Private Equity

Artyom Yukhin: "The Russian innovation market has matured for commercial investments"

Venture Capital Director briefs on those loosing who don't risk.

The government has been creating infrastructure for venture capital investments in Russia since 2006. For how long have you been involved into this project?

Troika Dialog has been pioneer of the Russian venture capital since the federal Government launched the state program of establishing public-private partnerships in the innovation sector. In 2006-2007 we were mandated to manage 3 regional VC funds – in Tatarstan, Krasnoyarsk, and Moscow Region. We are one of the undisputed market leaders by assets under management – over US$ 1.2 billion rubles as at the beginning of 2008. I think Russian innovation sector has matured for commercial investments. Thus, our team started investing into a number of projects. As our main goal is still profit generation.

Could you name some projects you’ve invested in?

We invest in equity of high-tech companies operating in such sectors as Web 2.0 and traditional IT, alternative energy and clean tech, new materials and optoelectronics. As an example, the first investee company of the Regional Venture Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan was iiko start-up project with the ABBYY Software House Founder David Yang. iiko is ERP/CRM software solutions developer for hospitality industry. Among the company clients are such brands as "Sbarro", "Kofe Haus", "Vinegret", "Asia Cafe" and "Bash na bash" restaurant chains.

Another innovation project we carry through is in the field of THz imaging and spectroscopy solutions. To my mind, it's based on a truly revolutionary invention. Additionally, our company plans to raise a new venture fund targeting foreign institutional investors and high net worth individuals in the view of financing promising projects across the whole territory of Russia.