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Russian Investors and Venture Capital firms

Over the past 10 years the volume of Russian venture capital investments in new technologies and innovations has significantly increased. It is due to the rapid economic growth and fast development of information technologies, mobile and Internet devices.  According to PwC experts research, venture capital investments in Russia’s IT sector amounted to $237m and a total of 139 deals in 2011. According to research by Fastlane Ventures, a Moscow-based incubator for internet ventures, the total value of high-tech deals more than doubled from $220m in 2010 to $550m in 2011.

Digital Sky Technologies (now Mail.ru Group)

 

Type: VC



​​About: Growth focused investment company specializing in late-stage, high-growth, private companies in the global Internet industry.. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It’s easy. Just click “Edit Text” or double click me and you can start adding your own content and make changes to the font. Feel free to drag and drop me anywhere you like on your page.​

Key Facts: Invested in: Groupon, Facebook, Airbnb, Nival (nival.com), Zynga, Forticom (forticom.lv), Spotify, Klarna (klarna.com), MemSQL (memsql.com), others.



​Location: Moscow, London, Hong Kong. 



 

Mail.ru Group

 

Type: VC



​​About: Mail.ru Group was founded by Yuri Milner and is the largest Internet company in the Russian-speaking world. It is one of the largest Internet companies in Russia, and the world’s seventh largest Internet business in terms of page views.

Key Facts: Invested in: VK.com (Russian Facebook), QIWI (qiwi.ru), Facebook, Zynga, Groupon, Vetera.hu



Location: Moscow



 

Yuri Milner

 

Type: Angel (mostly Seed, also Serial A,B,D rounds). Founder of Digital Sky Technologies and Mail.ru Group



​About: Focuses on Internet investments in the Russian speaking world. Under his leadership, Mail.ru Group performed approximately 75 transactions and built what is now the leading Russian language website in terms of users. Yuri is now the non-executive Chairman of Mail.ru Group.

Key Facts: Invested in: 23andMe, Codecademy, Path, SmartThings, OnSwipe and others.



Location: Moscow, London, San Francisco



 

ru-Net

 

Type: Investment company



​About: ru-Net manages a diverse international portfolio of more than 40 investments spanning US, Europe,Russia, and Southeast Asia.

Key Facts: Invested in: Ivi.ru (russian Hulu), Ozon.ru (Russian Amazon), Yandex.ru (Russian Google) and others (Crunchbase info) - total amount $49M.



Location: Moscow, New York City



 

Almaz Capital

 

Type: VC



​About: One of the largest VCs in Russia and CIS

Key Facts: Works with partners in Silicon Valley (Crunchbase info).



Location: Moscow and Silicon Valley



 

Fastlane Ventures

 

Type: VC and incubator



​About: Founded in 2010. Fastlane Ventures is a Russian company focused on the development, launch and promotion of innovative internet businesses. Fastlane Ventures acts as both an operational and investment partner at the same time. Fastlane Ventures has adopted proprietary solution called Fast 50, which enables a new venture to launch in just 50 days and ensures an efficient path between launch and exit.

Key Facts: $100M in capital investments. launched 20 startups (Fastlane website) mosltly in e-commerce space. Key strategic investment partners of Fastlane Ventures are Direct Group, e.ventures and VTB Capital. Among the investors of the company also Intel Capital, Kinnevik, Mangrove Capital, ru-Net, UMJ Russia, and others. Focus areas are: online retail, travel, relationship, health and recruitment.



Location: Moscow



 

Kite Ventures

 

Type: VC



​About: Kite Ventures is a technology investment company with a number of successful Internet investments in Russia and Europe, including SponsorPay, Zeptolab, Tradeshift, Delivery Hero, Darberry, etc.

Key Facts: Total amount of investments: $63M. Managing Director is Edward Shenderovich - american-russian entrepreneur (Wikipedia).



Location: Moscow



 

Runa Capital

 

Type: VC (one of the largest in Russia)



​About: Runa Capital is $135M technology-focused venture capital firm whose investments have created or incubated companies with more than US$10 billion in assets.

Key Facts: The key execution point is to select promising teams and drive and support them in the global marketplace, turning them into "international champions". Runa Capital’s investments announced  include: Nginx, Talkbits, Jelastic, Metabar, Travelmenu, BigTime® Software, Ecwid, StopTheHacker, Capptain, B2B-Center, Infratel, LinguaLeo, Dnevnik.ru.(Crunchbase info)



Location: Moscow



 

Baring Vostok

 

Type: VC



​About: Focuses on private equity investments in Russia and CIS.

Key Facts: The fund has over $3.7B of committed capital and an investor base consisting primary of pension funds, university endowments, sovereign wealth funds from North America, Western Europe, Asia and Middle East. Since 1994 the Fund has invested over $1.8B in 60 companies in Russia, Ukraine and other CIS.



Location: Moscow



 

Russian Venture Company

 

Type: Government Fund



​About: RVC is a government fund  and a development institute of the Russian Federation, one of Russia's key tools in building its own national innovation system.

Key Facts: RVC’s authorized capital US$ 983.2M, RVC backed funds run a portfolio of 139 companies, invested capital about US$ 400M. Has its own branch in the US RVC-USA (website)



Location: Moscow



 

Troika Dialog

 

Type: VC



​About: Troika Dialog is the oldest and largest private investment bank in the CIS. Invests in all kind of businesses including tech startups. Now part of the Sberbank of Russia.

Key Facts: Invested in: Evernote.



Location: New York, Kiev, Moscow, London, Almaty, Nicosia



 

Intel Capital Russia

 

Type: VC



​About: Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide.

Key Facts: Invested in: KupiVIP, AlterGeo, SpeaktoIt,Sapato, etc.



Location: Moscow



 

AddVentures

 

Type: VC focuses on seed funding



​About: Addventure is a pioneer institutional seed investment partnership focused on Russia-based Internet companies. Addventure provides startups not only with funding but first and foremost with "smart money", the team’s expertise and business networking opportunities.

Key Facts: Invests $100K - 1M. AddVenture founded in 2008 and since that time invested in more than 20 internet companies in Russia.

The AddVenture team success stories: DarBerry.ru, sold to Groupon.com, Insales.ru is Shopify.com, sold to MIH Allegro, Easyfinance.ru aquired by Mint.com (Crunchbase info).



Location: Moscow



 

e.ventures Russia

 

Type: VC 



​About: Part of the global e.ventures VC (Crunchbase info).

Key Facts: e.ventures global invested in: Groupon, AngelList, Ozon.ru, Pulse, Trippy and others.



Location: Moscow



 

Arkady Morejnis and Darkside VC (aka Glavstar)

 

Type: Angel and VC (Russian Y Combinator) 



​About: Managing Director of the Plug and Play Russia.

Key Facts: Darkside VC invests in 10-15 startups annualy. Up to $100K of investments, mentorship.

Arkady Morejnis Facebook



Location: Moscow



 

Supremum Capital

 

Type: VC



​About: Invests in Cleantech, Internet & Digital as well as Innovative Technology sectors.

Key Facts: Looking for investment opportunities in Europe, Israel and Russia. Equity or convertible debt instruments. Non-controlling (less then 50%) equity positions. Ticket size of $500K – 10M equivalent. Active board participation with certain lead investor control rights, if applicable.



Location: Moscow, London



 

Dekarta Capital

 

Type: VC



​About: Founded in December 2008 Dekarta Capital is a private equity and venture capital firm specializing in early stage and growth equity investments in medium-sized companies. Presently, Dekarta Capital manages the assets of a private fund equal to $100M. The firm seeks to invest in all sectors with a focus on financial services, retail, media, Internet and technology. 

Key Facts: It typically invests up to $1M at the early stage and between $2M and $15M at later stages. The fund supports technology companies that have originated in Russia, Ukraine and Latvia, which have clearly demonstrated their potential to become industry leaders in the global arena.



Location: Moscow



 

Direct Group

 

Type: VC



​About: Specializes in investment and partnership with the companies seeking to establish themselves in the rapidly developing Russian market.

Key Facts: Since 2011 invested $72M in tech startups and companies.



Location: Moscow



 

Frontier Ventures

 

Type: VC



​About: Established in 2011, invests in Internet companies in Russia and the CIS. Goal is to partner with entrepreneurs to build market leading businesses for the Russian language Internet.

Key Facts: Invested in several Russian successful startups: Ivi.ru, travelrent.com, biglion.ru, etc.



Location: Moscow



 

IMI.VC

 

Type: VC



​About: IMI.VC is an investment company funding innovative mobile applications. Founded in 2011 by Igor Matsanyuk (Mail.ru), IMI.VC is looking for projects that are: on-line, mass, cross-platform, trendy and innovative.

Key Facts: Currently IMI.VC portfolio includes leading mobile and social gaming companies: Game Insight; Farminers Startup Academy business incubator with 12 resident projects and 22 more innovative mobile development companies.



Location: Moscow



 

Russia Partners

 

Type: VC



​About: One of the oldest and largest private equity firms in Russia and the CIS, has access to a highly-specialized team of 20+ investment professionals and over 40 total employees in three offices.

Key Facts: Since its founding in 1991, Russia Partners has become the leader in attracting and managing long-term private equity investments from U.S. and foreign institutional investors into the region. Total amount invested $67M in: MTV Russia, KupiVIP, others.



Location: Moscow, Samara, Kiev



 

ABRT Venture Fund

 

Type: VC



​About: Focuses on early and growth stage software and internet companies with R&D based in Russia and CIS that are looking to expand in the US and EU market.

Key Facts: Portfolio companies include Acronis, InvisibleCRM, Veeam Software, KupiVIP, HomeMe, Drimmi and others. ABRT Venture Fund helps building sales and marketing operations in the US and Europe. Relationships with US Venture Capital and Private Equity funds: Insight Venture Partners and OpenView Venture Partners.



Location: Moscow



 

Inventure Partners

 

Type: VC



​About: Invests on seed and growth stages, $200K-10M.

Key Facts: Invested in: GetTaxi (Rus Uber), 2can(Rus Square) and others (Crunchbase info). Total amount: $23M.



Location: Moscow



 

Russian Ventures

 

Type: VC and incubator (seed and early stage)



​About: Invests in advertising, geolocation, networking, e-commerce.

Key Facts: Target market: Russian-speaking internet users.



Location: Moscow



 

DFJ VTB Capital Aurora

 

Type: VC 



​About: DFJ network partner in Russia. Russia-focused seed and early stage emerging technology venture fund with offices in Silicon Valley and Moscow. They are part of the most active venture capital organization in the world: the DFJ Network, a fund family with over 30 offices and over $6 billion under management.

 

Key Facts: Considers investments starting with round A and onwards with a typical size being  $3-8M. For companies that may require a larger capital infusion, can also also consider syndication.



Location: Moscow



 

Monthly Ventures

 

Type: VC 



​About: Seed investments ranging from $50K to $250K.

 

Key Facts: Founded by StartupMonthly accelerator in California in order to provide the necessary capital to the best startups in StartupMonthly ecosystem.  Primary focus is on companies that target global or US markets. The investment focus of Monthly Ventures is in consumer web, mobile services and applications, cloud services and infrastructure, and smart TV domains.



Location: Moscow



 

Apaxys Ventures

 

Type: VC 



​About: Invests in Russian and US companies

 

Key Facts: 



Location: Moscow, USA (CA and MA)



 

Martinsontrigon (MTVP)

 

Type: VC 



​About: MTVP is a private equity partnership focuses exclusively on technology, media and telecom ('TMT') related investment opportunities in Russia, Baltic States and other Central and Eastern European countries.

 

Key Facts: 



Location: Estonia



 

Venture Angels

 

Type: VC (seed and early stage)



​About: Invests in startups in e-commerce, social media, content platforms, SAAS, geolocation services, cloud, audio and video, health and science, gaming, internet advertising.

 

Key Facts: 



Location: ​Moscow



 

Vesna Investment

 

Type: VC 



​About: Was established in spring 2011 and offers start capital to growth-orientated companies. Investments on the early and seed stage - $100K - 500K (Russia, CIS and Baltic States).

 

Key Facts: 



Location: ​Moscow



 

Acrobator

 

Type: VC and consulting agency



​About: Acrobator.com invests in early stage companies in the sectors of e-commerce, digital media, internet marketing and mobile.

 

Key Facts: 



Location: ​Moscow



 

iTech Capital

 

Type: VC 



​About: Up to US$10M per deal in the digital world. Focuses on Russian and CIS markets.

 

Key Facts: 



Location: ​Moscow



 

Life.SREDA

 

Type: VC 



​About: Life.SREDA is a venture capital fund focusing on investments in financial mobile and Internet projects (any stage of project development).

 

Key Facts: "Smart money", long-term investments, mentorship. Total amount invested - $6.8M.



Location: ​Moscow



 

Stereobaza

 

Type: VC 



​About: Supports projects in the field of information technology and innovations.

 

Key Facts: 



Location: Kazan, Russia



 

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