It happened: the Rostelecom venture fund decided on the first deal a year after its founding

    Vedomosti reports that the CommIT Capital fund invested in the Russian company Raidix , which develops software for data storage systems (SHD). 100% of the venture capital fund belongs to Rostelecom . According to the representatives of the operator, this is the first investment of the fund. Kommit Capital bought out 30% of the company for 100 million rubles.

    100% Raidix is ​​owned by its founder Andrei Fedorov. Then the valuation of the company will be about 333 million rubles. In 2015, Raidix revenue amounted to 100 million rubles. Of these, slightly more than half are on the international market, Raidix CEO Alexander Katashov said. Raidix products are bought by companies from all over the world.

    According to Alexey Kupriyanov, director of the Fund’s Kommit Capital fund, Rostelecom’s money will go to expand Raidix sales. According to Kupriyanov, Raidix now occupies less than 1% of both the Russian and global software markets for storage.

    The main competitors of Raidix are global corporations - Dell-EMC , IBM , Hitachi and others. Kupriyanov estimates the entire Russian market of data storage systems at 40 billion rubles, of which about 5-7 billion rubles account for software (the segment in which Raidix operates).

    According to the vice president of Rostelecom Alexei Basov, Raidix solutions can be used in products related to backup, content libraries, virtualization, big data. Therefore, Raidix's share in the Russian market can be increased both through purchases of Rostelecom itself and through its customers. Under their needs, the company will be able to finalize the product, using the expertise of Rostelecom.

    On January 14, Megamind wrote that Raidix had filed an application with the Russian Software Registry. The application is still in review status.

    Alexey Kupriyanov expects that over five years the company’s share in the Russian market will reach 20–30%, and its annual yield in rubles will amount to 30–40%. After that, the CommIT Capital fund plans to withdraw from Raidix capital.

    However, the fund is ready to dilute its share if it receives a successful offer from other investors.

    Such a company can cost from three to four annual revenues, believes partner of the venture fund InVenture Partners Sergey Azatyan. In an interview with Vedomosti, he said that, in his opinion, Raidix has a sought-after product and a diversified customer base. Since Rostelecom specializes in data storage, it can act as an independent customer, as well as bring new customers, which can significantly increase the value of the company, says Azatyan.
    The reason for the growing popularity of storage systems is the constant reduction in the cost of standard components, as well as the ability to create significantly more intelligent devices based on server processors compared to conventional hardware (ASICs) storage systems.

    Rostelecom decided to create a venture capital fund in 2014. But this plan was realized only in 2015. Rostelecom placed 1.5 billion rubles in its accounts. With the development of money, the fund’s capital can be increased, he adds. According to Basov, now in addition to Raidix, there are three more transactions in active work, the closure of which is expected in the first half of 2016. During the existence of the fund, its experts reviewed more than 300 companies.

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