The volume of the venture investment market in Russia decreased by almost 2 times


    Photo: Vedomosti

    In the first quarter of 2015, the volume of transactions in the Russian venture investment market amounted to $ 68.7 million. Thus, the domestic venture capital investment market almost halved, having rolled back to the level of 2012, Vedomosti writes .

    In the first three months of this year, 89 transactions were completed in Russia, of which 52 transactions were completed with the participation of state funds and corporations. As far as one can judge, private funds are not too eager to invest in domestic startups, preferring to invest in foreign companies. True, in this situation there is a way out - a community of business angels, where a rather large number of transactions are carried out at an early and early stage.


    Source: RMG Partners

    As for the first quarter of 2015, during this time there has not been a single exit from the investment. The reason for this, according to RMG experts, is the devaluation and volatility of the ruble. In III and IV quarters of last year, assets were sold on the market, after which the value of unsold assets fell. In addition, investors who planned to leave the portfolio unchanged refused to simply take profit or loss, starting negotiations on the sale of their business. For example, in January-March, such well-known projects as LinguaLeo, Life-Pay, Utinet, Sotmarket, Contact, Payonline were put up for sale.

    Also, in the I quarter of 2015, not a single transaction was recorded to attract investment in mature companies. At the same time, the amount of investment in projects at the stage of business expansion or at the start-up stage has doubled during this time.

    According to RMG Partners partner Arseny Dabbaha, the situation will not improve by the end of the year. “We will observe single exits from projects that most likely were planned very well in advance,” he comments on the dynamics of the market. Now the ratio of public and private money is almost equal, but not due to an increase in public investment, but due to a reduction in private investment.

    The deputy general director and managing director of RVC Roman Kosyachkov believes that at the beginning of 2015 the venture capital market shows a dynamics similar to the first half of last year. Plus, the situation is adjusted to adjust for the decrease in the availability of private capital - this is not affected by a very positive macroeconomic situation. At the end of 2015, RVC does not expect positive dynamics of the Russian venture capital market. Nevertheless, thanks to participation in the investment of state development institutions, most likely, there will also be no significant drop in the domestic venture capital market.

    Almaz Capital Managing Partner Alexander Galitsky claims that now domestic projects have begun to focus on foreign investment.

    As for the work of the Internet Initiatives Development Fund, its director Maxim Steigerwald talks about the previous level of investment in domestic startups. Now IIDF has more than 170 projects in its portfolio.

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