Encyclopedia of Marketing. Venture investment market. Venture entrepreneurship. Financial investments Types of venture investments

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Methodology

This report is based on data provided by Rusbase, Venture Database, RVC, Skolkovo Foundation, processed and summarized by RMG.

When analyzing the venture investment market, venture investments and grants of up to $100 million received from business angels, private and public, were taken into account investment funds, corporations and corporate venture capital funds in a single funding round.

Venture investments are understood as investments in the capital of new or growing companies whose activities relate to the field of information, industrial or biomedical technologies. When assessing the volume and dynamics of the Russian venture investment market, only venture investments in companies operating primarily in Russia were taken into account. Financing by Russian investors of companies focused primarily on foreign markets, was not included in the volume of the Russian venture capital market.

The volume of the venture investment market also included grants. Despite the fact that the grant is a free subsidy for R&D, grants were taken into account in the total market volume, since the distribution of grants occurs on a competitive basis. The total volume of the venture market did not take into account investments in market infrastructure and exits. Investments in market infrastructure mean investments in venture funds, business incubators, business accelerators, technology parks and other institutions that operate in the venture market, but are not venture companies. Exit refers to a transaction during which the investor withdraws from the capital of a venture capital company.

This report identifies 4 stages of development of a venture project:

1. Sowing (Seed): the project exists only on paper or in the form of laboratory developments.
2. Startup: a company that is either at the organizational stage or has already been running its business for a short time, but has not yet sold its product for money.
3. Growth: launching a new product, placing it on the market and receiving the first small income.
4. Expansion: increasing sales volumes, market share, production volumes, office space, etc.

For the purposes of this report, we divided venture projects into three technology sectors: information technology (IT), industrial technology (industrial technology) and biomedical technology (biotech).

The information technology sector consists of the following subsectors: eCommerce (electronic commerce, including online stores tourism services), cloud technologies, applications for mobile devices (Mobile), other IT (companies not related to the other three subsectors of the IT sector, including telecommunications, advertising technologies, media projects, online media, search and reference services, etc. d.).

The industrial technology sector includes companies that develop equipment and technologies for use in industrial plants, incl. energy efficient and environmentally friendly technologies.

The biomedical technology (living systems) sector includes companies developing medical devices, pharmaceuticals, innovative health services and technologies. Subsectors were not identified in biotech and industrial technology due to the small volume of investments in these sectors.

Cloud solutions

Overview of the cloud technology venture market

The next section of the report provides an overview of the Russian venture capital market for cloud technologies. We believe that cloud solutions are the most promising direction for the development of the IT industry, and we recommend that investors pay attention to it.

Western developers of cloud solutions have already shown an example of how to achieve commercial success in this area, and their Russian colleagues have every chance to repeat these achievements: in Russia there are many experienced software developers capable of creating products that are competitive not only domestically, but also globally market. Please note that this review covers only venture projects in the cloud solutions sector and does not cover the entire cloud market.

1. Clouds are the future of the IT industry. The global cloud technology market is growing much faster than the IT market as a whole.
2. Thanks to cloud technologies, businesses have the opportunity to have relatively inexpensive access to scalable IT resources without infrastructure costs
3. In Russia, the largest share of the cloud market falls on the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) segment, however, high entry barriers and the nature of demand make this segment unattractive for venture capitalists
4. The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) segment occupies a slightly smaller share of the cloud solutions market, but it represents the largest number of diverse venture projects focused on various consumer needs
5. SaaS solutions for business successfully compete with traditional software, and the highest level of penetration of cloud technologies is observed in the CRM systems sector
6. In Russia, most venture projects in the SaaS sector for business are aimed at small and medium-sized companies that have not previously used automation applications, so they compete not with “boxed” software, but with Microsoft Excel
7. There are already quite a few different SaaS products for business on the Russian market, but there are still few solutions for integrating these products (cloud broker) - this is a promising direction for market development

Cloud solutions: market

New business opportunities

In 2013, almost no experts doubt that cloud solutions will begin to determine the shape of the IT industry in the near future. The cloud technology market is growing faster than other segments of the IT market: according to Gartner, in 2013 the public cloud market will increase by 18.5% with an overall growth of the IT sector of 4.1%. Cloud solutions have become another breakthrough in information technology, comparable to the advent of personal computers: now both large and small businesses have access to virtually unlimited IT resources, easily scalable depending on the needs of a particular enterprise.

According to Gartner forecasts, the global cloud technology market in 2013-2016. will grow by an average of 17.5% per year and by 2016 will grow to 210 billion US dollars. It is worth noting that Gartner includes the online advertising market in the volume of the cloud market, which other analytical agencies do not do: for example, Forrester and IDC estimate the cloud market for 2012 at 40 and 41 billion dollars and predict its growth to 100 and 114 billion dollars respectively.

The Orange Business Services company estimated the volume of the Russian cloud services market in 2012 at 4.5 billion rubles. ($145 million). According to her forecasts, the market will grow by an average of 44.1% per year and in 2016 will reach 19 billion rubles. ($612 million at the average annual rate of 2012).

Cloud technologies not only allow businesses to reduce costs, but also give small and medium-sized businesses access to IT solutions that, before the advent of the cloud, only large companies could afford. Parallels estimated the cloud technology market for Russian small and medium-sized businesses in 2012 at $466 million, including costs for hosting and online advertising. Parallels analysts noted the large potential for market growth due to the increase in the number of enterprises connected to the Internet and the readiness of SMEs to switch to the cloud: 47% of surveyed firms that do not yet use cloud services intend to start using them in the next 3 years.

Cloud solutions: categories

IaaS, PaaS, SaaS: the choice between control and convenience

The cloud technology market is generally divided into three main segments: IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and SaaS (Software as a Service). The main criterion for classifying a cloud service into one of these categories is the degree of its control by the user (see figure). According to IDC, in 2011 in Russia, the IaaS category accounted for the largest share (49.6%) of public cloud services, the share of SaaS was 46.8%, and PaaS was 3.6%. Orange Business Services predicts that the market for PaaS solutions will grow in Russia at the fastest pace - 70.1% per year in the next 4 years, but the share of PaaS in the cloud market will not increase significantly.

The specifics of these categories determine the state of the venture market in each of them. Thus, IaaS is a market for large players: installing and maintaining infrastructure requires large investments, so the main players in the global market are companies such as Amazon, Terremark (a subsidiary of Verizon), IBM, AT&T and others. In Russia, this segment, like the entire cloud technology market, is still young and immature, but relatively large players dominate here: CROC, I-Teco, Parking.ru. According to Orange Business Services, the IaaS market in Russia in 2013 will amount to 3.4 billion rubles. (USD 110 million) and will increase by 2016 to RUB 9.8 billion. ($317 million), i.e. will grow by an average of 42.3% per year.

As for PaaS solutions, according to experts, the demand for them in the world is only intensifying, although the advantages of PaaS for application developers are undeniable. Analysts at 451 Research estimate the global PaaS market at $1.5 billion in 2013 and predict it will double by 2015. Of the three main segments of the cloud market, PaaS is the youngest and least mature; his share in common market"cloud" market is small both in Russia and in the world, and niche solutions from small companies compete with products of such giants as Google, Microsoft and salesforce.com. As for the Russian market, according to the co-founder of the Russian Cloud Computing Professional Association Mikhail Oreshin, it is too small for a large number of players, so Russian PaaS projects can only be commercially successful if they focus on the global market.

IaaS and PaaS

IaaS: startups have no place here

Estimates of the size of the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) market in Russia vary greatly: for example, Orange Business Services estimated the market in 2012 at $81 million and predicts growth by an average of 42.3% per year, and J"son & Partners in 2012 predicted that the same figures would be $32 million and 11.3%. With either of the two estimates, the Russian market occupies a very modest place on a global scale: according to Gartner forecasts, the global IaaS market in 2012-2016. . will grow from 6 billion to 24 billion US dollars.

According to J"son & Partners, in 2011, 76% of the Russian IaaS market was controlled by 3 largest players: CROC, I-Teco and Parking.ru. In addition, in 2013, Microsoft entered the Russian market. Entry threshold The IaaS sector is much larger than SaaS and PaaS, so there are practically no small venture projects in it.

Paas: on the verge of growth

PaaS is a young and, according to experts, the most promising sector of cloud technologies. " The target audience» PaaS-products consists mainly of web developers. As foreign experience shows, the PaaS delivery model in conjunction with IaaS and SaaS works most successfully: for example, the leader in this market, Amazon Web Services, works. Besides it, the three largest PaaS providers include Microsoft and Salesforce.com. According to an analytical report from Technavio, the global PaaS market was worth about $1.3 billion in 2012. Technavio predicts that the market will grow at 49% per year and reach $6.45 billion in 2016.

The PaaS market in Russia is still very small, but, as Orange Business Services predicts, in the next 4-5 years it will grow by 70% per year. Today, practically the only successful Russian PaaS development is the Jelastic project - a platform for developing applications in Java and PHP, which received the Technology Leader Award from Oracle in 2012. At the same time, Jelastic’s business model is not focused only on the Russian market: the company already sells all over the world.

SaaS

SaaS: more solutions, good and different

Market software as a service (SaaS) is the most mature of the cloud solutions markets worldwide. Gartner estimates that global SaaS sales totaled $16 billion in 2012 (more than PaaS or IaaS), with a CAGR of 19.5% from 2012-2016. These figures only include business services delivered in the public cloud. The SaaS model, in contrast to IaaS and PaaS, is characterized by a wide functional variety of products: the cloud provides solutions for automating almost any business process, from collaboration on projects to managing enterprise resources. As already mentioned, automation of many of these processes became available to a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises only with the advent of cloud services, that is, relatively recently, in this market there is still enough room for new solutions: Gartner analysts calculated that for 2013 the average The penetration level of cloud technologies in the segment of solutions for automating business processes is only about 20%.

Unlike the global SaaS market, the Russian software as a service market has not yet reached stable growth rates and, according to Orange Business Service forecasts, will grow exponentially in the next 3-4 years (an average of 50% per year). While SaaS occupies the largest share in the global market, in Russia this model is inferior in terms of sales to IaaS, and analysts do not expect a radical change in this situation. Russian business is just beginning to use cloud solutions, and the level of awareness of the clouds and trust in them among companies is still lower than in developed countries, although many experts note that in Russia it is growing steadily. For a more detailed look, we chose the segment of SaaS solutions in the field of CRM/ERP/SCM. According to our estimates, in Russia there are quite a lot of venture projects in this segment that are interesting from an investment point of view and have a chance of becoming niche leaders in this growing market. In addition, according to Gartner, in the CRM/ERP/SCM solutions segment, the level of penetration of cloud technologies around the world is quite high.

CRM/ERP/SCM in the cloud: market

Global market: sky-high prospects

According to Gartner, in 2013, SaaS solutions accounted for 42% of the global Customer Relations Management (CRM) market, and by 2016, the share of cloud CRM services will grow to 48%. SaaS penetration by 2016 in the Supply Chain Management (SCM) sector is predicted to be 28%, in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) sector – 17%. These figures mean that in the business applications sector, cloud technologies are already seriously competing with traditional solutions and will only increase in the future. The global market for CRM/ERP/SCM solutions, according to Gartner reports, will be about $56 billion in 2013 and will grow to $84.5 billion by 2017. Based on these data, you can estimate the size of the cloud CRM/ERP market /SCM in 2012 at $11 billion, and the average annual growth rate until 2016 was 21.7%.

According to participants in a 2012 Gartner survey, the main benefits of SaaS solutions for businesses compared to traditional products are lower implementation and maintenance costs, faster and easier application deployment, and the ability to reduce capital expenditures. On the other hand, among the main reasons for refusing to switch to cloud CRM/ERP/SCM solutions, Gartner respondents named lack of confidence in the technology, satisfaction with the already implemented traditional solution, lack of additional requirements for the product and the presence of expensive existing contracts that make it impossible to abandon the existing solution .

All these trends indicate that business solutions in the cloud are increasingly competing with traditional “boxed” products. Most experts agree that cloud-based business applications will eventually dominate the market; According to our estimates, this trend is currently more pronounced in the small and medium-sized business sector than in the large enterprises.

Russian market: grow to the clouds

The Russian market for cloud business solutions appeared only a few years ago, but the global trend towards increasing penetration of SaaS applications for business looks stable in Russia. In a recent study, Parallels assessed this market at $174 million, including in it, in addition to CRM/ERP/SCM systems, including cloud services for file sharing, collaboration on documents and projects, telephone and web conferencing, as well as accounting. According to Parallels analysts, the market will grow by an average of 29% per year and will reach a volume of $377 million in 2015. What market share falls on cloud CRM/ERP/SCM applications is not specified. According to Mikhail Smolyanov, CEO of Megaplan, the volume of the cloud CRM/ERP/SCM market in Russia does not exceed $30 million. This figure only includes sales of SaaS products in the public cloud (on demand). Andrey Dovgan, head of General CRM, Terrasoft, estimated the penetration level of SaaS solutions in the CRM sector at 20%.

“The maximum market for cloud CRM for small and medium-sized businesses is about $120 million, but its saturation is less than 10%.”
Vladimir Gabriel, commercial director of Delovaya Sreda CJSC

It should be noted that the Russian market for business applications in the cloud has one significant difference from the global one: since Russian small and medium-sized enterprises are just beginning to use CRM, ERP and SCM automation, there is no clear division of “spheres of responsibility” between the corresponding cloud solutions. The needs of SMEs, and therefore the functionality of many SaaS applications existing on the market, cannot be completely attributed to the field of CRM, ERP or SCM, and the clients themselves at this stage do not think in such categories, therefore we consider it advisable in the context of the Russian market to combine these three segments into one.

The Russian market of cloud solutions is at an early stage of its development, and if large businesses had the opportunity to implement traditional business process automation systems even before the advent of applications running in the cloud, then small and medium-sized Russian enterprises, for the most part, only now have a real opportunity to use automation solutions. This circumstance, which significantly distinguishes the Russian cloud market from the global one, has two important consequences.

Firstly, as market participants note, companies have clear priorities when automating business processes: first of all, the need to automate accounting is realized, since maintaining and submitting reports is mandatory for all companies and the economic effect of using a cloud solution is obvious.

The next steps on the same path are automation of CRM/ERP/SCM and project management, but not all Russian SMEs take them. Mikhail Smolyanov associates the low penetration of cloud CRM/ERP/SCM solutions with insufficient awareness of their existence and the unpreparedness of Russian entrepreneurs for the idea of ​​automating business processes. According to a 2012 survey by Parallels, about 5% of SMEs surveyed were using a cloud-based CRM or ERP system, and 11% of respondents planned to start using such systems in the next 3 years. In addition, the availability and speed of Internet access in Russian regions is still a problem.

"Previously, we had to explain what a cloud is, where data is stored, how it is protected. Now people are more prepared: we receive specific requests specifically for SaaS"
Alexey Fitiskin, commercial director at ASoft

Secondly, due to the immaturity of the market, cloud CRM/ERP/SCM solutions compete not with each other and not with traditional “boxed” systems, but with the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet editor and even with paper transaction logs. SMEs are not yet aware of the availability and benefits of cloud business solutions, so promoting any of the existing products so far comes down to promoting the very idea of ​​fast and relatively cheap automation of business processes.

“In Russia now there is no concept of a cloud broker, although in the West it has existed for some time. It seems to me that this will be the point of growth”
Mikhail Oreshin, co-founder of the Russian Cloud Computing Professional Association

Despite its small size, the Russian market for cloud CRM/ERP/SCM solutions has significant potential and may grow by 50-70% per year in the next 3-4 years. Experts note that business awareness of cloud-based enterprise management systems is constantly growing, both among large companies and among SMEs. Today, large corporations most often use cloud CRM/ERP/SCM solutions within separate, small departments, however, market participants note a positive trend in the attitude of large businesses towards the clouds. In this regard, solutions for the integration of various SaaS products, as well as niche CRM/ERP/SCM solutions for individual sectors, are seen as a promising direction for the development of cloud services.

The Russian market for cloud CRM/ERP/SCM solutions is at the formation stage. The market size is very small, and the revenue of leading companies does not exceed several million dollars. The estimated value of the leader, Megaplan LLC, in the transaction with the 1C company was about $15 million. However, Russian companies have something to strive for. The capitalization of the world's leading players amounts to billions and even tens of billions of dollars, although 10-12 years ago their revenue did not exceed the current figures of the leading Russian companies. The most famous success stories of cloud companies in the global market are Salesforce and Net Suite.

Salesforce Inc., the global market leader in cloud CRM solutions, was founded in 1999. Throughout its history, the company has shown phenomenal results in terms of revenue growth and customer base: during the period from fiscal years 2001 to 2013, the company's revenue grew 600 times. The average annual revenue growth rate was 51%.

The number of the company's clients increased from 1.5 thousand as of January 31, 2001 to 104 thousand at the end of July 2011.

According to Gartner, in 2012 Salesforce occupied 14% of the global CRM systems market (35% of the cloud CRM market).

* capitalization at the end of the financial year ending 31 January

In 2004, the company held an IPO on the NYSE, placing a 10% stake for $110 million. In September 2008, the company's shares were included in the S&P 500 index. Between January 31, 2005 and January 31, 2013, the company's capitalization increased 17.5 times.

In 2012-13 The company showed a net loss compared to profit in previous periods, which was caused by the creation of provisions for income taxes in the amount of USD 142.7 million, an increase in depreciation charges for goodwill - USD 88 million, as well as the accrual of non-cash expenses in the amount of $379.4 million under the option program.

Salesforce generates positive cash flow, which reached $557 million in fiscal 2013. Average P/E multiple for the period 2004-2013. amounted to 205, EV/Sales – 7.76.

Stories of sky-high success in the global market

Net Suite Inc., one of the world leaders in cloud-based business automation solutions, was founded in 1998. The company is the world leader in cloud ERP solutions in terms of the number of clients - more than 16 thousand for the period 2002-2012. average annual revenue growth was 59%. Revenue grew from $3.1 million to nearly $308.8 million in 2012.

In 2007, Net Suite listed on the NYSE. Despite the fact that the company's quotes suffered during the 2008 crisis, during the period from December 31, 2007 to December 31, 2012, the company's capitalization increased by 108%. Over the first 6 months of 2013, the company's shares grew by 40.5%, capitalization reached USD 6,872 million.

For 6 months of 2013 Net Suite Inc. showed a loss of $51 million. Of these, 35.5 million were non-cash expenses for the option program. The company achieved positive cash flow in 2010. For 6 months of 2013, the amount of free cash flow reached $60 million. Average value of the EV/Sales multiplier for the period 2007 – 2012. amounted to 10.4

Salesforce and Net Suite have been able to achieve tremendous success thanks to the high growth rate of the cloud technology market in the United States. We are sure that Russian stories success is just around the corner. Investors who make the right choice will be able to significantly increase their investment. Perhaps the future “star” is among the Russian projects we presented below.

CRM/ERP/SCM in the cloud: projects

In the next section we will look at Russian CRM/ERP/SCM projects. While working on the report, we communicated with a large number of companies, but few agreed to provide detailed information about their projects. And yet, we are confident that the information we were able to obtain will allow investors and venture entrepreneurs to “find their bearings” in this market.

Small volume, good growth prospects

According to experts, the volume of the Russian cloud CRM/ERP/SCM market in 2012 ranged from 10 to 30 million US dollars. Market growth rates are projected to be quite high - within 50-100% for the next 3 years.

Low level of competition, but leaders occupy a significant market share

According to market participants, the level of competition in the cloud CRM/ERP/SCM solutions segment is very low. As a rule, new clients of companies had previously used Excel or even “paper media” rather than competitors’ products.

The leader of the market as a whole is the Megaplan company; our estimate of the company’s revenue in 2012 is $5 million, about 25% of the market. In the trade management automation sector, the leader in sales volume is the My Warehouse company ($2 million in 2012). In the direction of cloud CRM for medium and small businesses, the leading solution is the amoCRM service.

There are also foreign players on the Russian market. According to market participants, the most common solutions are from Salesforce, Zoho and SugarCRM. However, experts find it difficult to estimate sales volumes, while clarifying that the share of foreign solutions in the Russian market is extremely small. Foreign cloud services, as a rule, are more expensive than their Russian counterparts and often require initial implementation.

Low level of customer loyalty Average monthly churn varies from 5% to 7% for the projects we examined, while the standard churn for Western companies, according to Maxim Krasnykh, director of Intel Capital in Russia and the CIS, is 30% per year. Maxim also notes the low amount of revenue per client compared to US companies. The difference reaches 3-5 times. However, the cost of attracting one client in Russia is also much lower and is paid off in several monthly payments, compared to 6-18 months in the USA.

It is also necessary to note the M&A activity of the 1C company, one of the leaders of the Russian IT market. In 2011, 1C acquired 51% authorized capital company "My Warehouse" for $1.2 million. In 2012, the company acquired 51% of Megaplan LLC for $7.5 million. Thus, 2 of the 3 market leaders we cited above are controlled by 1C.

conclusions

1. There is still enough space for everyone, barriers to entry into the market are low, and therefore new projects have a high chance of success. High market growth rates, along with low levels of competition and penetration of cloud solutions, will allow new projects to show high growth rates in revenue and customer base in the next few years.
2. As the market grows, competition will likely increase from foreign players who have significant financial capabilities, which means they can afford high marketing costs and dumping to expand their customer base.
3. The marketing costs required to recruit a “critical mass of customers” will increase as the penetration of cloud CRM/ERP/SCM services increases.
4. Interest from leading Russian IT companies (1C, Diasoft, etc.) creates additional opportunities for successful exits from cloud projects.

"Megaplan"

The cloud service of the Megaplan company allows you to organize customer relationship management, transaction management, staff collaboration, as well as financial accounting. The Megaplan project became the winner of the “Most Promising Software of the Year” nomination at the “Soft-2009” award.

Monetization

Freemium. The free trial is provided for 30 days. Monthly subscription fee from 250 to 544 rubles. per month for each user, depending on the version of the service. The service with the least functionality, Collaboration, includes:

• project and task management
• corporate chat and mail
• possibility of teamwork

The “Sales” solution (from 370 rubles per month) adds the ability to work with company finances, and also improves the CRM system.

The Business solution allows you to scale the service to several offices, including foreign representative offices. Sales of the service began in 2008.

Team

Mikhail Smolyanov, co-founder, CEO

Graduated from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov in 2004. In 2005-2006 was Managing Director of Eurovision LLC. Since 2010, Development Director at StartupIndex.

Mikhail Ukolov, co-founder, managing partner

He graduated from MESI in 2004. In 2007, he defended his Ph.D. thesis there. In the period 2001-2004. headed the Virtual Art Group studio. Since 2004, managing partner of Yutinet.ru.

Competitive environment

The Megaplan solution is the market leader in CRM/ERP/SCM cloud services in the Russian market. According to experts, the company's share ranges from 16% to 25%. According to company management estimates, the annual customer outflow is 40% (3.33% per month). The LTV indicator has increased 4 times since 2008, 10 thousand rubles. up to 40 thousand rubles. In 2009, IQ One invested $1 million in the company, according to Rusbase. As of December 30, 2009, according to the SPARK system, IQ One’s share was 23.11%. Thus, the entire company was valued at $4.3 million.

On March 29, 2012, it became known that 1C company had purchased a 51% share of the service. The transaction amount was approximately $7.5 million. Valuation of the entire company – 14-16 million US dollars

At the end of June 2013, the company's revenue "Megaplan" amounted to USD 5 million in annual terms. The number of clients is about 10,000. According to our estimates, in 2012 revenue was about 4 million US dollars. Mikhail Smolyanov estimates the growth rate of revenue in 2012 at 70-90%.

Development plans

The company's development plans include further expansion in the Russian market. There are no plans to enter foreign markets in the near future.

Strengths

"My Warehouse"

The My Warehouse service is a cloud-based solution for trade and warehouse management. The service implements the functions of sales and purchasing management, CRM, order processing, warehouse accounting and control of financial payments. In 2013, My Warehouse launched sales of Online Accounting based on 1C.

Categories of service clients

• Online stores
  Features of the service for online stores are the ability to process orders from several online stores in a single system, download data about goods in Yandex.Market (YML) format, organize work with couriers and courier services: distribute orders, control mutual settlements with courier and postal services.
• Wholesale trade organizations
  The service allows you to combine several legal entities, branches, warehouses or sales offices in a single system without additional infrastructure costs.
• Retail trade organizations
  The service allows you to organize a full-fledged seller’s workplace on a computer, laptop or tablet with functionality that includes registering sales, working with returns, closing a shift, etc. It is possible to support a barcode scanner and print sales receipts. The service can work offline and supports integration with the fiscal registrar.

Monetization

Freemium. Full functionality is provided free of charge for 14 days, then monthly payment is provided in the amount of 240 to 6,400 rubles. Tariffs for “Online Accounting” – 870-2060 rubles. per month.

Team

Askar Rakhimberdiev, CEO, co-founder of the company.

More than 10 years of experience in software development. Before starting his own project, Askar was responsible for the development of SaaS solutions at Aspect Enterprise Solutions, and also managed projects at one of the leading Russian outsourcing companies, Auriga.

Oleg Alekseev, is responsible for the technical development of the service.

Graduated from Penza State University. Before founding the company, he was involved in the development of distributed ERP systems.

Dmitry Kabatov co-founder, Development Director.

Graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute. Experience in the IT field for more than 10 years. For 5 years he headed the Moscow office of ERP vendor Exact Software.

Competitive environment

The My Warehouse service is one of the leaders in the Russian market of cloud CRM/ERP/SCM solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as individual entrepreneurs. According to industry experts, the service occupied from 6% to 10% of the market in 2012.

The company's direct competitors in the sector of cloud warehouse accounting solutions are the Big Bird and Frame solutions. However, the vast majority of new clients of My Warehouse are using automation systems for the first time. The market is not saturated, and companies do not need to lure customers away from competitors. Most clients use Excel before switching to the service. The cloud solution “1C: Trade and Warehouse,” according to Rakhimberdiev, is designed for larger companies, so the overlap in the customer base is insignificant.

Attracted investments

According to our estimates, in 2008 Ambient Sound Investments, an Estonian investment holding, invested more than $100 thousand in the project, acquiring about 20% of the company. The entire project was estimated to cost approximately $500,000.

In 2011, the 1C company bought out ASI’s share and partially the shares of other participants. According to Rusbase, the investment amounted to $1.2 million. According to the SPARK system, the share of 1C company in the authorized capital is 51%. Thus, the entire company was valued at $2.35 million. Compared to the ASI deal, the company's valuation for the purchase of the 1C share increased almost 4 times.

The service was launched in February 2008. At the moment, the “user base” (the number of users who have registered on the site) of the service is 100 thousand clients. According to the company's CEO, Askar Rakhimberdiev, customer loyalty is low, which is reflected in a high level of customer churn (5.5% per month). The growth of the client base in 2012 was 140%. Revenue grew by 153%.

Development plans According to management, at the moment the company plans to focus on the Russian market. The possibility of entering foreign markets is not yet being considered. The growth of the company's customer base and revenue is planned at 70-90% per year for the next few years.

Project strengths

• Leading position in the market.
  Brand recognition allows the company to reduce marketing costs, as well as attract larger customers compared to new services.
• Successful experience in attracting investments
• Strong development team
• Wide functionality of services

Weaknesses/Risks

amoCRM

amoCRM is a cloud-based CRM service that allows you to create a client database or transfer an existing one, set tasks, reminders for clients and transactions, and monitor the status of task completion by managers. The product also makes it possible to track statistics on clients and the work of managers, and send SMS and e-mail newsletters to clients.

The creator and owner of the service is QSoft CJSC (Qsoft). The company has offices in Moscow and the USA. The commercial launch of the project took place in April 2010. According to the main owner of Qsoft, Mikhail Tokovinin, the company did not attract third-party funding.

Monetization

Freemium. A free version is available for a limited number of users. Monthly subscription fee – from 600 to 3000 rubles. depending on the number of users, the size of the client base and the number of transactions.

Team

According to the SPARK system, as of June 20, 2013, the owners of Q Soft CJSC were Mikhail Tokovinin and Denis Mitrofanov. In a conversation with us, Mikhail refused to disclose information about the amoCRM project team.

Competitive environment

According to experts and project management, the amoCRM service is the leader in the number of clients among cloud CRM services. According to our estimates, the project's share in the CRM/ERP/SCM market was 2-3% in 2012. The company's direct competitors are Russian CRM solutions from Bitrix, Asoft and Terrasoft, as well as foreign Salesforce, Zoho and SugarCRM.

According to Tokovinin, the level of competition is currently very low, and the growth potential of the cloud CRM segment is hundreds of percent per year (note that this is the most optimistic assessment of market growth of all market participants we met). The largest share among the project's clients is occupied by medium-sized companies; the share of small and large enterprises is approximately the same.

Quantitative indicators

According to our estimates, the number of service clients at the end of 2012 was approximately 1000. Revenue for 2012 ranged from 400 to 600 thousand US dollars. Management estimates revenue growth in 2012 at 400%. Thus, for 2011 the revenue amounted to about 100-150 thousand US dollars. Our forecast for 2013, based on the number of clients as of July 2013, about 1500 (according to management) - 800-1000 thousand US dollars.

The company's customer churn rate is quite high, but it should be noted that there is a decrease compared to the year the project was launched, when the average monthly churn reached 10%. The company does not disclose data on the cost of attracting a client and the conversion rate from the free version of the service.

Development plans

The owners call the main direction of development of the project integration with SaaS services that complement the functionality of the service amoCRM(online accounting services, teamwork in the cloud, etc.).

Strengths

The company is supported by Qsoft, one of the leading Russian web integrators. The company also has experience in creating Saas services: qTrack, amoForms, Shoptus.

Weaknesses/risks

Insufficient range of functionality. In our opinion, services with the widest possible range of functions will be in greatest demand among clients. The company's management probably shares our opinion, since the main priority for product development is integration with services that complement its functionality. We cannot assess the team's influence on the development of the project due to lack of information.

"My business"

The “My Business” project is a service for online accounting with elements of a CRM system.*

The project was launched in 2009. The project has been operating commercially since September 2010. In 2010, the company became the winner of the Runet Prize in the Economy and Business category and a laureate of the joint Google and Forbes Business Project competition.

Monetization

Freemium. There is a free trial period, then a subscription fee from 540 to 5069 rubles is charged. per month (if paid annually), depending on the functionality of the product.

Team

Maxim Yaremko, co-founder, gene. director.

Creator and managing partner of the Savadi company, a software developer for Europe and the USA.

Sergey Panov, co-founder, chairman of the board of directors.

2001-2006 – General Director of the Publishing House “Glavbukh”, 2006-2009. – General Director of Aktion Media CJSC, 2009-present. – General Director of the Publishing House "Regulation Media" and CJSC "Insurance News Agency"

Competitive environment

The “My Business” service is one of the leaders in the Russian market. At the moment, the company's main competitors are the online solution from 1C - 1СFresh, cloud accounting from SKB Kontur, and the Sky service.

Quantitative indicators

In an interview with the Vedomosti newspaper, Sergei Panov estimated the company's client base at 180 thousand users at the end of 2011. The growth of the base in 2011 was 700%. Sergei Panov estimated revenue growth at 400%. Our 2011 revenue estimate matches Forbes' estimate of $1 million. Thus, in 2010, revenue amounted to 200 thousand US dollars. Based on customer base growth, our 2013 revenue forecast is $2.8 million.

Attracted investments

In 2012, Klever Internet Investments Ltd invested $4 million in the company. Based on Forbes magazine's revenue estimate ($1 million for 2011) and a revenue multiplier of 7-8 for 100% of the company, Klever's share could be about 50%. The cost of the entire company is about $8 million.

Project strengths

• Brand awareness in the market
• Significant customer base, high potential for sales of additional services

Weaknesses/risks

• Declining growth rates amid market saturation

Miiix

Miiix is ​​a service through which online stores receive information about product availability and prices in supplier warehouses. Currently, the company provides services to stores selling tires and rims. The service was launched in August 2012. In 2013, the Order Exchange began operating. The principle of operation of the exchange is that purchase orders are received into the system (currently orders are provided through the online store of the project founders), exchange participants fulfill the order. Miiix receives up to 50% of the delta between the order price and the minimum price from the supplier in the service system.

Monetization

Freemium. The free version only includes searching the product database. The commission from transactions on the Order Exchange brings in more than 60% of revenue, the subscription fee is about 35%, and one-time payments for additional services are no more than 5%.

Team

Sergey Ryabov, co-founder, CEO

More than 10 years of experience in creating Internet projects. Participated in the management of affiliate programs funppc.com and elitistclub.com. In 2006, Sergey co-founded the domain registrar ruler-domains.com. After selling elitistclub to his partner a year later, he focused on the registrar, which was sold in 2010 to a larger domain registrar. Since 2008, in parallel with his main business, he founded and launched several online stores. Since 2009, he has participated in the creation and development of the recommendation startup deeep.me. The startup team was reorganized into a web studio aller-design.ru, then bought by one of the co-founders. In total, Sergey participated in 10 projects.

Bereznitsky Dmitry, co-founder, CTO

Started building an online business in 2006 with affiliate stores for Amazon. Bereznitsky is also the founder automated system promotion of Mosquito stores. Dmitry was also one of the co-founders of the domain registrar rulerdomains.com. And later he acted as a co-founder and technical director in the projects: deeep.me, aller-design.ru and stores prestigewheels.ru and sportmanya.ru

Competitive environment

The closest service in terms of functionality in Russia is the MarketMixer.net project. Foreign analogues of the project are tire24, Order Motion and the Merchantry project. Another potential competitor on the Russian market, Agora B2B, is undergoing testing. The beta version of the project has been launched.

Attracted investments

In November 2012, the service attracted investments in the amount of $20 thousand from RSV Venture Partners. The investor received 15% of the company's capital. Thus, the estimate for the entire project was about 133 thousand US dollars. In 2013, the service became the winner of “IT Startup Eurasia 2013” ​​and received a Microsoft grant in the amount of $60 thousand.

Quantitative indicators

At the end of June, average revenue per customer was about $300. The company's monthly revenue figures indicate seasonality.

Number of registrations in the project Miiix for the period from August 2012 to June 2013 amounted to 144. The share of registered visitors making payments on average for the period was 24%.

The company does not have objective data on such indicators as the cost of attracting a client and revenue from the client over the “lifetime”, since the project was launched only in August 2012.

Development plans

At the moment, the creators of the project see two main directions for the development of the project

1. Increasing average revenue per client to $500 through the introduction of additional services. Currently, the share of additional services in revenue is 5%.
2. Entering new segments. According to Sergei Ryabov, a commercial launch in the sports equipment sector is planned for early September. Entering new segments can bring the company significant growth in its customer base and revenue. The entire auto parts segment, according to DataInsight, accounted for only 10% of the volume of online trade in physical goods in Russia in 2012.

The company's growth driver may also be an increase in the number of online stores.

The company's revenue plan is 2 million rubles. for 2013

Project strengths

• Experienced team. The founders have extensive experience in creating Internet projects
• High growth potential if the business model is adapted for other eCommerce segments, as well as for offline retail

Weak sides

• High seasonality
• Narrow focus of the project. Entering new segments may require significant investment in software development and high marketing costs

"Big Bird"

The Big Bird service is a cloud-based accounting system. The functionality of the system allows:

• Keep records of sales and purchases, warehouse accounting;
• Maintain several current accounts and cash registers, register receipts and write-offs, control balances and cash flows;
• Generate reference books of data necessary for filling out documents and maintaining records
• Create, print, send by e-mail all documents necessary for accounting
• Generate management reports to analyze performance results.

The creator of the service is Etheron LLC.

Monetization

Freemium. The free version is limited in the number of users. At the moment, the company has one paid tariff – 590 rubles. per month when paid annually (990 rubles when paid per month). There is also a free version of the service, when used, it is planned to display advertising, which will generate additional income. According to the creators of the service, the project is at the stage of actively forming a client base. Monetization is not actively carried out. The company's number of paying clients is still small.

Team

Oleg Sidorenkov, Development Director, co-founder, co-founder of Etheron LLC Graduated from Moscow Power Engineering Institute. In 2004, he created the 1C franchisee company, which was engaged in the implementation, customization and maintenance of solutions for automating operational and management accounting for small businesses. In 2006, he created the Formz.ru portal, a service for filling out documents online.

Igor Sidorenkov, project consultant, Graduated from MIPT with honors. Has experience working in the USA. Worked as a programmer at Pricedrive. In 2001, as vice president of systems engineering, he led the IT department of the startup CarsArrive Network, which was later sold to the conglomerate Kar Auction Services and the ADESA auction. Currently, Igor works as an independent consultant on several IT projects.

Competitive environment

The product is intended for small businesses and individual entrepreneurs. Direct competitors of the product are the services “My Warehouse”, “Framework”, etc.

Features of the “Big Bird” system compared to competitors:

• System architecture
  The core of the system is separated from the web interface. Interaction between them is carried out through standard protocols, so the system allows the development and use of alternative interfaces and provides ample opportunities for integration with other applications
• Rich interface
  The service's web application has a familiar user interface, typical of desktop programs. To create the interface, libraries are used that are developed by a large German hosting company. In addition to the convenience of the interface for the user, this also allows you to minimize the amount of work required to create a mobile version of the service.

Attracted investments

In 2011, Etheron LLC, which has the rights to the Formz.ru and Big Bird projects, attracted investment from a private investor. The name of the investor, the transaction amount and the acquired share were not disclosed.

Development plans

The main areas of development, according to Oleg and Igor Sidorenkov, are integration with other systems, adding a CRM module, developing a version of the service for mobile devices, providing additional services for business (registering an LLC, obtaining an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities).

Although entry into foreign markets is not excluded, it is not considered a priority area of ​​development.

Strengths

• The presence of a free source for creating a client base - the site formz.ru - will allow the project to reduce the cost of attracting clients, as well as increase the growth rate of the client base; According to the company, the number of registrations on the site currently exceeds 140,000. The number of site visits per month exceeds 600,000, and the number of transitions to the project site from formz.ru in 2013 is about 50,000.
• The team has many years of experience in participating in projects to automate accounting in small businesses, as well as experience in attracting investors

Weaknesses/risks

• Insufficient range of functionality

Conclusion

Venture investment market in the 2nd quarter of 2013

• The volume of venture investments in Russia in the 2nd quarter of 2013 decreased by 41.3% compared to the first quarter. The decrease compared to the 2nd quarter of 2012 was 47.7%. The number of deals also fell to 53 compared to 75 in the first quarter and 87 in the second quarter of 2012.
• There has been a significant decline in interest in early-stage projects from private foundations. Their share in the total investment in projects at the seed stage in the 2nd quarter of 2013 amounted to 13.1%, while in 2012 it averaged 34%, and in the 4th quarter reached 44.7%. The dynamics are similar in deals at the startup stage.
• The IT sector continues to dominate in terms of the volume of attracted investments and the number of transactions (87% of the total volume of venture investments for the quarter).

Greetings, dear blog readers!

Today we are considering such concepts as venture investments and venture investors, the advantages and disadvantages of such investments

Venture capital is a type of investment intended as an investment of funds in start-up or growing organizations where the activity is determined by a high or moderate level of risk. Usually, financial instruments are implemented in organizational structures, where they specialize in innovation, engineering and research, development of technologies in need of the market.

Investments are divided into certain stages:

• early
• stages of growth and expansion

Venture capital investments are predominantly invested in early stages, where they are divided into three subcategories:

• Pre-sowing. Stands out here significant amount to develop future business concepts.
• Sowing. Funding is provided to complete product development and initial marketing.
• First. Financing is provided to start commercial production and sales.

Risk is the main difference from more traditional investing. I. After all banking organizations due to high risks, they will not provide direct credit assistance, and the main source of financing will be private investors or venture funds.

What is a venture fund?

Venture fund is an investment fund focused on interaction with “new generation” companies, or startups. By startup we mean a project. Venture funds found their niche quite a long time ago, because the legislation of most countries allows such risky investments.

Both individuals and companies can become participants in such a fund. pension funds, banking organizations. Typically, the founders of a venture capital firm often contribute their share of the money.

Initially, the fund's portfolio may include 8-13 companies. Over a long period of time (5-8 years), objects develop and grow. After organizations become successful in their activities, the venture fund sells its shares through shares or sells it to a private investor.

On the basis of cooperation with the fund, there is a contract (agreement) on a partnership with limited rights. Investors who invest in the fund are called “LPs - limited partners” - limited partners, and persons who invest the accumulated funds of the fund in developing organizations are called “GPs - general partners” - general partners.

In 2005, venture funds in the United States conducted a record number of transactions - 5,000, where the total investment volume amounted to about seven million dollars.

Venture investor

Venture investor is a common person who
invests the company with
high potential opportunities. Such investors are called “Business Angels”. As a rule, such “angels” are the main source of funding and assistance for a startup, but if the project is not successful and fails, the venture investor will not be able to return his money. cash.

The subject of investment can be not only projects, but also unrealized ideas. At the same time, business angels at a professional level try to control their risks as much as possible and take part in the project in every possible way, namely:

• determine an effective startup strategy;
• personal vision and accumulated experience;
• use your various connections;
• attract partners and future clients (users);

Often investors act together, pooling their resources. Thanks to cohesion, the risks of venture investments will be reduced significantly.

In our country, such investments are not as developed as in the United States or Europe, where about 50,000 transactions are carried out annually with a total volume of $500,000.

According to Igor Gladkikh, in Russia angel investors try not to advertise themselves and often implement grant programs. But there are certain associations of venture investors in the Moscow region and in the eastern regions. Thanks to statistics conducted in 2015, the majority of business angels invested in projects in the information technology industry. Well, we hope that they will fully justify themselves.

Advantages and disadvantages

Probably, initially it is necessary to emphasize that venture investors are individuals who have a considerable income, on average 150-250 thousand dollars. The venture investment market attracts primarily with high returns compared to stock exchange or real estate. It is worth considering in more detail what advantages and disadvantages “angel” investments have.

Advantages:

• Venture investors give impetus to the development of new technologies, scientific discoveries and
  inventions.
• They can act either individually or together with several venture investors
• They expect their money back in 3-4 years. This is a definite plus, since the object will have time to be sufficiently realized during this time.
• For their investments they claim only part of the company's shares with voting rights
• The financial market is so wide that it allows you to find a business angel on any continent if the startup manages to interest him.

Flaws:

• Financing occurs only at the initial stage of the organization (project).
• Lack of wide reputation. Subsequently, they may turn out to be “devils” rather than angels.
• A thorough study of the object and making a final decision takes a lot of time. This can take from six months to six months.

As a rule, business angels become people with inspiring capital: successful businessmen and investors. Most of them have already gained professional experience and can clearly analyze and make forecasts. But no one excludes the possibility of becoming a venture investor and investing small amounts in projects of people we know or are close to.

And finally, an interview with a venture investor from Ukraine:

Over the past three years, the development of the classic venture capital market in Russia has been determined by the growth of the economy as a whole. The market size did not exceed $150 million, and the number of transactions was at the level of 200. The share of venture investments in Russia in relation to GDP is significantly lower than the world average at all stages of the venture cycle. Thus, at the Seed/Round A stage, the Russian market lags behind by eight times, and at later stages (B/C/D) by 47 times. Russia holds a 1.5% share of the global venture market in terms of the number of projects funded, which corresponds to only 0.1% in dollar terms.

Unlike other markets, Russia has a very low share of late-stage investments, while a third of early-stage investments are provided by state-owned venture funds. While corporate venture funds are becoming the main driver of growth in the world, in Russia a reverse trend has emerged and the “share” of corporate funds among venture transactions is slowly decreasing. If in 2012 they accounted for about 13% of transactions, then in 2016 this figure decreased to 9%.

The market for venture capital exits in Russia also still leaves much to be desired. According to various estimates, the volume of exits from projects in 2016 amounted to $50-60 million, with $30 million coming from the sale of mobile game developer Pixonic to Mail.ru Group. Most “successful” exits are write-offs or so-called distressed sales (urgent sales to pay off debt), which greatly distorts the statistics. Today, successful funds are starting to look either at foreign companies or prepare Russian startups for sale to a foreign investor.

In this situation, can classic venture investments stimulate the development of the digital economy? We see several opportunities and prerequisites for the revival of the market. One of the most interesting is the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) phenomenon, which can significantly change the vector of development of the digital economy in Russia and bring blockchain technologies into the everyday lives of citizens.

ICO vs. venture

It is difficult to underestimate the size of the growing crypto-economy and the opportunities it creates. Over the past year, the market capitalization of the largest seven cryptocurrencies has increased more than eightfold, exceeding $100 billion. Currently, there are more than 800 cryptocurrencies in the world, nine of which have a capitalization of more than $1 billion. The volume of the ICO market is showing galloping growth - specialized ICOs are already appearing funds, and classic venture players are actively investing in blockchain, investing about $232 million in projects based on this technology in the second quarter of 2017 alone.

Of course, the ICO market, like the blockchain technology itself, is quite young, and the number of offers on it still prevails over quality. But the crypto market has serious fundamental reasons for growth that should not be discounted. It does not incur significant transaction costs, unlike the classic foreign exchange market. Its volume now amounts to about 2% of the value of all mined gold in the world, and the number of cryptocurrency wallets ranges from 6-12 million. Given the high profitability of digital assets and the transparency of blockchain operations, in the future more and more people will store money in cryptocurrencies and carry out transactions in them payments.

The ICO market is fueling the growth of the crypto-economy and is gradually becoming an effective mechanism for financing projects on the blockchain, providing competition to the classical venture market, which is still small but very effective in the early stages.

Over the past year, the global ICO market has raised more than $1 billion. In June and July 2017, the volume of funds raised through ICOs exceeded the global investment volume of early-stage venture capital funds. Professional investors are actively entering the crypto market, starting to set the rules of the game and determine the development of the industry. In this regard, the first unicorns began to appear on the cryptocurrency market. For example, crypto broker Coinbase was valued at $1.6 billion. In August of this year, it managed to raise $100 million from such venerable venture funds as IVP, Greylock and Battery Ventures.

If you look at the distribution of crypto investments by sector, then projects aimed at creating blockchain infrastructure and using this technology in fintech still prevail. Fintech will most likely be the first industry to switch to financing primarily through ICOs in the coming year. As the cryptocurrency market matures, the ICO industry will extend its mandate to more industries that are in demand in the development of the digital economy.

The volume of the Russian ICO market at the end of 2017 will exceed the volume of closed transactions carried out by classic venture funds. Thus, during the five largest ICOs with Russian roots alone, $190 million was raised this year - this is already more than the result of the entire Russian venture market in 2016 (MobileGo - $53 million, Russian Mining Center - $43 million, SONM - $42 million , BlackMoon Cpypto - $30 million, KICKICO - $21 million).

We can already state the fact that blockchain-based projects receive a much larger amount of funding than the rest of the venture market. Unfortunately, so far 99% of projects are located outside of Russia.

What's next

In the coming years, key centers of the crypto-economy will be formed in the world, which will concentrate the majority of operations and assets in this market, giving a significant impetus to their own digital economy through the introduction of blockchain technologies. The speed of change in the industry right now is amazing. Each country is trying to find the most effective model for regulating operations with cryptocurrencies, including ICOs. For example, Japan, from April 1, 2017, allowed cryptocurrency exchanges to operate on its territory and exempted exchange transactions with cryptocurrencies from taxes.

Singapore not only legalized cryptocurrency platforms, but also formed a fairly liberal position on regulating the issue and sale of digital currencies. Many countries, such as the USA, Switzerland, Estonia, are developing increasingly clear rules of the game, on the basis of which projects will be able to conduct ICOs. Changes happen every day. In essence, we are witnessing a global competitive war between jurisdictions. Russia could take a leading position in this fight by offering effective crypto tools and a regulatory ecosystem, but to do this we need to act extremely quickly.

Article based on materials from the upcoming collection on the digital economy, prepared by the Skolkovo Foundation.

(IIDF) collected statistics on all venture transactions on the Russian market for 2016 and the first half of 2017. The data obtained clearly shows who in Russia is currently investing in startups and in which areas they are investing most actively. We made an infographic based on the numbers - it will help aspiring entrepreneurs understand who they can turn to for money for their business.

We divided all investors into five types:

Accelerators

Private investors

(can invest individually, in syndicates or through specialized crowdinvesting platforms)

Private foundations

State funds

Companies

(corporate investments of both companies themselves and funds created with their participation)

The greatest activity during the period under review was demonstrated by accelerators (primarily IIDF) and business angels - 119 and 104 transactions, respectively. Private funds concluded 80 deals, and corporate investors - 66. Funds and accelerators with government participation financed 24 startups. Another six investments were made by foreign government funds. However, in terms of project financing volumes, the picture is diametrically opposite.

Companies and funds affiliated with them (about 27.8 billion rubles) and private funds (19 billion) spent the most money on the Russian venture capital market. They are followed by private investors (6.6 billion) and accelerators (about 1.1 billion). This is explained simply: accelerators and private investors usually invest small amounts in the early stages of startup development, while funds and corporations invest at later stages and with larger checks. Last on the list are state funds that invested only 724 million rubles. The small amount of funding from the state is explained by the fact that most state funds - such as the Bortnik Foundation - invest money in science-intensive projects in the form of grants, without expecting a return on investment.

What we thought

When calculating the volume of financing for venture projects, transactions whose amounts were not disclosed were not taken into account. At the same time, we considered all investments in Russian startups, including those from foreign funds and investors. For example, the calculations included transactions involving the American accelerator 500 Startups and the Chinese Internet giant Alibaba - it invested $15 million in the Russian startup Way Ray (develops augmented reality technologies for car navigation - Inc.).

The volume of money in the corporate segment was also affected by several large transactions for the purchase of already successful Internet projects: for example, the purchase by the Mail.Ru Group holding of the food delivery service Delivery Club for 5.8 billion rubles.

The patient is most likely alive Interviewed Inc. investors agree that there is some “life” in the Russian market. However, the direction of Russian venture capital remains unclear.

Statistics and comments from market participants show that sentiment is still rather pessimistic. Thus, the MoneyTree study (conducted annually by PwC) showed that the total size of the Russian high-risk investment market in 2016 decreased by 29% - from $232.6 million to $165.2 million, and the number of transactions concluded increased very slightly - from 180 to 184 At the same time, transactions whose size was less than $50 thousand were not taken into account - they are reflected in the IIDF statistics. It is “angel” deals that now make up the bulk of all activity in the venture capital market.

According to the annual Venture Barometer survey, the optimism of Russian investors decreased in 2016. As part of the study, respondents were asked how the number of transactions in Russia will increase by 2022. In 2016, significant growth was predicted by 34% of Russian investors (in 2015 there were 40%), and a slight increase - by 43% (in 2015 - 13%). On the other hand, in 2015, 25% of respondents expected a “significant decrease” in the number of transactions, and in 2016 only 6% shared this opinion.

partner of the iTech Capital fund:

Feelings from the market now are ambivalent. On the one hand, there seem to be deals, some kind of “movement” is happening... But all this is reminiscent of Brownian movement - there is no single vector and no understanding of where all this is heading.

Inc. I learned from representatives of the Russian venture market what they consider to be the trends of these years and a half.

Trend #1: First-time investors

According to Alexey Solovyov from iTech Capital, recently more and more deals on the market are being concluded by those who came to the venture industry for the first time. These are, as a rule, wealthy people and their family offices, who now directly invest in startups. In a survey of Russian investors by Venture Barometer (Soloviev does it annually), 56% of respondents named this one of the trends of the past year.

The liquidity crisis pushed people with free money to look for new investment strategies, explains Vitaly Polekhin, head of the National Association of Business Angels. According to him, over the past year, many medium-sized entrepreneurs and top managers of corporations have joined the “angels.” They have already tried traditional investment instruments (deposits and the stock market) - now it’s the turn of startups.

IIDF data also illustrates the activity of “new” investors. One of them, Alexander Rumyantsev, used to be involved in the stock market, and about a year ago he began investing in startups. Now he is the most active business angel in Russia (he has already invested in 30 projects). “Russian venture capital is still young and is at the stage in which the stock market was 15 years ago,” says Rumyantsev. In his opinion, most investors are still afraid to take risks and play by rules that have not yet been formed.

Read also

Alexey Solovyov: “Investing is like getting married”

The market also owes the emergence of new investors to crowdinvesting platforms - they allow everyone to try venture investments with little risk. “This is how those who have not done this at all before come to the market, but are ready to try, starting with small checks,” says Konstantin Shabalin, CEO of the crowdinvesting platform StartTrack.

According to the Russian Angel Monitor study, the club investment segment actively began to develop in 2015 - then, in particular, the Skolkovo Business School Investors Club, the VentureClub association, and the StartTrack platform appeared. The number of transactions concluded through these structures is growing at a rate of 30-40% per year, and their volume, according to Shabalin’s forecast, by the end of 2017 could reach 2.5-3 billion rubles.

It is very important for the market that such novice investors do not make gross mistakes - for example, do not invest money at inflated estimates, says Alexey Tuknov, investment director of the Maxfield Capital fund. According to him, a startup should not be overvalued initially - so that the capital invested in it in the early stages of development will bring a sufficient return on investment.

33% of Venture Barometer respondents also believe that the increase in the number of wealthy people investing in venture funds is one of the trends of 2016.

Trend No. 2: “Flight of investment”

While “angels” and novice investors are becoming more active in the market, large, commercial funds, on the contrary, are investing more carefully and are increasingly investing in foreign projects.

The local market in Russia is quite limited, and in order for the fund to achieve the planned return of 20-25% per annum, the portfolio needs to have one, or better yet, two “unicorns” - companies whose valuation exceeds $1 billion. These in Russia can be counted on the fingers of one hand , notes managing partner of Inventure Partners Anton Inshutin. In the best case, the fund will be able to sell the company for $50 million, and if very lucky - for $100 million. That is, in order to show a 10-fold return on the initial investment, the fund must “enter” the project at a valuation of $5-10 million - in fact, this The company's first money, not rounds B and above, explains the investor. It is for this reason that many funds investing at mature stages began to actively look for foreign projects to invest money, he points out.

Anton Intushin

partner of the iTech Capital fund:

“We, for example, look at the European market - there is no closed “gentlemen’s club” of investors (unlike the USA - Inc.) who share the most interesting deals among themselves,” says Inshutin. “And geographically, Europe is more convenient than the United States in terms of constant communication with the company’s founders.”

In addition to Inventure, the funds Runa Capital, Almaz Capital, Flint, Target and others began to actively invest abroad (including opening branches). Maxfield Capital, which was initially created to invest in Russian projects and promote them on the global market, also became interested in foreign investments. As the managing partner of this fund, Alexander Turkot, explained, the number of interesting domestic startups turned out to be lower than expected. Therefore, Maxfield Capital turned its attention to the USA, Israel and the UK - countries where the fund's partners have expertise.

Director for work with portfolio companies of the IIDF, Sergei Negodyaev, also believes that the “flight of investment” may be due to the immaturity of Russian startups. “With the advancement of technology, the internet and the venture capital ecosystem, launching a startup has never been easier,” he says. “But growing a business to the point where it meets the requirements of venture capital funds requires just as much time and effort as before.” Over the past year, according to Negodyaev, the number of companies that “died” without waiting for the next round of financing has increased significantly - in the venture capital industry this period in the development of a startup is called the “valley of death.”

The managing partner of the Impulse VC fund agrees with him, who believes that there are few talented founders and startups in Russia, and those who exist often move abroad and start their own business there.

Kirill Belov

Managing partner of the Impulse VC fund:

Since Russia lacks experienced company founders and good startups, then angels and all other investors look at foreign markets. Funds have also switched to investing in other countries. There are many Russian-speaking project founders scattered all over the world, and the flow of projects from these guys is very good in quality and quantity.

Trend #3: Lack of Buyers

Investors are also deterred from financing Russian companies by poor exit prospects. Back in 2015, 83% of Venture Barometer survey participants named the lack of strategic buyers as the main problem for the development of venture capital in Russia. In 2016, 69% of Russian investors said the same; more respondents (72%) were only concerned about the political crisis and Western sanctions against Russia.

After Russia entered the World trading platform, maintaining competitiveness has been a priority of domestic policy for many years. In order for the state to compete on the world stage, there is a need to create new technologies and products, high-tech goods and services. Venture capital funds are the main participants in the financing of innovative products. Consequently, maintaining and developing their activities is a necessary condition for enhancing innovation activity.

So, as it was already clarified earlier, a venture fund is an innovative company that invests in high-risk projects and makes a profit by selling their shares after the project is completed.

The activities of Russian venture funds are developing more and more actively from year to year, but in most cases, information about the number of transactions and their volumes is difficult to access and remains unknown to the market. Based on the analysis of the work of venture funds in the Russian Federation, the portal Firrma.ru with the participation of the Russian venture company OJSC RVC and the strategic partnership of PwC published a rating of the most active venture funds in Russia for 2012 - 2013. Companies for the rating were selected based on the criterion: only Russian funds that made more than two transactions in 2012-2013. “It was necessary to make an “inventory” of all functioning and high-quality funds, because no one has done this publicly yet,” says Dmitry Falaleev, head of Firrma.ru. “The rating is conditional. The only correct criterion is return on investment (ROI), but this indicator is funds , of course, is kept secret. Therefore, we emphasize that this is not a ranking of the “best” funds, but a list of the most active ones for the specified period.” Figure 2.7 shows the rating of 25 companies in the Russian venture industry market over the past two years. The rating was compiled on the basis of selected data on funds, from criteria such as the number of invested projects over the last two years, the number of organized exits, the average transaction amount and the volume of all invested funds.

The most active participant of all Russian funds was the Runa Capital fund. This fund is the only fund that was founded by a serial Russian entrepreneur (Sergei Belousov). The fund invests funds in domestic projects. The results of the fund’s work are impressive: the manufacturer of household appliances Rolsen will appear on the market, which is a strong brand in the modern stage. Also, the world's largest platform, Parallels, for cloud services was created. Also, some of the most famous and successful projects financed by the Runa Capital venture fund are: LinguaLeo, Nginx, Jelastic. If the fund participates in financing the project, its share will range from 20-40%. The fund can provide investment funds of up to $10 million.

The ru-Net venture fund, which is also on the list of the most active funds in Russia, has already invested $80 million over the period of its activity and in the future is ready to invest about $100 million in interesting and successful projects. The fund has financed major projects such as Yandex and OZON, the popular food delivery network Deliveryhero.ru and the B2B invoicing service Tradeshift. If the fund participates in financing the project, its share will be from 30-35, the average rate of return of the fund is 45% per year.

The Kite Ventures fund is ready to invest slightly less than the ru-Net fund in successful projects. Any project that the fund likes can count on up to $10 million, and unlike other Russian funds, the share of the Kite Ventures fund can range from 3% to 30%. Also, the fund has serious advantages compared to other participants: it provides all possible assistance to business development, uses all possible connections, and searches for partners.

Since 2008, another fund, Almaz Capital, has been operating, the volume of which is $72 million. The fund's share in the invested project can range from 10-50%.

RVC is a state fund of funds and development institute of the Russian Federation, one of the key instruments of the state in building a national innovation system. The company plays a system-forming role in the development of the venture capital market in Russia. This is a kind of coordinator of the process of innovative development, a meeting place for all participants in the innovation process: the state as the direct founder of RVC and as a regulator of the process of modernization of Russia, scientific sites (for example, Skolkovo), venture funds and the infrastructure of companies that serve the innovation sphere.

As practice shows, the RVC fund is very popular among small businesses. He looks for promising companies and finances mainly at the seed stage of development, so if a company has developed a business based on high-tech discoveries, then there is a high chance of receiving investment. The volume of the fund is 2 billion rubles, the period of work is not limited, and the share in the invested project can be up to 75%, but not more than 25 million rubles.

We can conclude that in Russia there is a sufficient number of funds and the potential to develop and improve the venture environment. The venture industry market is at the “maturing” stage, becoming more transparent and active. Objective criteria for measuring the fund's activities have appeared - the number of transactions, the volume of investments, the number of exits from companies. “The last year has been busy for Russia, many transactions have been made, many venture investors were able to increase their portfolio, and time will tell the profitability of transactions, on average 6 years,” noted Dmitry Chikhachev, general partner of the Runa Capital fund.

In addition to the most active funds in the Russian Federation considered, the positive dynamics of the emergence of new funds in the venture capital market attracts attention.

Rice. 2.8 - Number of venture funds in the period from 2007 to 2013.

The upward trend is obvious; in 2013, the number of funds increased by 11% compared to previous year. But the number of liquidated funds, on the contrary, has decreased significantly. The emergence of new funds in 2012 exceeded all expectations, and if such a sharp increase is considered an outlier, then we can say that, in general, approximately the same number of funds have been emerging steadily since 2007.

From the point of view of analyzing industry preferences, it can be noted that venture investments continue to be concentrated in the field of IT technologies (Fig. 2.9).

Rice. 2.9 - Distribution of total investment volumes by industry

The IT technology sector accounts for the majority of investments and accounts for 88% of the total. Industrial equipment accounts for no more than 10% in the first half of 2013. In particular, corporate and private funds invest in the IT technology sector, and government agencies invest more than 80% in industry. CEO venture fund Runa Capital believes that bio- and industrial technologies are a more risky area, unlike other types of activities, since development requires more time, and the process of producing the product itself is more labor-intensive. Perhaps this fact influences the decision of investors to make investments and choose in favor of another area. Also, the IT technology sector at the present stage is more developed and interesting for developers; more good ideas arise as a result of the success of foreign companies.

Energy was the most attractive investment area for investors after financial services in 2012. But in the first half of 2013 it dropped sharply to its lowest point. Perhaps this situation arose in connection with the discovery of the Bovanenkovskoye oil and gas field on the Yamal Peninsula in 2012, and a large number of investments are associated with the development and installation of energy products.

The IT sector includes a wide range of services provided, the most attractive of which for investors is the area called eCommerce or electronic commerce.

Rice. 2.10. - Distribution of investments in the IT sector

For example, the share of investments in e-commerce is 42%. This figure reached a record high of 82% in 2012 due to two largest transactions. One of which was completed with the Internet service Avito.ru for $75 million, and the second with the currently well-known online store KupiVIP for $39 million. E-commerce in modern world is the largest sector of the economy, and without the development of this industry it is impossible to imagine our life. IT technology projects are favorites for entrepreneurs and investors because more and more attention is focused on them, they are exciting and quickly pay for themselves. In Fig. Figure 2.11 shows the average size of a venture deal for 2012-2013.

Rice. 2.11. - The average size venture deal, million US dollars

The average transaction volume for the 2nd quarter of 2013 is $1.6 million, which is 4% less than in the first. Despite the drop in the transaction amount, it is still quite acceptable.

Rice. 2.12. - Volume venture financing by type of investor, million US dollars

The most active investors in the 2nd quarter of 2013 were private venture funds, investing $44.9 million (51.5% of all venture investments) in 16 projects. Private funds thus retained their leadership in these indicators, although both the volume and number of transactions dropped by almost half during the quarter: in the first quarter, private funds invested $88.5 million in 32 companies.

It should be noted that in the Russian venture market one can trace a certain industry specialization of investors. Thus, in the 2nd quarter, only private funds and business angels invested in e-commerce, and exclusively government funds invested in biological technologies. This “division of labor” can be associated with the low activity of private funds in the early stages of development of venture companies: venture projects in the fields of biomedical and industrial technologies are mainly at the seeding stage. In addition, IT for private foundations is an opportunity to make money on copies of successful Western projects, which does not exist in the biological and industrial fields.

A distinctive feature of the Russian venture market is the extremely low activity of corporate funds. In the 2nd quarter of 2013, they invested only 1.8% of the total investment in the venture market, and at the end of 2012 this figure was even less - 1.5%. For comparison, over the past 10 years, the share of corporate venture investments in the volume of the US venture capital market ranged from 6.8% to 9.1% in different years.

The Russian venture market showed good results not only in terms of investment volume, but also in terms of capitalization of venture funds. According to RAVI data, at the end of six months of 2013, 173 funds managed a total of $5,211 million.

Rice. 2.13. - Capitalization of Russian venture funds

The driving force behind the record growth in fund capitalization, which exceeded $1.3 billion in 2013, was the decapitalization of existing funds and the creation of new ones. This result was generally the opposite of the negative outcome of 2012 in key global markets.

Each year, the number of new funds during the period under review significantly exceeded the number of liquidations. At the same time, there is a downward trend in the average volume of a new fund.

Based on these data, we can conclude that the Russian market is still far from consolidating. Several management companies with strong investment histories continue to successfully raise new funds, but none have achieved significant market share. Over the coming years, larger players with a positive history, sound strategy and deep understanding of the market should emerge, attracting a significant share of funding and allowing the market to consolidate.

An analysis of the funds’ performance results shows that, in general, investment activity this year remains at a fairly high level, however, to achieve the 2012 indicators, additional efforts will be required, especially in terms of investments at the “venture” stages, the volumes of which so far only reach about a quarter of those achieved in previous period.

Rice. 2.14. - Distribution of investments by stages of company development

The main share of investments in monetary terms (about 86%) was directed to companies of “mature” stages, which are at the stage of expansion, restructuring and late stage. In turn, in terms of the number of investments made, almost 80% of companies received funding at the “venture” stages (which include seed and seed, as well as early stage).

Thus, by the end of the first half of the year, the volume of recorded investments at the “venture” stages is still approximately a quarter of the level achieved in 2012 ($397 million). In turn, the total volume of investments in companies at the stages of expansion, restructuring and late stage, taking into account the largest transaction in the telecommunications industry (for the size of which there are only expert estimates, which does not yet allow it to be included in the total list of recorded investments) reached about 50% of 2012 level.

Thanks to the efforts of the state, private business, RVC and other development institutions over the past few years, Russia has managed to solve the problem of creating an independently developing venture investment industry. The Russian venture market is growing both quantitatively and qualitatively. The country has formed the main elements of the venture investment ecosystem. But most importantly, the activity of private investors, including foreign ones, is noticeably increasing. At the same time, it is obvious that the young and fast-growing Russian venture investment market is still characterized by a number of disproportions - both stage-specific, associated with insufficient supply of capital at the seed and pre-seed stages of innovative projects, and sectoral: in most priority industries, except for the Internet, e-commerce and telecommunications, there is a lack of capital supply. There is also a problem of scale, characteristic not only of the venture capital industry, but also of the entire segment of the Russian knowledge economy: the share of innovative business (products and services) in the country’s total GDP is still relatively small. The development of the industry in the coming years will largely be determined by the effectiveness of the efforts undertaken by all participants in the Russian venture investment market.

As a state institution for the development of the venture industry of the Russian Federation and the national innovation system, RVC can help achieve the goal through the use of an effective set of financial and non-financial instruments. With the help of tools aimed at supporting technological entrepreneurship in the early stages of projects carried out in priority industry areas, as well as further involving Russian and international private capital in the Russian venture market, improving market infrastructure, facilitating the entry of Russian innovative businesses into the global market and its integration into international value chains.

The Russian venture investment industry is entering a new phase associated with the transition from the “launch” stage of the market to its harmonization and growth. RVC is optimistic about the prospects of the Russian venture capital market, the development of which will be carried out through close interaction and partnership between government authorities, development institutions and business representatives, including international ones.