Runa Capital

Runa Capital is an international venture capital firm headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States[1] that invests in deep tech (AI, machine learning, middleware, open source, etc), cloud business software, fintech, edutech and digital health startups on early stages.[2] From 2010 through 2019 Runa Capital raised 3 funds and invested in over 60 companies in more than 12 countries betweenEurope and North America, including Nginx, MariaDB, Zopa, Brainly, drchrono, Smava and Mambu.[3]

Runa Capital
TypeLimited partnership
IndustryVenture Capital
Founded2010 (2010)
Founders
Headquarters
Palo Alto, California
,
United States
Number of locations
Palo Alto, Berlin, Paris, Moscow (2019)
Area served
Europe, North America
Key people
AUM$340 million (July 2019)
Websiterunacap.com

History
Runa Capital partners (left to right): Dmitry Galperin, Dmitry Chikhachev, Andre Bliznyuk, Serguei Beloussov, Ilya Zubarev

Runa Capital was founded by technological entrepreneurs Serguei Beloussov and Ilya Zubarev (founders of Acronis and Parallels), and their Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology mate Dmitry Chikhachev.[4] The idea of venture firm took shape in 2009 and was formally incorporated in 2010.[5] The partners contributed their own money into the first fund and raised capital from friends and other international investors including Achim Weiss and Andreas Gauger, founders of German hosting provider 1&1, and Edward Nicholson, former CEO of Brunswick-UBS in Russia.[6][3]

In 2011 Andre Bliznyuk, former head of Russia/CIS Equity Capital Markets Group in Goldman Sachs joined Runa Capital as investment partner.[7][8][9] As of July 2019 the firm had over 340 million dollars under management in 3 funds.[3]

Funds
  • Runa Capital I, firm's first namesake fund was launched in 2010, reached its final size of $135 million by 2012[10] and was focused on investments from seed to Series B stage.[11] The initial idea was to fund globally oriented Russian startups in the fields of cloud computing, machine learning, virtualization, mobile and internet apps, but later the partners expanded investment area to Europe and USA.[1][9]
  • Runa Capital II was launched in 2014 and reached $135 million by 2016 with large commitments from the first fund's backers.[1] The second fund aimed at Series A and B rounds.[11][12] Firm's new office was opened in California in 2015.[13]
  • Runa Capital III raised the first $70 million in July with target sum of $135 million. The third fund followed strategy of the second fund with increased focus on deep tech startups.[1][3]

Investments

Runa Capital invests from $1 million to $10 million largely in Series A rounds. From 2010 through 2019 it invested in over 60 companies equally split between North America and Europe:[3]

CompanyDescriptionHQ locationInvestedAcquiredAcquirer
Nginx[14] Open-source web server San Francisco[15] 2011 2019 F5[16]
Metabar Recommendations plug-in Moscow 2011 2014 Yandex[17]
X-Cart E-commerce platform Athens 2011 — —
Mambu[18] SaaS banking platform Berlin 2012 — —
ThinkGrid Cloud computing platform London[19] 2012 2012 Colt Technology Services)[20]
Capptain[21] Mobile analytics Paris 2012 2014 Microsoft[22]
StopTheHacker Anti-malware Burlingame, CA 2012 2014 CloudFlare[23]
Acumatica Cloud ERP Bellevue, WA 2013 2019 EQT Partners[24]
Zopa[25] Peer-to-peer lending London 2013 — —
Rocketbank[26] Mobile banking app Moscow 2013 2016 Otkritie FC Bank[27]
BackupAgent[28] Cloud backup service Delft[29] 2013 2014 Acronis[30]
Brainly[31] Social learning network Krakow 2014 — —
SchoolMint[32] Enrollment service for US schools San Francisco[33] 2014 2017 Hero K12[34]
MariaDB[35] Relational database management system Espoo; Redwood City, CA[36] 2015 — —
Critizr[37] Experience management platform for retail Paris[38] 2015 — —
Procurify[39] Cloud-based procurement software Vancouver 2016 — —
drchrono[40] Electronic health record platform Mountain View, CA[41] 2017 — —
Smava[42] Consumer loan portal Berlin[43] 2018 — —
Final[44] Credit card startup Oakland, CA 2016 2018 Goldman Sachs[45]
Kreditech[46] Online banking Hamburg 2019 — —
Kontomatik[47] Open banking Warsaw 2020

Affiliated funds

Runa Capital’s partners were involved in the creation of several other venture funds:

  • Quantum Wave (QWave) headquartered in Boston is a $30 million early-stage fund focused on companies working in the field of quantum technology.[48] Serguei Beloussov is QWave's venture partner.[49] According to TechCrunch, QWave effectively served as a "materials science" arm for Runa Capital. Its notable investments include Swiss quantum cryptography startup ID Quantique that was acquired by SK Telecom in 2018.[3][50]
  • Phystech Ventures was venture firm founded in 2013 by several technological entrepreneurs including MIPT (known as Phystech) alumni Serguei Beloussov and Dmitry Chikachev.[51] In 2019 Phystech Ventures and North Energy Ventures united their portfolios and formed the Terra VC venture firm.[52]

References
  1. "Runa Capital raises $70 million to invest in 'deep-tech' startups". East-West Digital News. July 16, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  2. "Meet Europe's most active SaaS investors". GrowthList. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  3. Mike Butcher (July 11, 2019). "Runa Capital closes $70M for its third fund aimed at early-stage 'deep tech'". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  4. Deni Connor (April 24, 2008). "Acronis rolls out data protection software for SMBs". Network World. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  5. Joji Thomas Philipp (April 17, 2015). "Dmitry Chikhachev. The need for a home run in portfolio". LiveMint. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  6. Steve O'Hear (February 3, 2011). "Runa Capital ups it fund to $50m for early-stage Russian startups". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  7. "Andre Bliznyuk". Bloomberg. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  8. Kia Kokalitcheva (July 3, 2014). "Russian VC firm Runa Capital has a new fund, and it's refocusing on European tech". VentureBeat. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  9. Steve O'Hear (August 2, 2010). "Runa Capital's $30m fund for Russian startups aims to build bridges with Europe and U.S." TechCrunch. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  10. "Runa Capital fund size increased to US$ 135 million". the Runet. June 5, 2012. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  11. Adrien Henni (May 18, 2016). "Runa Capital raises $135-million second fund". East-West Digital News. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  12. "Moscow-based Runa Capital to invest up to $200 million in European startups". East-West Digital News. June 4, 2014. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  13. Lizette Chapman (July 15, 2015). "Russia's Runa Capital Opens San Francisco Office". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  14. "Top ranking Russian web server Nginx raises $3 million from Russian and international funds". East-West Digital News. October 13, 2011. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  15. "Nginx Inc". Bloomberg. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  16. Joseph Tsidulko (March 11, 2019). "F5 Networks Will Buy NGINX For $670 Million". CRN. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  17. Ingrid Lunden (December 9, 2014). "Yandex Buys Sovetnik To Expand Its E-Commerce Business With Better Recommendations". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  18. "Berlin-Based SaaS Baking Platform Mambu Raises €30 Million". Startup TV. February 21, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  19. "ThinkGrid Ltd". Bloomberg. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  20. Ingrid Lunden (August 13, 2012). "An Exit In The Cloud: Colt Buys ThinkGrid To Beef Up Its Small Enterprise Cloud Services Business". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  21. Ingrid Lundgen (March 27, 2012). "Russian Money Into French Clouds: App Analytics Platform Capptain Gets $1.5M From Runa Capital". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  22. Ingrid Lunden (May 28, 2014). "Microsoft Buys Mobile App Management Platform Capptain To Beef Up Azure". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  23. Frederic Lardinois (February 24, 2014). "CloudFlare Acquires Anti-Malware Firm StopTheHacker". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  24. "Almaz Capital and Runa Capital exit from US cloud ERP Acumatica". East-West Digital News. June 20, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  25. "Runa бесшумно вошла в Zopa" [Runa Capital invested in Zopa] (in Russian). VC.ru. July 10, 2013. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  26. Marie Ashley Kummerlowe. "Runa Capital injects $2 million in mobile banking startup with global ambitions". East-West Digital News. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  27. Adrien Henni (April 21, 2016). "Russian mobile banking in transition: Instabank shuts down, Rocketbank acquired by Otkrytie". East-West Digital News. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  28. Mike Butcher (March 19, 2013). "BackupAgent In The Netherlands Gets $2M From Moscow's Runa Capital To Go Global". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  29. "BackupAgent Adds Unlimited Distribution Tiers To Its Platform". OnlineBackupReviews. June 26, 2012. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  30. Mike Butcher (September 3, 2014). "Runa Capital Achieves An Exit As BackupAgent Is Acquired By Acronis". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  31. "Runa Capital invests in global social learning network Brainly". Runa Capital. October 17, 2014. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  32. "Runa Capital leads $2.2 million round in US school admission startup". East-West Digital News. September 23, 2014. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  33. "Schoolmint Inc". Bloomberg. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  34. Tony Wan (October 30, 2017). "Hero K12 Mints Its First Acquisition: School Enrollment Startup, SchoolMint". EdSurge. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  35. "Runa Capital invests €3 million in Finnish open source database solution provider MariaDB Corp". East-West Digital News. February 27, 2015. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  36. Philip Howard. "MariaDB". Bloor. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  37. Aude Fredouelle (December 10, 2015). "Le spécialiste de la relation client Critizr lève 2,5 million d'euros" [Customer Relationship Specialist Critizr raises 2.5 million euros] (in French). JDN. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  38. "Critizr Raises €1M in Funding". Finsmes. April 11, 2016. Retrieved September 19, 2019.
  39. Kirk Falconer (November 17, 2016). "Procurify secures $7 mln in Runa Capital-led Series A round". PE Hub Network. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  40. Sarah Buhr (April 6, 2017). "Drchrono raises $12 million in Series A to take on older EHR platforms like athenahealth". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  41. "drchrono Inc". Bloomberg. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  42. Ingrid Lunden (January 1, 2018). "Germany's Smava raises $65M to expand its consumer loan portal". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  43. "smava GmbH". Bloomberg. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  44. Haje Jan Kamps (June 29, 2016). "Final is a plaster on the gaping wound that is U.S. credit card security". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  45. Ainsley Harris (January 30, 2018). "Goldman Sachs Acquires Team Behind Credit Card Startup Final". Fast Company. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  46. Ingrid Lunden (September 25, 2019). "Kreditech, the AI-based near-prime loans platform, nabs $22M under new CEO to expand globally". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
  47. "Kontomatic was acquired by Runa Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners and two individual investors". Nordic. 16 September 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
  48. Shara Tibken (December 10, 2012). "Quantum computing goes mainstream? New VC fund debuts". Cnet. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  49. Bob Yirka (December 14, 2012). "Venture capital firm – Quantum Wave Fund – looking to invest $100 million in quantum physics". Phys.org. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  50. Cho Mu-Huyn (February 26, 2018). "SK Telecom buys half of Swiss quantum-safe crypto firm for $65m". ZDNet. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  51. Павел Фёдоров (October 13, 2014). "Первой инвестицией фонда Белоусова и партнёров Phystech Ventures стали топливные элементы для дронов" [Fuel elements for drones became the first investments of Seguei Beloussov's fund and Phystech Ventures partners] (in Russian). VC.ru. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  52. Татьяна Боброва (April 24, 2019). "Две российские венчурные компании запустили новый фонд объёмом $40 млн для инвестиций в ИИ и робототехнику" [Two Russian venture firms launched a $40 million fund focused on AI and robotics] (in Russian). VC.ru. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
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