Target Global, an international venture fund with Russian backers, has spent $13 million to acquire a 0.65% stake in US food delivery startup Blue Apron. The transaction remained under the radars until it was revealed earlier this month by the fund’s managing partner Mike Lobanov in an interview with Russian business daily Vedomosti.
Lobanov did not specify whether the money went to the startup in a capital increase operation, or to buy Blue Apron shares from an existing shareholder.
Another Russian investor also acquired a stake in Blue Apron, said Lobanov. He disclosed neither the identity of this second investor nor the related transaction details. Blue Apron’s press service declined to answer Vedomosti’s inquiry.
The two Russian funds had to compete hard with other VCs to buy the Blue Apron shares, Lobanov conceded.
This past June, a bevy of prominent US funds took part is the startup’s latest round of financing. Blue Apron secured no less than $135 million at a nearly $2 billion valuation.
In late 2014 Instacart, another grocery delivery startup, closed a $210 million investment at a similar valuation.
In Russia, Blue Apron copycat ChefMarket.ru was valued at a modest $25 million when it raised $5 million last month. But its founder Sergey Ashin targets a $1 billion valuation “in five to seven years.”
A global investment story
Launched in 2013, Target Global (previously known as Target Ventures) exemplifies the globalization of Russian venture capital investment. The fund’s latest investment in the USA, in June 2015, went to Prosper, a leading US peer-to-peer lending marketplace. In 2014 the fund took part in Delivery Hero’s $88 million Series E round, and led a €20 million round for international cruise booking portal Dreamlines. The fund successfully exited from Fyber, a Berlin-based mobile ad solution publisher which was acquired by South Korea’s RTNS Media in October 2014.
Most recently, Target Global took part in a $2 million round for Nestpick, another German startup.
The fund’s portfolio also includes such Russian startups as Eventbrite clone TimePad, online retailer Babadu.ru and online confectionary shop MixVille.ru.
Target Global, which claims over $300 million in assets under management, operates from its offices in San Francisco, Berlin and Moscow. Its backers are “private Russian individuals who wish to invest in [western markets] in order to diversify their investment portfolio,” said Lobanov in a previous exchange with East-West Digital News.
None of these LPs are connected to Russian government circles, or targeted by the western sanctions, Lobanov specified in interviews with Russian media.
