In 2013, Tatyana Marynich and Anastasiya Khamiankova opened the door to Imaguru, the Belarus Minsk startup hub, which launches some of Eastern Europe’s most prominent technological success stories. Ten years later, they were sentenced to “absent” by Belarusian authorities in prison for 23 years. Their property was seized. Their work was declared “extremist.” Marynich’s passport expired and was revoked, leaving her in Spain stuck and stateless.
Their crime? Building an independent, entrepreneurial future, the Lukashenko administration saw it as dangerous in defending entrepreneurial spirit in a country normally dominated by state-owned industries.
“What started as an attempt to silence innovation has evolved into a complete criminalization of independent businesses,” Marynich told TechCrunch over the phone.
Imaguru was not just Belarus’ first startup hub. It has become the center of gravity in the country’s technological ecosystem. Accelerators and coworking spaces have helped create more than 300 startups and raise more than $100 million in investments in businesses born from the program. Successes such as MSQRD (acquired by Facebook), FriendlyData (acquired by ServiceNow), and Prisma (reportedly acquired by Snapchat) can trace their roots to early hackathons in Imagus, attended by enthusiastic young people, hoping for a better future.
“They were the main focus of the Belarusian venture community,” said Max Gurvits, general partner at Vitosha Venture Partners in Bulgaria and an early mentor at Imaguru. “They gathered talent, investors and angels and ran the most important programmes. It was always a joy to go there.”
US-based Marvin Liao of Rolling Fund Diaspora.vc, another VC agrees. “They were very professional and really passionate,” he told TechCrunch. “Imagle was the first central location in Belarus where startup founders and aspiring high-tech entrepreneurs gathered. Tanya and Nastia were truly community builders.”
Their influence was not merely an economy. Marinich’s late husband, Michael Marinich, had paid a high price for his own rebellion several years ago.
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The former ambassador and minister was jailed between 2004 and 2006 after boldly running to run with President Alexander Lukashenko in the general election. He suffered from multiple strokes in prison. This is the experience of shaping Tatiana’s decision to leave the International Finance Corporation within the World Bank and launch her own venture.
“I was forced to be entrepreneurial,” she said. “Not only because I was financially alive, but because I believed in the same democratic values that my husband sacrificed his health.”
“If politics fails, you have to create your own future. Entrepreneurs are free thinkers, and free people question their power,” she said.
For the Lukashenko administration, that belief put Imagle in danger.
When independence opposes
After the 2020 election, which was widely seen as a scam, massive protests erupted throughout Belarus. Imaguru has decided to open the door to not only entrepreneurs, but civil society groups, NGOs and opposition parties.
Marinich joined the Coordination Council, a formal opposition body led by opposition leader Subiatrana Tskanuskaya. It was the last straw in the Lukashenko administration.
“She signed the declaration saying they wanted to hold a free election,” Garwitz said. “But from that moment on, she was clearly an enemy of the nation, and anything related to her, like Imagle, was completely forbidden.”
By 2021, political pressure was unbearable. Imaguru’s lease was forced to terminate by the government. As TechCrunch reported at the time, masked officers stormed the office.
By 2023, the KGB had designated Imagle “forming extremists” and even traded messages with the group for crimes punished in Belarus. The former manager has been arrested. The family of Imagel staff in exile were questioned. Their website was blocked in multiple countries. The assets have been frozen. And last December, the sentences for the two co-founders were announced.
That same day, Marinich’s Belarusian passport expired. Under the 2023 executive order from Lukashenko, Belarusian embassies will no longer be able to issue or update documents for citizens abroad, effectively trapping dissidents in undocumented foreign countries.
“I’m a stateless person,” Marinich said. “I have a European residence permit, but without a valid passport, I can’t even apply for citizenship. I can’t leave Spain. I can’t open a bank account.”
Despite the circumstances, both founders continue on their mission. Imaguru currently operates hubs in Warsaw and Madrid with support from European institutions. The team is also launching a campaign to declare entrepreneurship a human right and rally support through online petitions.
“They really love their country,” Riao said. “And now they will never be able to go back. It’s heartbreaking. I’ve written both of them letters of recommendation for the international program.
Global test of values
Imaguru has received institutional support in Poland and Lithuania, but the Spanish government has not yet formally responded to the appeal. Marinich hopes that visibility will help change bureaucratic indifference.
TechCrunch contacted the office of María González Veracruz, director of Spanish digitalization and artificial intelligence, but did not respond at the time of publication.
“This is clearly a political repression,” Riao said. “The Democratic government should do everything it can to support them.”
Gurvits agrees. “Even junior employees who once worked at Imaguru cannot return to Belarus. This isn’t just the two founders. It’s the entire community that’s been banished to believe in innovation and freedom.”
Marinich remains rebellious.
“We created something beautiful,” she said. “Now we are fighting for the right to exist. And we have not given up.”
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