Rosinfocominvest starts partner selection

The Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation reports that Rosinfocominvest state investment fund has started the selection of partners for co-financing of projects in information technologies. In May 2013, the Ministry of Communications of Russia refocused the investment policy of Rosinfocominvest towards the development of new IT companies in cooperation with qualified partners from commercial venture funds.

According to the selection rules, Rosinfocominvest’s partners can be venture capital funds or their management companies that control assets worth at least 300M RUR.

There are other requirements for candidates, including:
- an office in Russia with at least three members and a leader with significant experience in ICT;
- investments over 180M RUR made no more than a year ago in at least five ICT companies with the share of Russian citizens over 20% among the founders;
- ability to invest more than 150M RUR in ICT companies.

Investing funds in projects of Rosinfocominvest’s partner funds will be implemented through a contribution to the authorized capital of projects’ operator companies created under the Russian law as closed joint-stock companies. The total volume of investment in all projects proposed by one partner cannot exceed 90M RUR. The volume of investment in a single project cannot be less than 10M RUR or exceed 30M RUR.

Recall that the management company of Rosinfocominvest is MC Leader. The Fund’s new operation order involves Rosinfocominvest’s co-financing of ICT projects with the participation of successful venture capital funds operating in the Russian Federation. The fund will mainly support early stage ICT companies. Previously, the fund invested funds exclusively in securities of large public ICT companies.