Ilya Viktorovich Osipov (born 1975) is an internet and consumer electronics entrepreneur, a native of Nizhny Novgorod. He is one of the founders of the city portals nn.ru and nnov.ru,[1] co-founder of the Nizhny Novgorod Encyclopedia (2010), and creator of the gaming system WOWCube.[2][3] He has lived in the United States since 2012.[2]
Education
Osipov was born in the Avtozavodsky District of Nizhny Novgorod, into a family of engineers with long ties to the Gorky Automobile Plant. He graduated from Lobachevsky University with a degree in information systems in economics; in 1996, while still a student, he took first place in the All-Russian Programming Olympiad.[2]
City Portals
In 1999, together with Mikhail Iosilevich, Osipov launched the portal nn.ru — the site became the largest city internet resource in Nizhny Novgorod and continues to operate to this day.[4] He later became involved with a second city portal, nnov.ru.
In 2012, the partners sold nn.ru to Hearst Shkulev Media; following the deal, Osipov and his partners founded a new project — i2istudy.[1] At the same time, he relocated to the United States: in his own words, the decision was driven by a desire to build a business directly on the global market.[2]
Nizhny Novgorod Encyclopedia
On April 30, 2010, at a discussion hosted by the Nizhny Novgorod Press Club, the editorial team of the autonomous non-profit organization "Open Nizhny Novgorod Encyclopedia" announced the launch of the internet project "Encyclopedia of Nizhny Novgorod." The project was presented by journalists Sergey Dresvyannikov and Petr Kuznetsov and Osipov — director of the internet company NNOV, which provided technical support and developed user services. The text of the press release dated April 30, 2010, is preserved in the article Opening of the Nizhny Novgorod Encyclopedia.
Civic activities in the city
In 2013, an initiative group led by Osipov collected around a thousand residents' signatures calling for the resignation of Nizhny Novgorod's head Oleg Sorokin and submitted them to the presidential administration; on July 18 of the same year, a rally was held in the city with the same demand.[5]
On September 27, 2013, Osipov took part in a press conference that launched a campaign to preserve the historic landscape of Nizhny Novgorod: the participants proposed establishing public bodies to conduct historical and cultural assessments of buildings and have them placed under state protection.[6]
Religion in schools
On 20 March 2013, Osipov took part in a session of the Nizhny Novgorod Expert Club on the topic "Religion in Schools." The round table was moderated by Vladimir Lapyrin, editor-in-chief of the Birzha publishing house; seated at the same table were officials from the regional Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Internal Policy, school principals, the head of the Church History department at the Nizhny Novgorod Theological Seminary, representatives of United Russia, the CPRF, and A Just Russia, as well as sociologists and journalists. In the transcript, Osipov is listed as the director of the city portal NN.ru.[7]
He spoke out against confessional subjects in state schools, drawing a distinction between knowledge about religions and intra-denominational instruction, and proposed that religious education be moved outside the curriculum.[7]
In my view, this is a normal balance — when we have a secular society, and it is a personal matter for each individual: whether to believe, not to believe, and how to feel about it. How children are raised is decided within the family.
He referred to the school as "a bastion of secular society" and objected to what he saw as a gradual clericalization: "There is no place in a secular school for your intra-denominational teachings. That is your own private affair." At the same session he identified himself as an atheist — "I, for example, make no secret of being an atheist, a sincere atheist" — and noted that the secular balance is maintained in part by the country's multi-confessional nature.[7]
i2istudy
The i2istudy educational platform is designed for language learning in pairs of native speakers. The project went through the acceleration program of the Internet Initiatives Development Fund, but its founders declined the funding offered by the fund.[1] In addition to i2istudy, Osipov ran the projects Numbuster, Bankrot.pro, and FedSP.com during the same period.[4]
WOWCube
Osipov began working on the WOWCube gaming system in 2016.[3] The device replicates the form of a 2×2 Rubik's Cube, but instead of colored stickers it carries 24 displays; the cube consists of eight independent modules, each with its own processor and three screens, and the player controls the action through twists, tilts, and shakes.[8][2] The idea, as Osipov has recounted, came to him during a walk with his son Savva.[2]
In December 2020, CubiOs Inc., the creator of WOWCube, was named among the winners of the CES 2021 Innovation Awards.[8] By 2021, around fifteen games and a set of development tools had been created for the cube; roughly three-quarters of the team lived in Nizhny Novgorod, where the games and software were also developed.[2]
The project attracted outside investment: $1.4 million in 2019 for production launch and sales-channel validation, and $4.5 million in 2021 at a company valuation of $49 million.[3] On October 10, 2025, Cubios and Spin Master opened pre-orders for the Rubik's WowCube at $299; shipments were promised by December 24, 2025, battery life of up to five hours, and games downloadable from an app store via Bluetooth.[3]
Inventions and publications
By 2021, Osipov had eighteen academic publications and seven patents to his name; he received the 2020 Edison Silver Medal and served as a regular reviewer for the journal Computers in Human Behavior.[2]
Some of the patents relate to mechanical puzzles: one design won a prize at the International Puzzle Party (IPP) world puzzle competition in 2018, and the rights to two puzzles were sold to third-party companies and are sold in the United States and other countries. Other patents cover magnetic connectors used in various products, as well as household and near-medical devices.[2]
Personal life
Osipov is the grandson of Anatoly Andreyevich Osipov, a Gorky metallurgist and sports organizer who managed foundry shop No. 5 at the Gorky Automobile Plant, headed the city chess federation, and ran the plant's Torpedo sports club for many years.
His wife is Anna Prasikova, a trainer and wellness-practices instructor. He has two children: Savva, born in 2004, co-author of the WOWCube concept[2], and Varvara, born in 2010.
Biography (from the Web)
Osipov Ilya Viktorovich, born 1975.
I work professionally in the internet business. My areas of interest include: Web, Mobile applications, Virality, Gamification. I participate in various capacities: startup founder, investor, mentor, consultant, manager. I have a couple of successful exits from projects built from scratch. Beyond the internet, I am interested in the stock market and real estate investment.
Projects I created or participated in (with others, of course): City portal — NN.RU, City portal — NNOV.RU, Event series — MDDay.ru, Entertainment site NNOVER.RU, Portal — Moskva.com (now closed), Mobile social app Numbuster, Language learning platform I2istudy.com, Project Bankrot.pro, and others. I also took part in the city portals ruKazan.ru, tumix.ru, www.dzerzhinsk.ru, and more. Co-founder of the e-commerce and logistics project "Group buying in Nizhny Novgorod" and "Distribution Centers."
Previously programmed for DOS and Windows.
I write novellas and short stories (at an amateur level).
I enjoy unusual experiences — I've visited around 50 countries, skydived, done a loop in a sport aircraft, and so on. :-)
Places I studied: Schools No. 37 and No. 14 in Nizhny Novgorod. Lobachevsky University. Faculty of Economics ("PromEk").
See also
Sources
- roem.ru — March 30, 2015 — How the founder of NN.ru happily avoided working with IIDF (archive)
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Marina Ukhabova, March 16, 2021 — A new life for the Rubik's Cube: how Ilya and Savva Osipov became famous thanks to their invention (archive)
- vc.ru — Danila Bychkov, October 10, 2025 — The developer of a Rubik's Cube made from 24 displays, the Rubik's WowCube, has opened pre-orders for the device (archive)
- habr.com — Habr, April 21, 2015 — Founder's advice. Ilya Osipov, co-founder of i2istudy.com (archive)
- Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant newspaper No. 130 (5162), July 25, 2013 — Assets being gathered to push Nizhny Novgorod's Mayor out (archive)
- Dront Eco-Center — Dront Ecological Center, September 28, 2013 — City residents speak out in favor of preserving Nizhny Novgorod's historic landscape (archive)
- web.archive.org — APN — Nizhny Novgorod — Transcript of the Nizhny Novgorod Expert Club session "Religion in Schools," March 20, 2013 (archived copy) (archive)
- wowcube.com — CubiOs Inc., December 16, 2020 — WOWCube entertainment system named as CES 2021 Innovation Awards Honoree (archive)