The new venture fund will focus on growth stage start-ups dedicated to the development of new information and communication technologies for financial institutions. This will not only include start-ups from Russia, but also take the most promising innovations from around the world and invest in their development.
In addition to the investment and its trusted reputation on the financial services market, Sberbank proposes to use the experience gained by its own Technology Research Centre. This will help the portfolio companies to grow new technologies and optimise their commercial prospects via accelerated paths to enter the market in accordance with the bank’s investment strategy.
Victor Orlovskiy, Senior Vice President at Sberbank of Russia, commented: “This venture fund is proof of Sberbank’s commitment to the idea of developing the latest technologies and applying them in Sberbank Group’s operations. With the help of breakthrough technologies, Sberbank will be able to discover new markets and offer clients unique services. We are certain that with our potential portfolio companies, Sberbank will be interesting not only as an investment partner, but also as the largest consumer of the technologies offered by the aforementioned companies.”
According to Artyom Yukhin, the head of Troika Dialog’s venture division, the venture fund is focused on technology and will serve as a catalyst for further efforts to create a an environment for the development of start-ups and technological innovations, which will be beneficial to the financial sector in the future.
Meanwhile Troika Ventures has successfully achieved the first exit from its investment portfolio by selling its share in Evernote Corporation to Sequoia Capital, the leading Californian venture company. Troika Ventures was Evernote’s first institutional investor, which has since successfully attracted multiple investment rounds from top tier international and US venture funds, including Docomo Capital, Morgenthaler Ventures and Sequoia Capital.
“Evernote was one of the first companies that we invested in,” said Artyom Yukhin, the head of Troika Dialog’s venture division. “In addition to financing, we provided expertise and assistance at an early stage to bring the company to the forefront of consumer internet and mobile services. Since Troika’s investment, the company’s user base increased in three years from 500,000 to over 20 million users. This allowed the company to evolve from a promising startup project of Russian visionary entrepreneur Stepan Pachikov to an established market leader. The exit, at over ten times our original commitment, was a difficult decision for Troika and for me personally, but we ultimately decided to provide liquidity to our investors at a multiple return on their investment rather than await the next exit opportunity. Evernote has an absolutely unique team and we are proud of its achievements and have no doubt that the company will continue to flourish under the leadership of its CEO, Phil Libin.”
Sequoia Capital is one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture firms with over $4 bln of assets under management. Since 1972 it has funded such companies as Apple, Google, YouTube, NVIDIA, Zappos and others. The firm specialises in investing in private companies at different stages of development, from seed stage to growth stage.
Evernote is a suite of software and services designed for notetaking and archiving. It makes it easy to remember things big and small from your everyday life using your computer, phone, tablet and the web. Founded by Russian entrepreneur and visionary Stepan Pachikov, web service launched into open beta on June 24, 2008 and acquired a whopping 15 million users just in 3 years. The service is international with strong presence in the US, Japan and Russia.
