Early steps for Russian venture capital
Aug 20, 2013
When Moscow-based Almaz Capital Partners launched in 2007 the firm was lucky to see 10 business plans cross its desks each month; now it receives 10 a day – one sign of how quickly Russia’s young venture capital market is maturing.
To capitalise, Almaz is targeting $200 million for its second technology fund, having already raised $102 million following repeat investment by several anchor investors in its $73 million debut fund.
Big commitments from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Cisco and the World Bank’s IFC mean that Almaz’s second fund could hit target “tomorrow”, according to managing partner Alexander Galitsky, who has chosen to stay on the road in order to attract a broader pool of investors.
Those who do come on-board receive exposure to Russian and CIS technology companies that Almaz believes can crack the global market; among the firm’s successes so far are video streaming service Qik, sold to Skype for $100 million in 2011, and Russian search engine Yandex, which raised $1.3 billion in its 2011 Nasdaq IPO.
The firm typically invests initially between $1 million and $10 million in series A or B deals, but Galitsky hopes to spot the Yandex of tomorrow even earlier.
Therefore Almaz will allocate up to $10 million of the new fund to co-invest with Russia’s blossoming startup incubators and accelerators.
“We want to study seed development to better participate in the development of these companies until they reach some kind of maturity and then we will then invest at series A,” he tells VCJ.
One incubator that Almaz is sure to work closely with is Runapark: Galitsky advises its manager, Runa Capital, whose seed fund was set to be Almaz’s own before striking off independently.
Galitsky also sits on the board of the Skolkovo Fund for Moscow’s Skolkovo technology park – intended to be Russia’s answer to Silicon Valley.
About 1,000 companies have moved into Skolkovo in the past two years and more than $650 million of investment has been pledged to it by 57 venture firms.
Those commitments followed heavyweight state backing for Skolkovo, part of government support for the Russia’s venture capital sector which has also included the Russian Venture Company, a multi-billion-dollar fund-of-funds.
“The government has built infrastructure and stimulated a lot of interesting events for entrepreneurs, which has given a huge push to the numbers of the new startups,” Galitsky says.
On the other hand, he laments the dearth of Russian VC firms and domestic institutional investors willing to back them, a situation, he says, that is summed up best by the words of Almaz partner Charlie Ryan: “Russia has a lot of money, but only a little capital.”