Oleg Ilichev

Managing Partner

Oleg A. Ilichev is the Founder and Managing Partner of Altai Ventures. Oleg has over 20 years of investing (venture capital and growth equity), operating and advisory experience within the financial services sector, including co-founding Reserv, a leading insurance claims technology startup.

In 2017 Oleg founded Argo Ventures, an early- and growth- stage investment practice with a focus on financial technology businesses. Argo Ventures was backed by and part of Argo Group International Holdings, Ltd., a publicly traded international specialty insurance and reinsurance business. As part of this mandate, Oleg defined the fund's vision and go-to-market strategy, hired and developed an investment team, and oversaw all investment, operations, and portfolio company management activities.

Prior to starting Argo Ventures, Oleg was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Argo Group's US Operations (approximately $1 billion of gross written premium and 650 employees).

Previously at Argo Group he was the CFO of the Excess & Surplus Lines segment where he was part of a leadership team that restructured that business over 3 years and prior to that a Director of Corporate Finance, responsible for all matters of corporate finance and corporate development, including internal financial analysis, capital allocation, add-on M&A activity, work with rating agencies, business development, and special projects for the CEO and CFO of the company.

Prior to joining Argo Group, Oleg was at Bear Stearns Merchant Banking, a middle-market private equity firm, where he worked on the fund's growth equity investment opportunities. Before that, he was an investment banking professional within Bear Stearns' Financial Institutions Investment Banking Division where he assisted with coverage of Argonaut Group, Argo Group's predecessor company.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Columbia University, an MBA degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has continuously attended executive education programs at Harvard Business School.

Oleg has appeared as a guest lecturer on fintech related topics at both Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford's Graduate School of Business.