Leader, an asset management company affiliated with Vneshekonombank, Gazprom, and Gazfond, has invested $5 million in Vizerra, a Moscow-based developer of 3D applications for planning cities, construction projects, product design, and virtual tourism. The news was reported last week by Russian business daily Kommersant, which quoted representatives from both companies.
Vizerra – in which Mashable saw last year one of the top 20 Russian startups – transforms static data in the form of sketches, drawings, or photographs into a 3D image that can be iterated. The company has made 3D maps of the Skolkovo innovation city, the Taj Mahal, the Colosseum, and the Brest Fortress, which users can ‘travel.’
Leader is the largest management company in Russia in terms of funds under control (445.7 billion rubles or approximately $11.3 billion, as of June 30th). The maximum volume of investment by Leader in one venture project is 300 million rubles (approximately $8 million). Leader earlier invested in IT company Aiko, Vokord SoftLab, and WebMediaGroup.
Vizerra obtained its first investment back in 2008 from lawyer Aleksandr Dobrovinsky. Then, in 2011, the company picked up $4 million from Solway Investment Group, which brought the company’s valuation to $16 million. The current shareholder structure and financial indicators are not disclosed.
