Earlier this month, Softline Venture Partners, the venture arm of the Moscow-based international software licensor and IT service provider Softline Group, announced an investment of $750,000 in an advanced IT developer, TurboHeads, in neighboring Belarus. ActiveCloud, another Softline Group subsidiary and IaaS/SaaS solution provider, has also participated in the round of financing.
The group is now putting together a cloud product development center to assist small and medium-sized businesses across the former Soviet Union. TurboHeads, whose development team is also the pivot of the new center, enjoys a dominant share on the Bielorussian online accounting solution market.
The three began collaborating earlier this year when the Russian investors helped TurboHeads launch a business incubator to nurture and fund startups.
Later this month, the partners are hoping to roll out their inaugural joint solution, an evolution of TurboHeads’ flagship product. The next-gen platform will enable small-scale companies to draw on Bielorussian solutions and also use APIs to integrate products by third-party developers.
Softline expects to market anywhere between three and ten cloud apps a year. Assistant-enabled services will be on offer directly or via White Label channels facilitated by the current investors and their partner companies.
Softline has years of experience investing in a range of IT projects. The group’s main area of interest is supporting SaaS and IaaS providers.
Softline’s other investments have included mobile apps, e-commerce and contextual advertising. Its most prolific investor partnership has been with the Moscow Seed Fund; the two jointly funded ActiveCloud this past summer.
Sources: ActiveCloud, TurboHeads
