Russian startups becoming more attractive for investment

Russian startups are getting more popular for investment, but the USA, China and Malaysia are yet more attractive, according to the experts who gathered at one of the round table discussions of the 42 conference held in Moscow, Digit.ru says.

The superiority in terms of the investment volume is kept by the United States. Thus, according to Igor Taber, Intel Capital director of investments in Russia and the CIS, a major investment company, about a half of their investments account for the USA. Many interesting startups, according to the experts, appear in China, Malaysia, Israel and Russia, but India is perceived as a cloned market where the startupers largely reproduce already rolled-in models.

Russia has a lot of ideas, intellectual potential, but there is no ecosystem - Joyce Franklin from X.Million Capital Ventures says. - If such major players as Yandex, Mail.Ru or the big three mobile operators invest in startups, then this will increase the investment attractiveness of the market for foreign venture capitalists.

Investors also note that the majority of the Russian start-ups are focused on the domestic market, which reduces their investment attractiveness. Contrary to the developers from China, having a very large domestic market due to which there is no need to hesitate entering the global markets, or contrary to the business initiatives from Israel having close ties with the United States and Britain, and which serves, in particular, as a platform for running-in new projects, it is necessary for the Russian startups to aim at global expansion. Experts believe that the best solution may be initial positioning of the Russian projects as directed on the Russian-speaking segment of the global market.

It took ten years for the two players from the first Russian start-ups generation - Yandex and Mail.Ru – to become companies estimated at billions of dollars, and it will take about five years for the second-generation startups to be of the same value, experts concur. Players taking leadership position in the segment can become such companies, experts say.

Among the investment trends the discussion participants mark such areas as electronic commerce, the mobile applications development, social games, and cloud technology.

The discussion of Trends in Venture Investment: What do Europe, Russia, and the United States Invest in? held at the 42 conference, brought together the following experts: Alexander Galitsky (Almaz Capital Partners), Igor Taber (Intel Capital), David Vorkvir (Mankgrove Capital Pertners) and John Zdanowski from Foresight Ventures.

The 42 Conference is held in cooperation with the Skolkovo meets DLD (Digital Life Design).