Russian venture funds began to invest more actively and significantly increased the number of transactions in 2013.Portal Firrma.ru and consulting company PwC conducted an analysis of the activities of domestic funds and identified the most interesting trends in this sector of the market.
The researchers used data submitted by the funds themselves and information published in open sources. The rating was made for old and new funds, which appeared on the market less than a year ago.
The rating authors say that they wanted to select the best quality venture capital funds that demonstrated the best return on investment( ROI) and were active in 2013.
Having analyzed the Russian venture market, PwC experts note that the market structure remains isolated and closed. Fund managers know each other well and regularly hold joint events, but they are little known in other areas of business. In 2013, innovative start-ups attracted 18 percent more investment, their volume was 142 million dollars. At the same time, the number of investment transactions increased by 45 percent and amounted to 98. In 2013, Russian venture funds focused on working with portfolio companies and debugging internal processes. The transparency of the Russian market is 60-70 percent, and the volume of investments is unevenly distributed over time, which is typical for developing countries.
Absolute leader in the number of concluded investment transactions was the Runa Capital fund. Representatives of Runa Capital believe that the expansion of the market and the high interest of investors to new projects in Russia helped them achieve such indicators.
Among the funds working for less than a year, the leader was the Internet Initiatives Development Fund, which supported 34 projects. Also good indicators were demonstrated by venture funds ImpulseVC and Genezis Capital, which have 15 and 9 projects in their portfolio, respectively.
Researchers note that there are 70 venture funds in the Russian market, 25 percent of which are new players. New funds have different stories and are created by people with financial experience or IT specialists. The model of work of venture funds in Russia repeats the structure of similar funds in the United States. Criteria for selection of projects and work with portfolio teams have an international basis. However, Western funds for one transaction invest more than $ 1 million in start-ups and therefore successfully compete with venture capitalists. Russian funds work more with seed-projects and often invest in start-ups that came out at the start of sales or testing of the business model.