New opportunities for Russian startups
13 new venture funds launched in 2015
Anna Sokolova, Rusbase
Due to the crisis, the number and volume of transactions on the Russian market have decreased, some domestic investors have shifted to the international market. Experts started talking about startup fatigue.
However, in conditions of declining liquidity, businessmen from real sectors are increasingly interested in venture capital, stated Alexey Girin, managing partner of Starta Capital, in his column on RBC. They are looking for new growth points. This, in turn, gives hope to domestic projects that were born in this difficult time.
Rusbase has compiled a list of new investors who came to the venture capital market in the outgoing year. Their optimistic plans suggest that someone will definitely be lucky in the coming year.
HaxVentures Seed Fund In February, RVC, DI-Group and the Singapore accelerator HaxAsia announced the creation of a venture fund accelerator in the field of hardware 2.0. It will support developers of wearable and embedded devices, augmented and virtual reality technologies, human-machine interfaces and other projects in the field of the Internet of Things.
As part of the partnership with HaxAsia, portfolio companies will be able to accelerate and go from prototype to production. Over two years, HaxVentures will invest 34 million rubles in them (from 1 to 7 million rubles, depending on the project).
Who to meet:
Dmitry Starodubtsev, Chairman of the Management Board of DI-Group
Vyacheslav Solonitsyn, Managing Partner of HaxAsia
Andrey Kalinin, Investment Manager of RVC FPI
ACIPI Seed Fund In February, the RVC Seed Investment Fund and the MSU Science Park announced the creation of an investment partnership to support hardware startups.
The new microfund of 33.4 million rubles will be invested in projects of leading Moscow universities and research centers in the field of industrial technologies. So he will help them move from the stage of laboratory testing to mass production and sales.
It was planned that in 2015 the fund would invest up to 6 portfolio companies with an average check of about 3 million rubles, but so far no deals have been announced.
Who to meet: Vasily Petrechenko, CEO of UK ASIPI
GVA LaunchGurus Fund 1 In April, the creators of the GVA LaunchGurus accelerator launched a $10 million seed fund.
He is ready to invest $100 to $250 thousand in startups with working technology, a strong team and sales revenue (a prerequisite is the presence of a co–investor). LaunchGurus CEO Lawrence Wright told Rusbase that they intend to invest at least 25 projects in the next two years.
GVA LaunchGurus Fund 1 is interested in software, mobile, environmental technologies, media and entertainment technologies. At the same time, he is ready to invest in unique projects from other areas.
In June, the fund invested $ 100 thousand in the American online survey constructor 1World Online, then - in the application for sharing media content DabKick (the amount was not disclosed), and in September – $ 250 thousand in the platform for mobile developers Apps4All.
Most portfolio companies are graduates of accelerators in the USA or graduates of the GVA LaunchGurus accelerator.
Who to meet:
Zamir Shukhov, Director of GVA LaunchGurus
Daniil Kozlov, Business Development Director at GVA LaunchGurus
Alexey Filimonov, Partner of the GVA LaunchGurus Seed Fund
Da Vinci Pre-IPO Fund In April, Da Vinci Capital investment group and RVC launched a fund that will invest in high-tech Russian companies with the prospect of an IPO.
Within 3.5 years, the investment partnership plans to invest more than 5 billion rubles in them.
He is interested in medium-sized companies that will be able to enter the stock exchange in the future. The Fund is ready to invest about 300 million rubles in them. The main platform for the placement of shares will be the Innovation and Investment Market (RII) section of the Moscow Exchange.
Who to meet:
Oleg Zhelezko, Managing Partner of Da Vinci Capital
Edison Venture Capital In April, a group of Russian investors launched an investment company with a volume of more than $15 million.
The Fund intends to invest up to $3 million in projects related to online commerce: from online advertising and multi-channel marketing to the delivery of goods and payments with a courier. He is only interested in startups focused on the international market.
In June Edison.VC invested $600 thousand in a system for online retailCRM stores. Then the fund invested in an aggregator of CheckOut delivery services. Neither the fact of the transaction nor its terms were disclosed. This became known in October, when Avito bought the CheckOut service, buying out the shares of former investors, including Edison.VC .
Who to meet: Ivan Khmelevskoy, Managing Partner Edison.VC
StarNet Venture In April, the first Russian foundation specializing in startups in the field of the Internet of Things was launched.
The initial volume of the fund was $50 million. At the initial stage of StartNet.VC intends to invest up to $1 million in both Russian and foreign projects.
The Foundation is interested in Russian projects that will create an Internet of Things market in the country and change the telecom market. As they say in StartNet.VC This year, they invested in prototypes of user devices operating in several LPWA bands, a hybrid cloud platform for network management and data storage, as well as in the development of components for creating their own LPWA network. Specific transactions are not disclosed.
Earlier, the head of the fund informed Kommersant that four projects were selected for the first investments: the smart home management system Glance, a children's watch with GPS tracker GeoWatch, the power supply system for M2M devices without InHome batteries and the blood pressure monitoring system Emdea.
Who to meet: Gennady Medetsky, Head of StarNet Venture
Seed fund in the field of life sciences In May, the RVC Seed Investment Fund and XI Ventures created a new venture fund in the amount of 33.4 million rubles.
In the next two years, he will invest in startups in the field of life science at an early stage.
The foundation focuses on biomedicine, pharmaceuticals, cellular, genomic, agrobio– and neurotechnologies, bioengineering. The new foundation is particularly interested in import-substituting products, projects at the junction of biotech and IT, new materials and instrumentation, as well as technologies with a global perspective. So far, nothing is known about the investments of the investment partnership.
Who to meet: Oleg Korzinov, CEO of XI Ventures
Aerospace Fund "Finematics" In May, RVC, Finematics Group and a group of private investors created a venture fund for investments in aerospace technologies – Finematics.
The volume of the fund will amount to 3 billion rubles (with the possibility of increasing), the investment period is 5 years.
It will invest in promising developments for the aerospace industry, aviation, astronautics and related industries. The Finematics Foundation will also be engaged in the transfer of foreign technologies to Russia and the commercialization of domestic products on the world market.
Primer Capital In August, a new investor in biomedicine appeared in Russia – Primer Capital.
The fund is ready to invest up to 10 million rubles in each project. The priority of Primer Capital is the development of medicines and medical products for oncology, cardiology, rheumatology, surgery and other fields. Projects of various maturity can send applications, but preference is given to products at the initial stages of development.
Who to meet: Ekaterina Teplukhina, CEO of Primer Capital
Caspian Venture Capital In September, it became known that the head of the Board of directors of Summa Group, Ziyavudin Magomedov, created a venture company Caspian VC Partners with a volume of up to $300 million.
The Foundation is looking for high–tech startups at early stages - in the transport industry, agriculture, industry, consumer sector and robotics. By investing in global innovations, Caspian VC will contribute to technology transfer to Russia.
Currently, the fund's portfolio includes five projects: Uber, Uber China (taxi service), Peek Travel (online travel planning service), Diamond Foundry (artificial diamond cultivation) and Hyperloop Technologies (vacuum transport system).
Who to meet: William Shore, Managing Director of Caspian VC
Kinetik
In September, RBC wrote about the new fund of the former Deputy Minister of Communications and co-founder of the operator Yota Denis Sverdlov. The volume of the London Kinetik is $500 million. The fund has already invested in the British company Charge, which produces engines for electric trucks and buses.
In November, Kinetik became a partner of the RoboRace unmanned electric vehicle race, which will be held as part of the Formula E electric car Racing Championship. Charge will develop 20 self-driving cars for the competition.
North Energy Fund I Seed In October, RVC and North Energy Ventures launched a seed fund for investments in cleantech (energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and environmental management).
Its volume will amount to 1 billion rubles, the period of activity – 10 years. During this time, the fund will invest 15-20 companies (mainly Russian), the average transaction will amount to 26 million rubles.
Promsvyazbank Venture Fund for developers of banking software In November, Promsvyazbank announced the creation of a venture fund to invest in developers of banking software.
According to the deputy chairman of the Board of the bank Andrey Leushev, the fund with a volume of 1 billion rubles will earn in early 2016 and may be increased to 3 billion rubles in the future.
In addition to the applications themselves, the new fund will invest in an integration platform for developers and a marketplace where banks could buy specialized software for themselves.
Here are some other opportunities for startups this year: In July, the Maxfield Capital venture fund opened a new investment direction – software solutions for agriculture.
His first investment in this segment was an American analytical platform for farmers Onfarm.com . The size of the transaction was about $ 500 thousand.
In September, the 500 Startups international venture fund came to Russia, that is, it opened a special direction for startups from Russia and the CIS. This was facilitated by the new partner of the foundation – former top manager of Zeptolab Diana Moldavskaya, who took up the selection of projects.
In October, Sistema created a venture fund on the basis of its subsidiary Mass Media Systems to invest in the Internet industry. The former top manager became the head of the fund Mail.ru Group Alexey Katkov. It is planned that the fund will start operating in 2016, its volume has not yet been disclosed. But his industry preferences are already known – these are new media, tools for working with the audience, advertising technologies and near-financial services.
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15.12.2015