The venture capital market is in the palm of your hand

The Russian Venture Investment Association presents an annual Review of the Russian direct and venture investment market, prepared by RAVI with the support of RVC. The Review examines aspects of the activities of only institutional investors operating in Russia (Russian and foreign funds, as well as business accelerators) on the basis of data provided by the investors themselves, as well as information available from open sources. This approach ensures the purity of the results obtained: it does not take into account data on the investment activities of strategic or financial investors, individuals and investors with an unclear investment strategy.

Having quickly "moved away" from the shocks of the crisis of 2014-2015, the venture industry gradually began to "get used" to the updated economic realities and demonstrate increasing activity in key indicators. The withdrawal of a number of funds from the market – both for political and economic reasons – did not have a critical impact on the market. Rather, this phenomenon can be regarded as a kind of "self-purification": there are those players who are comfortable and comfortable working in a corrected macroeconomic environment. And, most importantly, there was no sense of a shortage of investment funds in the market: the total capitalization of venture funds operating in Russia today is $ 3.7 billion. significantly exceeds the total volume of investments made in 2016 of $ 128 million. The money is still there – the only question is what to invest it in.

As before, the ICT sector naturally attracts increased attention from investors year after year due to a sufficiently low threshold for entering the market and rapidly scalable businesses. As in previous years, this sector leads both in terms of the volume of investments made – 97 million dollars, and in the number of transactions – 150. By a huge margin, the Biotechnology/Medicine sectors are next – $ 12 million and 21 deals, and Industrial Technologies – $ 10 million and 22 deals. In fairness, I must say that such a disparity is characteristic of the venture capital market all over the world.

The cross–section of the regional distribution of investments has also not undergone significant changes: the Central Federal District – the focus of all tangible financial flows - has become the leader in attracted investments: 125 (59%) of it attracted 104 million dollars (81%).

One of the characteristic features noted by venture market experts is the reduction of the "average check" of the investment – from $ 0.8 million to $ 0.6 million. While the number of investments in 2016 even exceeded the number of investments of the previous year, their total volume decreased and amounted to only 85% of the previous indicator.

"One of the natural consequences of the crisis in the market was the reduction of the average transaction size," says RAVI Executive Director Albina Nikkonen. – It is gratifying to see that the interest in venture investment is not decreasing – this is evidenced by the intensity of the entries of venture funds in the company. But the approach to evaluating businesses has changed – it has become more balanced and cautious."

About the review

RAVI statistics provide an opportunity to fully consider the current picture of the domestic direct and venture capital investment market: the distribution of interests of state and non–state funds, the activity of seed investors and late-stage investors, the activities of corporate funds, geographical and industry preferences, the dynamics of fund activity over recent years - all this allows you to realize the weaknesses and strengths of the market, get acquainted with trends, to get a comprehensive idea of the prospects for its development.

The classification of the obtained data is based on a single Methodology developed with the support of RVC and approved by leading market analysts. This ensures the transparency and clarity of the data obtained, their impartiality and reliability. In addition, each transaction is verified by experts from venture funds and analytical agencies.

To learn more about the Overview of the direct and venture capital investment market in Russia for 2016, please visit the library Analytical Collections of RAVI 2004 – 2016.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  07.04.2017