Euroinvest company has become one of the essential companies for the North-West of Russia for a long time. Every project and every announcement of the company goes on to be discussed in the press and attracts people’s attention. The reason that the media is fixated on the actions of Euroinvest is dependent on the scale of their developments and the actions of one of its founders, Andrey Berezin, who has been finding solutions to some of the most complicated business fields for over 30 years.
In November, the first Venture Festival, one of the critical events in the Barkamp forum National Technological Revolution 20.35, was held in St. Petersburg. One of the essential investors invited to the festival was the EuroVenture Fund, part of Euroinvest Holding. It was represented by its, who gave expert evaluations of the presented projects. head, Andrey Berezin
Berezin spoke on the participation of the event: “It is gratifying to note that all the startups were created by St. Petersburg developers, among whose teams there is a very high percentage of young specialists, including students and graduate students. I am deeply convinced that the inclusion of young scientists not only in the creation of scientific developments and innovations but also in the process of technology entrepreneurship is the basis for personnel and technological sovereignty of our country.”
Among other things, his foundation mentioned the project of a hardware and software product for the neurorehabilitation of patients after experiencing a stroke. Even such a highly specialized segment is familiar to the businessman; in recent years, EuroVenture has been actively promoting a robotic complex to treat cancer. The fund is developing it from the ground up, finding the developers that supported their idea, now having taken them through all the design stages up to the beginning of clinical trials at one of the country’s most extensive specialized treatment and diagnostic centers, the Petrov N.N. Oncology Research Center. N. N. Petrov Scientific Research Center for Oncology.
Development
Even in the most diversified holding company, you can always highlight the area which formed the foundation for the entire company’s development. For Euroinvest, it is undoubtedly development. Berezin has many successful projects in the Leningrad Region in this field. Having started its work in the construction sphere in the mid-90s, Euroinvest is now among the three most prominent developers of the region and continues to increase its earnings.
According to RBC calculations, for the first ten months of 2022, the company has earned 9.37 billion rubles, more than 2 billion rubles more than last year. The growing volume of construction contributed to this. Two years ago, the company reached the level of 340,000 square meters of housing, and in 2021, it was already 550,000 square meters. This year, the company plans to reach a record result again, leading the rating of the largest builders.
According to Euroinvest Development (a subsidiary of Euroinvest that specializes in the construction of residential complexes), a wide range of mortgage products and a unique approach to developing residential complexes contribute to the story. At the same time, it is specified that such rapid growth can slow down in the following years: the rupture of logistic chains, which makes the companies spend time on retooling supplies and working technologies, has already affected the situation.
As for the unique approach, this is led by Berezin’s know-how on the selected sector. ID Svetlana, ID Park Pobedy, ID Moskovskiy, ID Murino II: all these new Euroinvest projects are being developed under a single 3iD concept. It implies that the residential complexes simultaneously open the entrance to three spaces for the residents.
The first is the apartments themselves. They are characterized by the deep integration of intelligent systems that aspects such as control appliances and utilities. They are integrated into one mobile application that allows you to control everything remotely.
The second is public spaces. Each new residential complex of Euroinvest has its park zone or another recreational area.
The third space is a shared educational and cultural environment with its neighbors, expressed in information tools and physically existing co-working spaces, opencasts, and hobby clubs.
Berezin characterized his approaches and plans to clarify his intentions for those who were involved and those considering involving themselves with the project: “As for Victory Park ID, there will be a whole cluster of educational classes for children and adults on the first floors. But aBut, again, this is a new consumer trend. And in the future, Euroinvest Development will engage in integrated neighborhood development.”
Berezin was the first to realize such an idea, leading him to becoming one of the leaders in the Leningrad region construction market. His future efforts will be aimed at developing the infrastructure of residential complexes; specifically in the formatted case of a public-private partnership, he has already implemented the construction of several major road interchanges, as well as educational facilities.
Industry
Berezin has a good idea of how the science and industry of Russia work. He is a graduate of the Presidential Lyceum of Physics and Mathematics and Leningrad’s Voenmech, both of which he graduated with honors degrees in. He majored in engineering, and upon graduation, he managed to work at a research institute and even wrote several scientific articles for his graduate school. After that, he chose to favor business, carrying forward an excellent idea for the industry. Within a decade and a half, this allowed him to join the management of three large industrial enterprises, each of which he began to reanimate consistently.
The reanimation process has already been built up and takes place in several stages as standard. The first of the reanimation stages is in optimization. Every Soviet industrial enterprise in the recent past has carried a heavy burden of social obligations; the state compensated for the costs of which. It was not only the famous sanatoriums but also unprofitable shops which existed to create as much employment as possible. In addition, some products had to be made at the expense of common sense because of restrictions on international trade and logistics. This whole load dragged many well-known concerns to the bottom. Those who decided to stay afloat threw away unnecessary ballast.
This led to the beginning of a multistage program of modernization of production facilities. It is complex: it is not only about iron but also about staff training and research and development work to create new, competitive products. One of the companies, the management which includes Berezin, is currently doing R&D in 8 directions simultaneously. This includes medical equipment, the latest high-tech materials, and unique devices based on existing developments.
After optimization and modernization, the time comes when one of the company’s products becomes a flagship and is promoted to new market sectors. Berezin created the already mentioned robotic complex to treat oncological diseases. It is based on a patented X-ray tube, and everything else was made from scratch for specific tasks.
Engaging various structures, Berezin became a participant in the new E-Neva electric car project being developed by Almaz-Antey: he entered the semiconductor market, supplied import-substituting silicon materials for power units, and then promoted domestic biochips for PCR testing and human genome decoding machines and portable dental X-ray machines.
Agriculture
Andrey Berezin gives the impression of a man who knows the secret of a universal approach to any business. In 2020, the holding announced its intention to take up dairy production, a particular and challenging line of work, which is usually the company’s only profile specialization: “In the future, we will be more actively engaged in the agricultural project. Already now it is clear that there will be trouble with food in the world.”
Many experts were highly skeptical about Euroinvest’s move to buy the assets of the old Soviet collective farm Krasnoye Znamya. Few, who was aware of it, were reminded that the holding had started the reclamation of many croplands in advance, which was planned to be used for fodder production. Although, as a practice has shown, it takes more than just faith, even when it is in Berezin. In just a couple of years, Krasnoye Znamya has turned into a unique, compact, independently agricultural cluster.
It includes a closed cycle of production of a wide range of products. The concept of the project also resembles a startup; Euroinvest assembled from scattered decaying farms of the Russian countryside, those of them that complement each other and then modernized. Cowsheds and fodder fields were purchased separately, a processing plant was built, a brand was developed, and a simple marketing system was created through the food markets of regional communities.
All in all, several hundred million rubles were invested. The farm has grown from 200 to 700 cows within a few years. A similarly sized farm in the Krasnodar Territory cost 1.2 billion rubles last year. A similar facility with processing is being built in Cyprus; in euro terms, the investors are planning to keep up with the cost of about 1.8 billion rubles. The approach implemented by “Euroinvest” allowed almost immediately to receive a profit and, consequently, come closer to the project’s payback period.
At the recent Consumer Market Forum in Kudrovo in October, Berezin said that Krasnoye Znamya, based in the Pskov region, plans to expand cooperation with Leningrad organizations. Leningrad Zoo, for instance, has started to cooperate with the company on the fodder line, and the company expects to find partners among retailers on food products. In other words, the complex is just starting to grow, and in the future, it will develop in two directions at once.
Search For a New one
Berezin is in constant search of new ideas. Participation in the Venture Festival is not an isolated case. The company widely supports students and young talents who can provide exciting projects. For many years, Euroinvest has launched its Grechko scholarship (by the way, it works at Andrei Berezin’s alma mater, Voenmech), invests in the Euler Foundation (which supports talented youth), and supports educational camps and Olympiads.
The businessman spoke on education in one of his interivews, detailing his positive thoughts on pushing for it within a country: “I believe the most important thing is education because nothing but education will be quoted worldwide. Have you read the book Technology of the Fourth Industrial Revolution? It was written by one of the founders of the Davos Forum, Klaus Schwab. What used to matter was a territory, markets, and raw materials. All this is gone and does not mean anything anymore. What matters is the human capital, the intellectual potential of a country. The only thing that counts in the world is what you invent yourself.”
In this sense, it is clear to see that he is ready to go further, developing education from the foundation. As a developer, he is engaged in developing the social infrastructure of residential complexes and building kindergartens and schools. Additionally, as part of a public-private partnership, he is designing a new physics and mathematics academy for gifted children, which will be built in the Leningrad region. Finally, he has his venture capital fund, a fund that is actively searching for new promising developments inside and outside the company’s assets.
Berezin’s business is akin to art when he not only consistently develops his core businesses but is always ready to take on new heights and directions. An entrepreneurial virtuoso, he can professionally implement familiar projects and always improvise and create something of his own, his handwriting.
Headline Hero
Euroinvest is the iconic holding of the Leningrad region not only because of its success or high profits. The life of its projects is a real show by a master of his craft, which everyone interested in the country’s economy follows. This is completely understandable; after all, it is virtuosos like Berezin who create new niches and breakthrough technologies.
In the difficult current era of the sanctions war has insituated against everyone, such people are in high demand. Many old ideas cannot be implemented anymore because the old logistics are missing, and the usual connections do not work. Those who have gained 20 to 30 years of experience in a turbulent, tough market are once again in demand, and they will be able to win. In the end, it is in their image and likeness that our entire economy will be built in the coming years.
