Sergey Portnov has launched SP Ventures, an investment and advisory firm backing founders in technology, education, and other fields shaping the coming decades.
The firm operates on a model deliberately inverted from standard advisory practice: rather than charging fees, SP Ventures takes equity in the businesses it helps grow, so it does well only when the founder does. Alongside capital, it offers hands-on strategic advisory and access to entrepreneurs who have built and scaled companies before.
“The hardest part of building a company is rarely the money,” said Portnov. “It’s everything money can’t buy: judgment you only earn by making real mistakes, the network that opens the right doors, a partner who has already walked the road ahead. That’s what I want SP Ventures to give founders.”
Portnov’s bet is on where technology is heading. He argues the companies that will define the next two decades are being built now, by founders who need more than funding to get there.
“The infrastructure of the next twenty years is being built by people who don’t yet have what they need to build it,” he said. “I’ve spent a career learning what that takes. I’d rather spend the next one putting it behind the people with the ideas than chase one more of my own.”
Portnov spent more than a decade building Parimatch from a single-market operation into a brand recognized across over 20 countries, joining as marketing director and later becoming CEO and owner. He is now stepping back from operational management as the business moves into its next phase.
The firm will back companies early or established, united less by stage than by ambition and the conviction to build something lasting. Its portfolio already features Cyprus-based Trinity Private School, with education as one of its core future-oriented pillars.
Sergey Portnov leads SP Ventures as founder and chairman. The firm is reviewing opportunities and expects to announce its next investments in the coming months.
About SP Ventures
SP Ventures is a venture investment and advisory platform that partners with founders building the next generation of technology companies. The platform combines capital, strategic advisory, and access to a community of entrepreneurs, working within the businesses it backs and tying its success to the outcomes of its portfolio companies. SP Ventures backs companies with conviction, based on shared values, a shared vision, and genuine disruptive potential. The firm was founded by entrepreneur and investor Sergey Portnov, who serves as chairman.
For more information, visit https://sp.ventures/
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