then to London and brought their combined experience from Meta, WhatsApp, Zalando, N26, and Intercom to the table — Vector is one of the fortunate Russian-founded startups which has got funding during the on-going war between Russia and Ukraine. 

We are talking about the times when another UK-based Russian-founded startup Immigram, an IT talent immigration platform founded by two Russian founders Anastasia Mirolyubova and Mikhail Sharonov won €1M funding at the Slush tech conference in Helsinki from top global investors, including Accel, General Catalyst, Lightspeed, NEA, and Northzone, and more. But, the decision was revoked, when there was massive questioning against the winner’s decisions on social media, and also, reportedly, it was found out that most of its customers were from Russia.

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