i2Coalition Member Spotlight Q&A: Proxy-Seller

Proxy-Seller was founded in 2014 by the three people who still run it today. That independent, hands-on approach is part of the company’s DNA as it evolves and grows on its own terms. We caught up with Proxy-Seller COO Serhii Bazarniy to discuss AI, ethics, and why web-scraping newbies may need a bit of extra guidance.

i2Coalition: Can you give us the elevator pitch for Proxy-Seller?
Serhii Bazarniy: Our name is about as straightforward as it gets—and in a market where everyone is rebranding into “AI data platforms” and “intelligence layers,” we think that plainness is a strength. It tells you exactly who we are: proxy people, first and foremost. We’re not trying to be everything at once. What we care about is doing one thing well and doing it responsibly: giving businesses reliable infrastructure and being straight with them about how it works. 

A big part of our identity is the human side: real people behind support, and a team that treats accountability and ethical use as part of the job, not an afterthought. Joining the EWDCI felt like a natural extension of that.

i2Coalition: What do you wish more people understood about proxies and how they work?
SB: That a proxy is neutral infrastructure—much like a phone line or an Internet connection. The technology itself isn’t “good” or “bad”; what matters is how it’s used and how responsibly the provider governs that use. The vast majority of proxy traffic powers legitimate, everyday business needs: comparing prices, verifying that ads appear correctly, protecting brands from fraud, cybersecurity research, and market analysis. 

The real ethical work happens at the provider level—through KYC [Know Your Customer], clear acceptable-use rules, and technical controls that prevent misuse and protect the websites being accessed. That’s exactly the conversation the EWDCI is driving, and it’s why we wanted to be part of it.

i2Coalition: How has the rapid growth of AI impacted what your customers are asking for?
SB: AI has been a major driver of demand. Training modern AI models and running AI agents requires web data at enormous scale, so we’ve seen a clear rise in customers collecting public data to feed AI and analytics pipelines. 

There are two things we’ve noticed: first, expectations around reliability and scale have gone up sharply. Сlients need stable, high-quality IPs to run large collection jobs. Second, as websites deploy stronger anti-bot and anti-AI defenses, responsible, well-sourced proxy infrastructure matters more than ever. 

Interestingly, AI has also lowered the technical barrier, bringing in less technical clients who need more guidance on doing data collection properly and ethically.

i2Coalition: What impact do you think recent geopolitical events have had on your more recent growth?
SB: Until 2022, our focus was primarily on the CIS region. Following recent geopolitical shifts, we made a strategic decision to reorient toward a worldwide market. It wasn’t easy—the global market already had strong, established niche competition—but the pivot drove significant growth and made us a more resilient, globally-oriented company.

i2Coalition: Why did your team find it important to join the i2Coalition?
SB: Our industry is still young, and for too long “scraping” has been treated as a dirty word—largely because a minority of bad actors set the narrative. We wanted a seat at the table to help change that: to define what ethical, accountable web data infrastructure actually looks like, rather than having it defined for us. Joining the i2Coalition and the EWDCI lets us contribute to real industry standards around legality, ethics, and responsible use—standards we already try to live by internally.

i2Coalition: Which i2Coalition initiatives connect most deeply with your team’s ethos?
SB: The EWDCI is the clearest fit for us. Its four pillars map almost exactly onto how we already operate. We protect target websites through a Fair Usage Policy that limits request volumes; we vet customers through KYC and B2B pre-screening; we hold our proxy sourcing and usage to ethical standards; and we handle data in line with GDPR and strong information-security practices. The EWDCI’s emphasis on turning these principles into shared, accountable standards is exactly what drew us in.

i2Coalition: Where does government policy interface with your work on a daily basis?
SB: More than people might expect. Data protection laws, like GDPR and similar regimes, shape how our clients can collect and use data, and it’s built into our own DPA and privacy practices. The legal status of web scraping is still evolving through court cases, so we monitor judicial developments closely to stay within the boundaries of legitimate use. Sanctions and export-control regimes directly affect who we can serve, and compliance with them is written into our Acceptable Use Policy and KYC process. And more broadly, the choice between industry self-regulation and top-down legislation is something we care about, which is part of why we joined the i2Coalition.