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Last week Fort Ross Ventures announced a $200 million fund for US startups interested in the Russian market. Formerly known as Money Time, this venture fund is committed to support the “exponential success” of US tech startups by “leveraging the potential of the enormous Russian marketplace.”
Fort Ross will target projects in the areas of fintech, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and ecommerce. Startups will benefit from financial support, as well as “advisory services aimed at helping startups understand the culture, politics, and financial regulations necessary to operate in Russia,” reports VentureBeat.
“Fort Ross brings together Silicon Valley venture expertise with an extensive network of relationships across Russia’s largest commercial organizations. We help startups navigate and thrive in this lucrative, tech-savvy market while establishing an invaluable foothold for global growth,” said Victor Orlovski, the fund’s managing partner in an official statement.
Previously Orlovski was CTO at Alfa Bank and Sberbank, Russia’s national savings bank.
Fort Ross also announced that Anurag Chandra, an experienced US venture investor and tech company executive, has joined the company.
The fund expects to announce the first two investments from the new $200 million fund in the coming weeks.
In late 2017, in cooperation with Sberbank and the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF, or FRII, Russia’s largest early-stage startup investment fund), the fund launched a platform called Global Pitch in a bid to help Russian tech entrepreneurs develop in the USA.
Through its previous $100 million fund, Fort Ross invested in GridGain, Moven, eToro, Uber and NetGuardians.
Sources: Fort Ross Ventures, VentureBeat
