Russian state organizations invited to become co-investors of venture funds

The RF Ministry of Economic Development has worked out the principles of co-investment in the Russian and international venture capital funds. The document was published recently at the official site of the department. In particular, it offers local organizations wholly or partially owned by the state, to become co-investors of venture capital funds - in order to implement the tasks in the field of innovative and technological development, implementation of innovation development programs and strategic research programs of technological platforms.

Ministry of Economic Development notes that these principles are developed in response to the orders of the RF President. As stated in the document, investing in venture capital fund makes better use of them by increasing the number of potential investees, investment risk-sharing with co-investors, as well as delegating the authority in the search for investees of a specialized management company with the necessary experience and competencies.

To implement the provisions of the document state organizations are invited to design their own procedure for co-investment including the information on co-investment purposes, management companies selection criteria, the requirements to the technology and managerial skills transfer mechanisms, sectoral and technological priorities, geography of venture capital fund, the presence of co-investors.

However, it is recommended to give priority to the Russian venture funds jurisdiction.

The main mechanisms provided by the document for legal entities are share acquisition, shares of a specially created entity. The absence of legal entity presupposes using the mechanism of joining the contributions within the investment partnership, the share acquisition of a closed share investment fund of extremely risky venture capital investment.