December 14, 2015 at 15:58Success Story: Entrepreneur of the Year Andrei Romanenko (Qiwi, Run Capital)
The co-founder of QIWI group , the founder of the Run Capital fund, Andrey Romanenko, became the winner of the World Finance Awards in the Entrepreneurs of the Year 2015 category in the Financial Services sector.
The Kommersant publication has published a detailed history of its success.
Megamind provides the most interesting facts.
In the office of Andrei Romanenko on Spiridonovka several dozen kiwi birds: plush, wooden, kiwi in paintings and on furniture. He has been collecting this museum for several years, since the kiwi bird became a symbol of his main brainchild - the Qiwi company. But now Romanenko’s office and Qiwi’s office are in different places. This year, the businessman officially announced that he was leaving the company to focus on his Run Capital venture capital fund.
Qiwi still retains the hipster style created by Romanenko: in North Chertanovo, padded stools are spread all over the room, swing chairs are suspended from the ceiling, there are even sleeping cabins, employees walk around in sneakers and jeans and communicate mainly through instant messengers. And Romanenko himself today wears a suit more often than jeans, and spends a lot of time abroad, immersed in the venture capital business.
Andrei Romanenko began to do business at seventeen: he recorded computer games on floppy disks and sold them.
In the third year, Romanenko volunteered to sell communication cards for a friend (he was an employee of one of the operator companies). In the 1990s, this was the main way to recharge a mobile phone account. So the first business appeared - the prototype of Qiwi, the “Plastic Card Shop”, which quickly occupied 70% of the market.
In many respects, success was ensured by decent branding at that time and good advertising promotion. Co-owner of this, like all subsequent Romanenko businesses, was his father, Nikolai Romanenko. In the USSR, Romanenko Sr. led Vneshtorgizdat, and in 1989 he became one of the founders of the Russian branch of the American advertising agency BBDOwhich then led for many years.
The partners did not sell cards for long: this business was not so profitable, and its competitors with payment terminals began to push it slowly. So, for example, a few months earlier from “Avtokard-Holding” (specialized in prepaid gasoline cards) the company of Boris Kim e-port budded .
To counter the new technology, Romanenko decides to team up with other plastic card sellers: together with several small players, he creates the “United Instant Payment System” (OSMP), which by 2004 will occupy almost the entire market. Although the ability to unite was useful to Romanenko more than once, then it did not bring him victory in the market: payment terminals clearly won, and Romanenko thought about changing the strategy. Initially, he purchased the same POS-terminals as from competitors, and began to promote them, but later he noticed the payment terminals of the Eleksnet company . This competitor Romanenko was the first in Russia to accept payments for mobile communications through massive anti-vandal iron boxes called payment terminals.
Romanenko was carried away by the idea of terminals, but Eleksnet creatively redesigned the business strategy. Eleksnet owned all of its terminals, which made distribution difficult and made the company slow, and Romanenko decided to work on a franchise basis. The devices were also improved: instead of massive boxes with iron buttons of Eleksnet, more elegant terminals with a touchscreen appeared.
The change of strategy made it possible to attract investment: in 2003, the owner of the First Processing Bank Sergey Solonin became seriously interested in the idea of electronic payments. In a few years, he will become the main owner and CEO of Qiwi.
However, even with the money, the company had a real chance to be late. There were many competitors by 2004: in addition to Eleksnet, Rapida , WebMoney, and PayCash , which formed the basis of Yandex.Money, also worked in the market - and they were also armed with money and technology. The main one in the Eleksnet business already had investments by the Scandinavian fund Mint Capital , the ability to deposit money on Visa cards, payment of housing and communal services without commission and about a thousand terminals throughout the country.
Almost jumping into the last car, Romanenko nevertheless prepared a surprise for the competitors: he offered his terminals half the price of other sellers - at $ 4,000 (at the 2005 exchange rate).
Due to the low cost and good design of the terminals, as well as the agent model of network development, already in 2007, former card dealers became the first in the country in the number of payments, and they had 26 thousand terminals. The franchise enabled Qiwi to grow rapidly and even begin expansion into the markets of the CIS countries.
Eleksnet with a network of a couple of thousand of its own terminals now trudged far behind, and the main competitor was the e-port, in which the billionaire Yuri Milner invested .
In all cases, this situation should have resulted in a price war that would bleed both sides, but Andrei Romanenko again suggested that the competitor unite. Boris Kim accepted the offer, and in 2007 Qiwi appeared.
In the CIS, the company became crowded, and Romanenko went to other countries, and, unlike competitors, succeeded there too. Now the terminals can be seen in South America and Africa, although financially this is not a very successful undertaking. “The main business for them is Russian, and their income abroad is very small, as the final figures show,” concludes, based on the history of the financial statements of the company, VTB Capital analyst Vladimir Bespalov.
Such a rapid development by 2013 provided Qiwi with a network of 200 thousand terminals around the world, a 35% profitability and a net profit of 2.17 billion rubles. In the same year, an IPO at NASDAQ took place. Although in the USA they didn’t even hear about payment terminals, investors were impressed by the growth rate of the company and estimated it at $ 884 million. Qiwi management earned more than $ 200 million on IPOs, and about $ 300 million more during the autumn SPO. As a result of these placements, Romanenko sold almost everything their shares, according to various estimates, having earned $ 50-60 million, after which he moved away from the operational management of the company and took up other projects.
By 2013, he became interested in working with venture funds. The entrepreneur’s acquaintances say that leaving for the venture business was largely due to acquaintance with Yuri Milner - he became an example to follow at a new stage in Romanenko’s life.
But Andrei Romanenko, of course, failed to repeat Milner’s success in his meadow, although there are certain achievements. Since 2011, with the participation of Romanenko, the AddVenture seed investment fund was created (the most well-known investments are the Delivery Club food delivery service and food delivery according to a specific ChefMarket recipe) and the iTech Capital venture fund (known for investments in the Aviasales airline ticketing service and ticket purchase website for Spectacular events Ticketland)
However, in addition to the listed investments, which can be considered successful, Andrei Romanenko’s funds had one big mistake: at the time, Romanenko did not dare to invest in the Gett taxi call application , although there was such an opportunity.
Now Andrei Romanenko has gone headlong into his new business, the Run Capital investment fund, which invests in startups in the early stages of development. Many of Qiwi's co-founders - Nikolai Romanenko, Igor Mikhailov, Sergey Fedyuschenko and Andrey Muravyov (all of them participated in the iTech Capital and AddVenture funds) also ended up in Run Capital.
The Kommersant publication has published a detailed history of its success.
Megamind provides the most interesting facts.
Museum Office
In the office of Andrei Romanenko on Spiridonovka several dozen kiwi birds: plush, wooden, kiwi in paintings and on furniture. He has been collecting this museum for several years, since the kiwi bird became a symbol of his main brainchild - the Qiwi company. But now Romanenko’s office and Qiwi’s office are in different places. This year, the businessman officially announced that he was leaving the company to focus on his Run Capital venture capital fund.
Qiwi still retains the hipster style created by Romanenko: in North Chertanovo, padded stools are spread all over the room, swing chairs are suspended from the ceiling, there are even sleeping cabins, employees walk around in sneakers and jeans and communicate mainly through instant messengers. And Romanenko himself today wears a suit more often than jeans, and spends a lot of time abroad, immersed in the venture capital business.
Quick success
Andrei Romanenko began to do business at seventeen: he recorded computer games on floppy disks and sold them.
In the third year, Romanenko volunteered to sell communication cards for a friend (he was an employee of one of the operator companies). In the 1990s, this was the main way to recharge a mobile phone account. So the first business appeared - the prototype of Qiwi, the “Plastic Card Shop”, which quickly occupied 70% of the market.
In many respects, success was ensured by decent branding at that time and good advertising promotion. Co-owner of this, like all subsequent Romanenko businesses, was his father, Nikolai Romanenko. In the USSR, Romanenko Sr. led Vneshtorgizdat, and in 1989 he became one of the founders of the Russian branch of the American advertising agency BBDOwhich then led for many years.
The partners did not sell cards for long: this business was not so profitable, and its competitors with payment terminals began to push it slowly. So, for example, a few months earlier from “Avtokard-Holding” (specialized in prepaid gasoline cards) the company of Boris Kim e-port budded .
First merger and change of strategy
To counter the new technology, Romanenko decides to team up with other plastic card sellers: together with several small players, he creates the “United Instant Payment System” (OSMP), which by 2004 will occupy almost the entire market. Although the ability to unite was useful to Romanenko more than once, then it did not bring him victory in the market: payment terminals clearly won, and Romanenko thought about changing the strategy. Initially, he purchased the same POS-terminals as from competitors, and began to promote them, but later he noticed the payment terminals of the Eleksnet company . This competitor Romanenko was the first in Russia to accept payments for mobile communications through massive anti-vandal iron boxes called payment terminals.
Romanenko was carried away by the idea of terminals, but Eleksnet creatively redesigned the business strategy. Eleksnet owned all of its terminals, which made distribution difficult and made the company slow, and Romanenko decided to work on a franchise basis. The devices were also improved: instead of massive boxes with iron buttons of Eleksnet, more elegant terminals with a touchscreen appeared.
Last wagon
The change of strategy made it possible to attract investment: in 2003, the owner of the First Processing Bank Sergey Solonin became seriously interested in the idea of electronic payments. In a few years, he will become the main owner and CEO of Qiwi.
However, even with the money, the company had a real chance to be late. There were many competitors by 2004: in addition to Eleksnet, Rapida , WebMoney, and PayCash , which formed the basis of Yandex.Money, also worked in the market - and they were also armed with money and technology. The main one in the Eleksnet business already had investments by the Scandinavian fund Mint Capital , the ability to deposit money on Visa cards, payment of housing and communal services without commission and about a thousand terminals throughout the country.
Almost jumping into the last car, Romanenko nevertheless prepared a surprise for the competitors: he offered his terminals half the price of other sellers - at $ 4,000 (at the 2005 exchange rate).
Due to the low cost and good design of the terminals, as well as the agent model of network development, already in 2007, former card dealers became the first in the country in the number of payments, and they had 26 thousand terminals. The franchise enabled Qiwi to grow rapidly and even begin expansion into the markets of the CIS countries.
Eleksnet with a network of a couple of thousand of its own terminals now trudged far behind, and the main competitor was the e-port, in which the billionaire Yuri Milner invested .
Second Association and IPO
In all cases, this situation should have resulted in a price war that would bleed both sides, but Andrei Romanenko again suggested that the competitor unite. Boris Kim accepted the offer, and in 2007 Qiwi appeared.
In the CIS, the company became crowded, and Romanenko went to other countries, and, unlike competitors, succeeded there too. Now the terminals can be seen in South America and Africa, although financially this is not a very successful undertaking. “The main business for them is Russian, and their income abroad is very small, as the final figures show,” concludes, based on the history of the financial statements of the company, VTB Capital analyst Vladimir Bespalov.
Such a rapid development by 2013 provided Qiwi with a network of 200 thousand terminals around the world, a 35% profitability and a net profit of 2.17 billion rubles. In the same year, an IPO at NASDAQ took place. Although in the USA they didn’t even hear about payment terminals, investors were impressed by the growth rate of the company and estimated it at $ 884 million. Qiwi management earned more than $ 200 million on IPOs, and about $ 300 million more during the autumn SPO. As a result of these placements, Romanenko sold almost everything their shares, according to various estimates, having earned $ 50-60 million, after which he moved away from the operational management of the company and took up other projects.
New projects
By 2013, he became interested in working with venture funds. The entrepreneur’s acquaintances say that leaving for the venture business was largely due to acquaintance with Yuri Milner - he became an example to follow at a new stage in Romanenko’s life.
But Andrei Romanenko, of course, failed to repeat Milner’s success in his meadow, although there are certain achievements. Since 2011, with the participation of Romanenko, the AddVenture seed investment fund was created (the most well-known investments are the Delivery Club food delivery service and food delivery according to a specific ChefMarket recipe) and the iTech Capital venture fund (known for investments in the Aviasales airline ticketing service and ticket purchase website for Spectacular events Ticketland)
However, in addition to the listed investments, which can be considered successful, Andrei Romanenko’s funds had one big mistake: at the time, Romanenko did not dare to invest in the Gett taxi call application , although there was such an opportunity.
Now Andrei Romanenko has gone headlong into his new business, the Run Capital investment fund, which invests in startups in the early stages of development. Many of Qiwi's co-founders - Nikolai Romanenko, Igor Mikhailov, Sergey Fedyuschenko and Andrey Muravyov (all of them participated in the iTech Capital and AddVenture funds) also ended up in Run Capital.
