Yuri
Akimov
Entrepreneur. Investor. Author.
For more than twenty years, I’ve built businesses, invested, and moved across countries and industries.
Today I live in Dubai. I’m interested in where capital, technology and the physical world meet.
I’VE STARTED OVER
MORE THAN ONCE
Automotive businesses and real estate. Thailand and my first experience working entirely remotely. More than 30,000 people across different cities and countries. Large stages. Several years in Bali.
More than 60 technology projects. TOKEN2049 in Singapore. A major interview with Forbes. Two books.
During periods of change, I often started something new. Not every direction became the next major chapter. I made money in some and lost money in others. Some gave me experience and ended there. Others changed the course of what came next.
JANUARY 16, 1980
THE RUSSIAN
FAR EAST
I was born on January 16, 1980, in the Russian Far East, in a small settlement in the Dalnegorsk district of Primorsky Krai.
Around two thousand people.
I DIDN’T START IN TECHNOLOGY
OR INVESTING
Auto parts, car service, real estate, restaurants, nut trading.
2015
THAILAND
In 2015, I moved to Thailand and effectively cut off my previous life.
This wasn’t about finding myself.
I had to keep my businesses in Russia running remotely. At some point I realized that I could build and run businesses while living in another country.
MORE THAN 30,000 PEOPLE
A few years later, more than 30,000 people across different cities and countries were involved in what we were building.
I traveled to different cities and spoke first to dozens of people, then hundreds, then audiences of several thousand.
Until then, business had been very physical for me: premises, assets, a specific city. This was the first time I saw an entirely different scale.
2018–2021
BALI
In 2018, a very different part of my life began alongside everything else.
I lived in Bali for several years. Yoga, Eastern philosophy, giving up meat, meditation, different practices. That’s where ideas began to take shape that later found their way into my books.
This period did not make me a spiritual teacher. It simply became another major part of my experience and strongly influenced what I later wrote about.
2019–2021
During those same years, I continued in business.
From 2019 to 2021, I was running a legal services business and investing in traditional markets.
In 2021, I moved to Dubai and gradually began working in an international environment.
The next stage was digital assets and technology projects.
2021–2025
TECHNOLOGY
PROJECTS
From 2021 to 2022, I became deeply involved in crypto and technology projects.
Over the next few years, more than 60 projects went through the accelerator. We worked across pre-launch, launch, listings and marketing.
Dubai. The international tech scene. TOKEN2049 in Singapore.
A CONVERSATION WITH FORBES
During the same period, Forbes filmed a long-form interview with me.
I was also featured by RBC, Kommersant, Vedomosti and other business media.
I NEVER SAW A CONTRADICTION
BETWEEN THESE WORLDS
You can make money, build businesses, want more, and at the same time work on yourself, meditate, ask questions about God or about who you are.
I was never interested in choosing one thing and declaring everything else wrong.
TWO BOOKS
I spent about eight years exploring karma before it became a book.
In 2025, Karmic Capital was published by Eksmo.
Before that, I spent more than three years working on The Four Lives of a Millionaire from Parsa, a roughly 500-page novel.
The books were not separate from business or the rest of my life. They grew alongside all of it.
TODAY I LIVE
IN DUBAI
I’m 46. I have three children.
I’m still in business and investing. I write. I train.
CURRENT FOCUS
AI & ROBOTICS
I’m interested in how AI is entering the physical world and changing companies, work, management and the relationship between humans and machines.
DEFENSE & CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION
Technologies for protecting assets and critical infrastructure, engineering developments, technology localization and manufacturing in the Gulf.
This is one of the areas I’m currently going deeper into: looking at technologies, companies, teams and opportunities to bring them into the region and localize them here.
DIGITAL ASSETS & BLOCKCHAIN
I spent several years in this space and worked with dozens of projects.
I’m still interested in strong technologies and business models that can exist beyond the speculative cycle.
DEVELOPMENT, LAND & REAL ESTATE
Land projects, development, partnerships with developers, deal structuring and opportunities in the UAE market.
I’m interested in both sides of the deal.
You can come with a land asset or a development project.
Or with capital and the intention to acquire land, enter a project, find the right developer or create a development project of your own.
PROJECTS & PARTNERSHIPS
If you have a project, technology, engineering development, investment opportunity or partnership proposal, you can contact me.
If you are considering entering one of these markets with capital, that can also be a subject for discussion.
I’m particularly interested in projects that connect technology with physical infrastructure, capital with real estate, or international market access with localization in the Gulf.
A project does not need to be a mature company. But there should already be something real: a team, technology, prototype, asset, market access or another verifiable result to build on.
FORMS OF INVOLVEMENT
My role varies from project to project.
Investment.
Partnership.
Co-founding a company.
Participation in deal structuring.
Advisory.
Sometimes it’s a focused involvement. Sometimes the interest is strong enough that I want to go deeper.
There is no preset format.
Terms depend on the project and are discussed case by case.
BUSINESS CONTACT
If you would like to propose a project, technology, investment opportunity, land asset or partnership, send a short note with:
- what you are proposing;
- what already exists today;
- what stage it is at;
- what you would like to discuss with me;
- why you decided to contact me.