The Uniwheel monowheel, often called an electronic unicycle, has no handlebars, seat or control levers. The device weighs 10.8 kg and runs on a battery charged from a standard socket. The developer is Project42, owned by Timur Artemyev, childhood friend and business partner of Yevgeny Chichvarkin.
“Nokia 2110” of the monowheel world
Artemyev himself calls the invention “the urban transport of the future” and insists that the device should replace buses and even cars for people. “It’s the Nokia 2110 of 1997 in the mobile phone world,” he says, explaining that the Uniwheel is already a sufficiently compact and functional thing, “the best of what has been produced before in this niche, but the iPhone hasn’t been invented yet.”
The permitted speed is 20 km/h. Artemyev assures that the limit is deliberate, for safety reasons, since “the device is new to the market.” Control is by tilting the body: stand on your toes — the device accelerates, on your heels — it brakes, and if you press down hard for a long time — the wheel goes backwards. The businessman calls the device self-balancing.
The Uniwheel can be ordered on the official website with worldwide delivery at a price of £997. Artemyev hopes that in a few years the company will manage to create a budget device as well, and plans to develop the “iPhone of monowheels” in 2017.
Investments and plans
Project42 employs about 50 people, and the company has two offices — in London and Moscow. According to his “rough calculations,” Artemyev has already spent $5–6 million on development and does not intend to stop investing, although he does not name the specific amount of planned investment. “Attracting investors before I prove that this is a working business that brings profit is pointless. First commercial success, then investors,” he believes. Artemyev does not know when the investments will pay off and the company will start earning, since it is “difficult to predict.” At the same time, he expects that in a few years 3–5% of the world’s population will be riding Project42 monowheels.
How the project came about
After moving to London, Artemyev became interested in research on extending youth. One day his friend, CEO of the biotechnology company Insilico Medicine Inc., scientist Alexander Zhavoronkov, arrived at a meeting on a monowheel. Artemyev caught the idea and ordered a similar device for himself, but a few months later its battery burned out. An attempt to call the manufacturer’s support service led to Artemyev negotiating the purchase of the business at the company’s office in Seattle a couple of days later. The parties could not agree on a price, and Artemyev bought the technology from the Americans. Nevertheless, according to him, the Uniwheel presented on 9 December is in fact completely different from the purchased technology: “The electronics, the software — everything has been completely rewritten and redone. Almost nothing remains of that technology; we used almost nothing.”
According to the businessman, the monowheel market is growing threefold annually: next year about 1 million such devices will be in use. At the same time, there is no reliable statistics on the market for the production and sale of electronic scooters. The very idea of a monowheel is not unique: on Yandex.Market alone one can find several hundred product offers from a number of manufacturers — IPS, Leadway, Rockwheel, AirWeel, etc. The average price of a device is 35,000–45,000 rubles, and specifications vary by weight (from 9.6 to 15 kg), wheel diameter and battery life.
Artemyev insists that the Uniwheel is “the best in its class”: unlike competitors, it can be taken on a plane, the device has replaceable plastic panels to replace scratched parts, it is lighter than “most competitors” (just under 11 kg versus 12–14 kg) and at the same time more powerful and manoeuvrable, he claims. The businessman has no patents for the invention, although relevant applications have been filed. It was not possible to obtain comments from IPS, Leadway, Rockwheel.
Euroset and London projects
In 1997, Yevgeny Chichvarkin, together with his childhood friend Timur Artemyev, created Euroset. Within four years the company became one of Moscow’s leaders in the sale of mobile phones, accessories and mobile operator contracts. In 2007, turnover amounted to $5.6 billion. In September 2008, businessman Alexander Mamut acquired 100% of Euroset shares; the retailer was valued at $1.25 billion (debt stood at $850 million). A few months before the deal, a case was opened against a “high-ranking employee” of Euroset, accused of extortion and the 2003 kidnapping of former courier Andrei Vlaskin. Vice-president for security Boris Levin, deputy head of the security service Andrei Yermilov and security service employee Vitaly Tsvetkunov were arrested in this case.
Since 2008, Chichvarkin has lived in the UK, and Artemyev also permanently resides in London. In 2012, the partners created the fine wine shop Hedonism Wines in the Mayfair area; the shop stocks around 4,500 bottles, the most expensive selling for about £100,000. Since summer 2010, Artemyev has headed Hedonism Drinks Limited. The investment and profitability of the project were not disclosed, but the media reported that about £1 million was invested in the project.
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