Last week US seed fund and accelerator 500 Startups announced new investing partners to invest in several new countries of the world, including Russia and Eastern Europe, Japan, Germany, Israel and Turkey.
Diana Moldavsky has joined the organization as Investment Partner covering Eastern Europe, Russia/CIS, Israel, Central Asia.
“Markets in the Eastern European region are still underserved at seed stage. There are many top tech universities and as a result top level talented technical folks but not as much business expertise, experience building global businesses or doing business internationally,” Moldavsly believes, saying she will “help fix this by bridging the continents.”
“I’m looking for promising new seed-stage tech startups with functional products (not just ideas), customer usage & revenue, and most importantly talented, crazy, passionate founders,” she added in the 500 Startups blog.
Her main focus will be consumer Internet and consumer mobile startups especiallymarketplaces, shared economy and on demand services, educational apps and games, health and wellness apps, communication, advertising and monetization, SAAS.
Moldavsky previously worked as Chief Revenue Officer at ZeptoLab, a successful Russian mobile game publisher.
500 Startups founder David McClure has been a firm believer in Russia’s high tech potential for years. “The market looks pretty fucking good in Russia for the next ten years. So the future is fucking bright! Time to buy sunglasses!,” he stated in a Moscow event in 2012.
Since its inception in 2010 in Silicon Valley, 500 Statups has been building a truly global network of mentors, advisors and investors. It has invested in over 700 companies in more than 40 countries in Latin America (over 100 investments), Southeast Asia, India, East Asia and theMiddle East / North Africa (MENA). It has also launched micro-funds focusing specifically in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Korea, Thailand and India.
