NEWS.MC TV Interviews Maria Razumi, Co-Founder of Smart Yachts

NEWS.MC TV interviewed Maria Razumi, Co-Founder and Yacht Broker at Smart Yachts Monaco, about the company’s development, the realities of yacht brokerage, the role of Monaco in the industry and the changes shaping the superyacht market.

Razumi’s route into yachting was not a conventional one. Born in Moscow, she studied economics alongside Japanese at university before gaining early professional experience in banking. Her career later shifted towards yachting after she met her future business partner, Julia Skop, who already had several years of experience in yacht sales. Together, they decided to establish their own company.

Smart Yachts initially developed through a dealership agreement with Polish shipyard Galeon, which builds boats between approximately 10 and 25 metres and, within several years, Smart Yachts became one of the yard’s strongest distributors, selling as many as 25 yachts annually at the time.

Today, Maria Razumi describes Smart Yachts as a boutique brokerage company providing clients with support throughout the ownership cycle. The Monaco office works alongside a larger back-office team, covering yacht search and acquisition, contracts, insurance, registration and yacht sales. The objective, she explained, is to maintain long-term relationships rather than treat each transaction as an isolated sale.

Growing together with clients

One of the defining aspects of Smart Yachts’ development has been its gradual move into larger yacht segments.

Rather than entering the superyacht market immediately, the company began with smaller yachts and expanded alongside its clients as their requirements changed. Razumi noted that owners often begin with a 12- or 15-metre yacht before deciding whether the lifestyle works for them and their families.

That progression gave the Smart Yachts team experience across different yacht sizes and different types of owners. Today, much of the company’s activity is concentrated in the 30- to 60-metre segment, while the team is also discussing projects of around 80 metres and working with larger charter yachts.

Women in yacht sales

Razumi also spoke about the position of women within yacht brokerage.

She recalled that yacht sales was historically treated largely as a male-dominated area of the industry, while women were more commonly associated with charter. That distinction, she said, has been changing, with more women now entering yacht sales.

In her experience, women in sales have often had to demonstrate a particularly strong command of the technical and commercial side of the business in order to be taken seriously from the outset. Earlier in her career, women in senior roles could still be mistaken for assistants rather than company owners or decision-makers. Razumi sees the growing number of women in yacht sales as a positive development that is gradually changing attitudes across the industry.

A market focused on efficiency

Looking ahead, Razumi highlighted sustainability and energy efficiency as major themes in yacht development.

She pointed to the industry-wide effort to reduce consumption and improve the way energy is produced and used on board, as well as initiatives promoted in Monaco that increasingly encourage owners to consider the environmental performance of their yachts.

She also questioned whether the long-term direction of the industry necessarily lies in continually increasing yacht size. In her view, yachts below approximately 80 metres can already accommodate extensive guest areas, wellness spaces, toys and other amenities while remaining operationally less complex than significantly larger vessel

Why Monaco became home for Smart Yachts

Opening in Monaco was a deliberate strategic decision.

Around 2020, Smart Yachts was increasingly working with clients moving into larger yachts, brokerage transactions and new-build projects, particularly at Italian shipyards. The company therefore wanted a Mediterranean base close to the centre of the European superyacht market and to the places where its clients, yachts and shipyards were already concentrated.

Razumi said Monaco met those requirements while also offering an important combination of accessibility, security and proximity to major yachting centres.

For her personally, Monaco has also become home. Its geography allows Razumi to combine an active professional schedule with family life, while remaining within easy reach of shipyards in Italy, Nice Airport and key yachting destinations across the Mediterranean and Turkey. At the same time, the Principality serves as a natural meeting point for yacht owners, buyers, sellers and industry professionals throughout the year.

The interview with NEWS.MC offers a closer look at the trajectory behind Smart Yachts: from selling smaller production yachts to advising clients on superyachts, new builds and complex transactions, while keeping Monaco at the centre of its international operations.