Runa Capital, a new Russian VC firm, has launched today with a $30m seed fund for early-stage Russian technology startups. It’s founded by Serguei Beloussov, chairman of Parallels and Acronis and will be advised by Alexander Galitsky of Almaz Capital Partners.
In particular the new fund will target the “rapid growth tech sectors” of cloud computing, machine learning, virtualisation and mobile/Internet applications, with the aim of helping local startups focused on these areas to “grow and compete at a global level”. The companies that Runa Capital invests in will also be supported by the Runapark business incubator.
Interestingly, the fund is also offering investors from the U.S. and elsewhere in Europe, opportunities to share expertise and co-invest in order to tap the potential of the Russian early-stage technology sector.
On that note, Dmitry Chikhachev, managing partner of Runa Capital, chimes in: “In addition to much needed funding, Russian start-ups from both within the country and elsewhere across the globe can benefit from our affiliated companies, extensive professional network and mentoring from true leaders in the field.”
Along with Beloussov’s involvement, Runa Capital’s list of VC partners include Andreas Gauger and Achim Weiss, co-founders of hosting provider 1&1; Ilya Zubarev, co-founder of Rolsen and Acronis; Igor Borovikov, founder of the largest Russian software distributor Softline; Charles Ryan, chairman of UFG Asset Management; and Igor Daniloff, founder of the ‘Doctor Web’ antivirus company.