-You were an IT Foreign Ministry, built an ecosystem in Unit. City and had a successful career in IT. Why did they decide to change the sphere so radically? - IT is connected with more than 10 years of my professional life. At one time I was engaged in venture investments and led here one of the European venture funds. And for the past two years she worked in the largest innovation park Unit. City. A lot connects me with him. I was one of the first residents of Unit. City. Unit. City was my client, partner.

Indeed, this year I move to another sphere, but there is a lot in common. For example, now approximately 40% of Molfar customers is an IT company.

Somewhere in July, when there was a Russian rocket hit in Okhmatdet, I drew attention to how Molfar simply instantly found 95 Russian military, which are probably involved in this shelling. And I began to investigate who Molfar was as they managed to conduct an investigation as quickly as they could find passport data, addresses of the Russian military. Not only the brigade number was recognized, but clearly called the names of those who can be involved and should be liable.

There was another moment. I was in the board of one of the business communities. And when a new member appears, you need to learn something about him, understand what he is doing, whether there is ties with the Russian Federation, or, for example, whether there were criminal proceedings in the past.

And then Molfar provided a dossier for new members of the Association. I saw a clear structured information that helped to understand all possible risks. And when I already had a conversation with Artem (the old man, the founder and head of the Molfar intelligence agency. - Ed. ), I clearly understood who Molfar are.

- Your position in Molfar - Chief Strategy Officer. What you plan to do, what will be included in the zone of your responsibility? - I will say easier: this is the position of strategic director. My vector is all strategic partnerships: customers, donors, international partners, the development of offices in other countries.

- For ten years in IT you have your own narrow specialization. Do not plan to turn Molfar into an it-product? -Molfar has its IT product and develops. I cannot say all the names, but up to 30% of our customers are fairly well -known funds. There are part of customers whom I cannot call, but there are also those clients who are not averse to publicly talking about cooperation with them. This is, for example, D3 Venture Capital, Whales Ventures.

Among customers there are also those companies with which I worked. Therefore, I do not leave far from the IT market, I go to where I am interested. Corporate intelligence helps the business to develop, avoiding risks. Work with those who play honestly.

Molfar not only provides services, he also teaches and often does it completely free. The training is held by special services, military... - Journalists... - Yes, journalists.

- Tell us a little about corporate intelligence. How does this work? The company wants to learn something about its counterparty, a partner or seeks information about a candidate for some responsible position and asks you to conduct a study? -Yes, this is actually a background. We can provide information about property, related persons, relatives, and possible risks. But besides BackGround, we conduct a comprehensive market research, we can explore a separate industry within one or more countries. We also produce Humint, that is, we collect information through direct contact with a person. There is Asset Search (search for assets. - Ed. ), we can find non -public assets of individuals or legal entities. We show bank accounts, corporate shares, securities, patents, luxury items and all that we can find.

We have a whole range of methods and algorithms. And this is not only open data, it can be the receipt of information directly from experts, and there may be a “secret buyer” method.

-Due to the number of companies trying to circumvent sanctions, as well as the toxicity of any connections with the Russian Federation, probably, a boom should take place in the corporate intelligence market? - The corporate intelligence market is growing rapidly. If we are talking about the size of the global market, it amounted to $ 31 billion last year, and it is expected to reach $ 63 billion.

And this growth will continue. The world becomes very digitalized. I'll give you one example. This is a case with fitness applications that allowed to trace the routes of Biden and Macron. The fitness applied their guards, they even called their genuine surnames, posted photos from the places in which they were. And with the help of these applications it was possible to trace where the presidents are located.

And there can be a lot of such examples. The question CyberSecurity is very relevant.

-And there are some frames indicated by law? Does such a study violate the legal rights of those who become an object of interest? - Of course, this is absolutely legal. OSINT intelligence is a search for information from open sources. We have grown from these methods. This is completely legal. And in all 39 countries where we work, from where customers contact us, we always check local legislation. And often these are different rules. Somewhere detectives should have a license, for example, and somewhere they can work without a license. We always act within the framework of the legislation.

- The global private intelligence market is estimated at tens of billions of dollars. Ukrainian companies can be competitive in this market and pick up their part? It seems that few people understand better, for example, the specifics of the work of Russian companies, the methods of bypassing sanctions... - I am sure that Ukrainian companies will have the share of the global private intelligence market. And I agree, such a motivation to find connections with the Russian Federation, to find circuits for bypassing sanctions no one else has. There is a demand for this in the world.

Ukrainian companies are absolutely competitive. I can give you an example. We have UK clients, and this despite the fact that many companies engaged in corporate intelligence are concentrated in Britain. But still, some clients choose us. And our presence is growing. If in 2023 we made 1220 investigations, then last year already 1525. This is an increase of 20%.

- And this client from Britain, he ordered research on the Ukrainian company? - In fact, we have more than one client from the UK. Of course, many order a check of Ukrainian counterparties. But there are those who order a test, for example, British counterparties.

- What are your plans for 2025? Since the full -scale war in Molfar, investigations on the crimes of Russians have regularly appear, whether you will continue to move in this direction? -We have a date on our site both for war criminals and collaborators. Of course, we will continue this direction. This is not a commercial story for us. This year it will be transformed until I can say how exactly.

We plan a significant company growth in 2025. And not only because the market is growing as a whole, but because it is our desire. We are preparing for new loud partnerships, new customers.

We will continue to identify people committing crimes against Ukraine. We will teach the military, security services, we will also develop this direction.