Corporations are becoming increasingly more active in the Russian venture market, according to reports at the 5th Moscow Corporate Venture Summit.
VEB Ventures was named the most prolific investor in H1 2019 by Dsight, a company that presented the main results of the Russian venture market at the summit. VEB Ventures accounts for seven deals, including those announced at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Corporations and conventional venture capital funds are dominating the Russian venture market. At the same time, corporations are investing more in startups at all stages although their main focus is still on late-stage startups where corporate funding is even bigger than the funding from VC funds. Dsight found that corporations invested $176.5 mio into expansion stage projects in H1 2019 while VC funds invested $173 mio. However, corporations are more actively investing into projects at all stages.
B2C projects are still most highly sought after by both corporations and funds. Software and internet solutions remain most attractive. Internet projects received $206.7 mio from venture funds and $177.3 mio from corporations. VC funds and corporations are also investing into B2B solutions.
Dsight founder Arseny Dabbakh explained that the internet segment brings return on investment much faster.
One of the largest venture deals of the past six months is the purchase of a share in the Ozon online retailer by AFK Sistema while the purchase of Nginx by F5 Networks was the largest M&A deal. As of the end of H1 2019, corporations accounted for the majority of exits from the Russian venture market (15 out of 17).