Max Polyakov is no stranger to the space industry. He is the founder and managing partner at Noosphere Ventures. Noosphere Venture is a space-based company that invests in projects promoting space technology. Polyakov is a Ph.D. graduate in International Economics. He is a co-author of philosophical and scientific works on noospherology, semiotics, and innovation in economics. He is also a prolific writer and has published over 20 scientific papers on a wide range of topics. In 2019, Max Polyakov became a Doctor of Economic Science.
But, Max is not only an academician. He is also an entrepreneur with footprints in space and online social industry. He founded IT-Ukraine as an outsourcing company in 2001. It was the first IT-based company in Southeastern Ukraine and supplied software for the European and the US market. Following the success of IT-Ukraine, Polyakov co-founded several other startups, some of which he sold for profit. Some of these startups are Cupid Plc, Hit Dynamics, and Maxymiser. Hitwise purchased Hit Dynamics and appointed Polyakov as the Vice-President.
Max co-founded Maxymiser in 2006 and became its CEO, and later a non-executive director. During his tenure, the company attracted an external investment worth $14 million and became a leading company in multivariate optimization, personalization, and testing. Maxymiser attracted brands such as Teleflora, Hertz, and Time Warner Cable, and was sold to Oracle in 2015. Another successful company founded by Max is Renatus Media, a social and mobile gaming company in Ukraine. It is one of the leading US publishing companies for Facebook, Amazon App Store, Apple App Store, and Google Play.
Polyakov became a partner at Noosphere Ventures in 2014. The company founded EOS Data Analytics in 2015 to instantly analyze remote Earth Sensory data. In 2017, Noosphere purchased Firefly Space Systems and renamed it Firefly Aerospace. Firefly Aerospace is based in Cedar Park, Texas, and develops small, satellite launch vehicles. NASA selected FA, alongside other space companies, for the Artemis program while the US Air Force selected it for a special mission to the orbit. Firefly created an R&D center in Dnipro, where over 150 experts, mostly Ukrainians, work. Other space projects that Polyakov is involved in are EOS SAT optical satellites, SETS, and EOS SAR radar.
As a philanthropist, Polyakov is focusing his effort on promoting interest in STEM in his home country Ukraine. He laid a foundation for the Noosphere Engineering School and began the Vernadsky Challenge in 2015. The challenge offers support and grants to engineering startups around the world. Polyakov also co-founded Association Noosphere, which organizes festivals and events to promote interest in rocketry, technology, science, and engineering.
