Ilya is a graduate of King's College London and holds degrees in B.Sc Mathematics & Management and M.Sc in Finance. He started his career as a banker in capital markets and progressed to a senior position with the digital transformation team at Deutsche Bank. In 2000, he was part of the launch team for Deutsche Bank’s first online Foreign Exchange Trading System. In 2001, he founded "Greenwave Ventures", a private equity firm. In 2011, Ilya co-founded Powtoon along with Israeli entrepreneur Daniel Zaturansky. Powtoon was well received by its users, with more than 60 million Powtoons created to date. Ilya spent his formative years in Germany, where he founded real estate investment company "German Property Investors" for international investors.