2020 was a year of challenges for entire nations and industries. The legacy of the year will certainly leave a footprint on years to come. In searching for the optimal strategy we should seek examples of success stories of the year. And they are plenty. One of the stories to make an example of is the story of Kenes Rakishev, a well-established Kazakhstani venture capitalist. Mr. Rakishev is internationally recognizable figure in high-tech investment and financial technologies.
In 2020 Kenes Rakishev managed to outperform his competitors and climbed one place in Forbes Top-50. It happened because of several strategies involved: timely asset liquidation, proper reinvestment, modern technologies.
The troubled waters of 2020: Kenes Rakishev ways
Kenes Rakishev’s speciality, of which he is well known for, is crisis management. Kenes Rakishev sold his gold mining asset, the Petropavlovsk, but hasn’t completely distanced himself from it. Mr. Rakishev is still actively consulting the shareholders. He re-established shares in lithium and cobalt mines and reportedly seeks for another gold mine to invest in. After long talks with GV Gold he refused to jump in and the time has shown that Kenes Rakishev was right.
He got a share in EV business and continued to invest in it further betting on innovative companies. Kenes Rakishev invested in StoreDot Israeli startup, which enables new types of batteries with potential to be charged in minutes, not hours.
Meanwhile Mr. Rakishev continues to build his domestic fintech empire and adds an important asset to it – the Amanat insurance company. Now Fincraft, his investing vehicle, is nearly complete.
Kenes Rakishev and the social responsibility paradigm
Kenes Rakishev is number 6 in the Forbes rating and has $890 million under command. He always advocated for social responsibility in business. The year 2020 wasn’t so successful for everyone to say the least.
Nation struggled with the new SARSv2 virus. The usual source of income for Kazakhstan’s budget plummeted, the government was forced to implement strict quarantine. People were left without the source of income. The Saby charity fund, which was founded 18 years ago by Aselle Tasmagambetova and Kenes Rakishev comes in handy. It was an extremely tense year for Saby. Kenes Rakishev and Aselle Tasmagambetova mobilized and spent more than 1.3 billion tenge to supply the healthcare staff with protective equipment, tests kits and lung ventilation apparatuses for IC. Funds also were used to provide direct targeted aid to those in need, and to those who suffered from the devastating floods. Saby also paid for the expenses of two other charity funds preventing them from stopping providing the aid to people.
Besides it the long and extensive project to provide cities with state of the art emergency paediatric surgeries and staff Kenes Rakishev, Aselle Tasmagambetova, friend and patrons of the fund built the new centre in Semey city. Their efforts will surely save lots of children’s lives!
At last this year Kenes Rakishev and Aselle Tasmagambetova opened the completely new school in Almaty. It offers an entire new level of education for pupils and secures the modern and decent future for both the students and the country they are citizens. One has to think of the future to be successful, Kenes Rakishev rightfully assumes.
About Kenes Rakishev
Kenes (also spelled Kenges) Rakishev is well known entrepreneur and venture capitalist from Kazakhstan. He is investing in heavy industry, high tech startups and fintech companies around the World.
