Runa Capital, a Moscow-based fund that began investing outside Russia last fall, is providing $1.5 million in funding to Capptain, a French startup that has developed a SaaS platform for mobile analytics and marketing.
Capptain’s valuation has not been disclosed, but Runa is a minority shareholder, Laurent Lathieyre, the startup’s co-founder, told East-West Digital News.
Attracted by the fast-growing global market for mobile applications, which was estimated at $9 billion in 2011, Runa chose Capptain for its “highly competitive solution, as effective as the most popular solutions, which at the same time offers better visualization and more flexible report customization,” said Runa Capital Managing Partner Dmitry Chikhachev.
Chikhachev has become a member of Capptain’s board of directors.
Established in 2010, Runa Capital has its headquartered in Moscow but the majority of its LPs are from outside Russia. The fund’s portfolio includes BigTime, a US SaaS provider, ThinkGrid, a UK headquartered global cloud company, and US website security startup StopTheHacker, in addition to Russian startups.
Capptain’s CEO Laurent Lathieyre: “There is a ‘Death Valley’ in venture investment in France.”
Why did you come to Russia to find money? Does this reflect a lack of venture capital in France?
In the first place, we did not go to Moscow to raise money. We went to pursue business opportunities and serve customers. One of them introduced us to some Russian VCs. Yes, in France, there is what I would call a “Death Valley” between seed and expansion stages. According to a Chausson Finance survey, VC investments in France in 2011 decreased by 21% compared to 2010!
Did you notice differences in the approach of Runa as a VC compared to VCs from France or other Western countries?
I can tell you that Runa Capital was different than other VCs right from the very first meeting we had with them: Runa is smart, swift, direct, and helpful. Some differences? I would say it’s a different world! To put it mildly, citing Fred Destin, the European VC industry needs a revolution, not an evolution.
Have you got any development plans in Russia?
With its fast-growing mobile app industry, the Russian Federation is definitely a market we want to address seriously. Runa brings us more than money, we intend to use their experience, coverage, network, and expertise to expand in Russia and some other key markets.
