V Congress of the National Association of Business Angels: results
The Russian market of business angels has "matured" and shrunk
RVC Press Service
The volume of transactions involving early–stage private investors in 2014 amounted to $34.3 million, which is about a third more than in 2012 and 40% lower than in 2013 - data from the annual research of the business angel market in Russia by Atom Partners, RVC and the National Association of Business Angels were presented at the Skolkovo Hypercube on November 25" V Annual Congress of NABA.
The event, organized by the National Association of Business Angels with the support of RVC, brought together more than 150 participants: private investors, representatives of venture funds, large corporations, development institutions and authorities. Candace Johnson, President of the European Association of Business Angels, became the guest of honor of the Congress.
"The main trends in the business angel market in 2014 are the maturation of the market, the reduction in the number of "spontaneous" investments and the expansion of the professional investment community," Ivan Protopopov, Managing partner of Atom Partners, said at the Congress. The study showed that the most active angels of 2013 gradually moved to another market segment, grew to full-fledged seed funds, and the number of speculative investments decreased against the background of the deteriorating economic situation. The investment preferences of private investors have also changed: angel investments in consumer goods have decreased by 7 times, the share of investments in projects providing financial services has also fallen from 36% to 25%. But the interest of angels in healthcare projects has increased, their share has grown from 6% to 17%. The business angels themselves noted that over the past year new names have appeared on the market, the community has grown largely due to the development of infrastructure and mechanisms for syndication of transactions.
A detailed analysis of Russian platforms for syndicating transactions was conducted at the Congress by the participants of the panel discussion "Platforms for syndicating transactions in Russia: review": Konstantin Sinyushin, Director of Business Development in Russia the Untitled Venture Company, Alexander Borodich, creator of VentureClub, Oleg Vasilkov, co-founder of Atlantium, Oleg Lozovoy, Managing Director smpl.vc, Konstantin Shabalin, CEO of StartTrack. The participants spoke about the specifics of the work and business model of their sites, as well as about their main tasks: to form an investment elevator in Russia for companies at early stages of development, to attract investments at the seed stage and to develop a market for exits for business angels.
The focus of the discussion "Angels and accelerators: opportunities for joint development of startups" was the problems and new ways of relationships between business angels. "One of the problems is the lack of a convenient tool that allows you to view accelerator projects at the entrance before the demo day," Alexander Borodich noted.
The participants of the session "Is there life after IT: Angels in Biomed" were looking for new niches for funding. Summing up the meeting, its moderator Kirill Kaem, head of the BMT Cluster of the Skolkovo Foundation, stressed: "Of course, biomed is a very complex field. It is not easy to work in this direction, however, the problems and difficulties of startups in biomed are quite solvable, and success stories are realistic – and our meeting today was another confirmation of this. I am sure that Russian projects in the field of biomed have a great future."
The business program of the V Annual NABA Congress was completed by a joint panel discussion on the topics "Venture funds, corporations and business angels: strategic partnership or competition for innovation" and "Angel investments in new geopolitical conditions". The discussion was attended by Pavel Arkhipov (Head of R&D, Energy Without Borders Foundation, InterRAO Group), Alexander Borodich (Managing Partner of FutureLabs), Alexey Girin (Managing Partner of Starta Capital), Lyubov Simonova-Yemelyanova (expert of Almaz Capital Partners), Andrey Zyuzin, Managing Director of VEB Innovations Fund, representatives of foundations, corporations, business angels. Altair Capital Managing Partner Igor Ryabenky noted in his speech: "Now we can talk not about new geopolitical conditions, but about the expectation of new geopolitical conditions. Of course, this does not contribute to the inflow of investments. Today we see several trends: on the one hand, the beginnings of a business angel community have appeared in the country. On the other hand, this growing uncertainty raises concerns about the continuation of project financing. One of the solutions is rulemaking, whose efforts should be aimed at supporting the activities of venture investors. It is necessary to make the Russian venture economy sector not "peculiar", but similar to those that exist all over the world."
Following the results of pitch presentations during the Shared Deals session, the Starta Capital seed fund signed an investment agreement with the Navigine project, a platform for indoor geolocation services.
The culmination of the Congress was the presentation of the IV Annual NABA Award. Bronze griffins have found their owners:
- Business Angel of the Year – Alexander Borodich, Managing Partner of FutureLabs and founder of VentureClub
- Exit of the Year – UniSender project (Evgeny Medvednikov)
- Early Stage Foundation of the Year – Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF)
- Organization of Business Angels of the Year – Skolkovo Business School Investors Club
- Syndicated Deal of the Year – Panorics (VentureClub)
- Infrastructure Organization of the Year – Moscow Seed Fund and the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (FRII)
- NABA's Best Newcomer – Starta Capital
- The best operator of the Third Russian Week of Business Angels is the Association of Business Angels of the Urals (BAUR)
- For contribution to the development of the early stage venture capital investment market in Moscow – GVA Launch Gurus
- For the best coverage of the Russian early stage venture capital market in the media – Elena Krauzova (Firrma.ru )
The National Association of Business Angels thanks for the help and support:
The General Partner of the Congress is RVC; strategic partners are the SKOLKOVO Foundation and the Skolkovo Club of Business Angels (SKBA); partners are the Moscow Innovation Development Center, VentureClub and GVA LaunchGurus; the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, the All–Russian Public Organization Delovaya Rossiya. As well as information partners: MIA "Russia Today", Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Business", RBC.Innovations, TV channel "Rain", magazines "Snob", "Banking Review", "Business Magazine", "Your Business", Gentle's, Firrma, Rusbase, Venture Business news, "Business Environment", as well as StartTrack and Technopark "STROGINO".
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru01.12.2014