Chernobyl child blossoms into successful businessman

A FORMER participant on the Chernobyl Children’s
Appeal is leading the way in Irish start-ups with an Enterprise Ireland
supported technology platform, which provides critical competitor pricing
intelligence to retailers and manufacturers.

Dmitry Vysotski (30) first travelled to Ireland with
the appeal in 1994. Aged just 12, he travelled to Skerries with around 20 other
children from Belarus. He returned each summer to visit the Davis family in
Skerries.

Seventeen years on from his first visit to the seaside
town, he has now settled in Ireland with his family, and his company,
Profitero, is seen as a leader in the field of competitor pricing intelligence.

In November, Profitero secured

?¬750,000 in a funding
round involving the Bank of Ireland Start-up and Emerging Sectors Equity Fund,
managed by Delta Partners, and State agency Enterprise Ireland.

It was a good week for Profitero as they were declared
winners of the IBM SmartCamp in London on November 17, an exclusive event aimed
at showcasing early-stage entrepreneurs, who are developing business ventures
that align with IBM’s Smarter Planet vision.

Participate

Profitero was one of five start-ups selected from the
UK and Ireland to participate in the competition.

After moving to Ireland full-time in 2007, Dmitry
started working in IBM Ireland, where he held the position of software engineer
for three and a half years.

He set up the company in late 2010 with childhood
friend, Kanstantsin Chernysh, from Belarus, and Vol Pigrukh, originally from
Ukraine, who he met in Dublin.

As an owner of several ecommerce sites, Kanstantsin
had identified with the pain that retailers felt as they spent hours on
competitor monitoring and the lack of viable solutions on the market.

Meanwhile, Vol held roles in the areas of sales,
marketing, retail and development at multinationals Microsoft and Google in
Dublin.

Armed with all their acquired eCommerce skills, the
three friends came up with a competitor pricing intelligence solution for
online and bricks-and-mortar retailers.

The company has developed a pricing service to
simplify the complex and time-consuming process of monitoring competitors’
products online, which enables retailers to be more efficient and effective
with their pricing strategy.

Retailers can monitor online prices, stock
availability, shipping costs and benchmark product prices against their
competitors. They can then react quickly and make the necessary changes to
prices in order to increase sales and profit margins.

A winner in the European Seedcamp 2010 competition,
and finalist of Dublin WebSummit 2010, Profitero also claimed the Irish
Innovation Cubed award.

Profitero has 13 staff with plans to expand this
number over the next 12 months.

Dmitry says he built

“a great connection with Ireland

?
during the time he visited as a child.

“I liked all the people I met and Ireland itself,

? he
states. His enthusiasm for the country encouraged him to set up an Irish
company, which is behind the technology for competitive pricing intelligence.