Russian Venture Company, the state owned fund of funds dedicated to innovation, announced on Wednesday its indirect participation in the $150 million round of financing of WhaleShark Media Inc., a global leader in online coupon sales, through its UK affiliate Institutional Venture Partners XIII (IVP).
JP Morgan Asset Management also took part in the round, bringing WhaleShark’s cumulative investor funding to nearly $300 million.
WhaleShark Media coupon sites attract more than 300 million visitors annually with discounts on services from more than 130,000 merchants, stores and retailers. The WhaleShark Media portfolio includes RetailMeNot.com and Voucher Codes.co.uk, the largest sites for coupon sales in the US and in Europe respectively, as well as many others.
“The e-coupon business has shown significant growth in Russia over the last year and a half. We need good examples of investment in such companies to encourage Russian entrepreneurs to go further using international experience,” RVC Investment Director Yan Ryazantsev commented.
IVP XIII, a major later stage venture capital and growth equity firm, was joined in 2010 by Russian Venture Capital II LP, a fully owned RVC subsidiary registered in the UK.
Last month IVP XIII invested in Dropbox, a leading US cloud storage startup. Earlier this year the international fund invested in Sugar Inc., a global media company targeting for women, Clearspring Technologies, a US based online data company, Shazam, a developer of popular applications for mobile devices, and One Kings Lane, a leading US flash sales site on the home furnishings market.
Last year, RVC fully owned subsidiary Russian Venture Capital I LP invested $10 million directly in BrightSource Energy, a provider of solar power thermal systems.
