Irina Karagyaur

Co-founder, BQ9; European Climate Pact Ambassador; Top 100 Women of the Future & Asia's 100 Women Power Leaders

Irina co-founded BQ9, a crypto-fintech boutique advisory firm on a mission to turn great ideas into great Web3 products. BQ9 works on business model creation, product ideation and development, Metaverse Strategy, and more. With over 13+ years of experience, Irina has established herself as an international business development professional in strategic partnerships, analysis of foreign markets, and business planning across the UK, EU, UAE and Russia. Irina holds a BA from the Southern Federal University in Russia, and an MSc in Urban Planning and Policy Design from Politecnico di Milano, Italy.

Irina is also leading Ecosystem Growth & BD at Unique Network, a NFT parachain on Polkadot, Head Ambassador for Western Europe of the Polkadot Network, London’s Regional Co-Chair to FIBREE (Foundation for International Blockchain and Real Estate Expertise), the mother of DigitalArt4Climate initiative, and also European Climate Pact Ambassador.

Irina is named one of the Top 100 Women of the Future, the winner of 2022 Rising Women in Crypto Power List by Wirex and The Cryptonomist, Asia's 100 Women Power Leaders.

Irina, together with the team of Museum Week has enabled the first NFT & Crypto Art exhibition at UNESCO HQ in Paris during Earth Day 2022 funded via Polkadot treasury in a decentralized manner.

Featured in Entrepreneur India, Arab Finance, CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, BeInCrypto, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review Turkey, GeckoCon by CoinGecko, Benzinga, and more. Irina has delivered TEDx talk "Knowledge Communities are Shaping the Metaverse" at TEDxMaviliSquare 2023.

Delivered lectures and talks at Politecnico di Milano, Queens College City University of New York, UCL, Glasgow University Engineering Technology Society.