Buran Venture Capital (BVC), a Moscow-based global tech-focused venture capital firm, announced last week it received $16 million in commitments for its new fund, Buran Venture Capital II.
The limited partners involved in BVC II are mostly investors of BVC I, with O1 Group — a private holding company investing in the Russian real estate and financial sectors — acting as the lead investor. BVC II will continue to seek commitments from institutional investors globally, implementing a strategy which was already announced more than one year ago.
With a target size of $75 million, the new fund will diversify its investment strategy: while BVC I focused essentially on Russia, the second fund will not allocate more than 30% to a single market. BVC II will cover the Central and Eastern Europe region at large as well as Turkey and Israel.
“This is a very important milestone for our business. We are aiming to become a leading VC player in Central and Eastern Europe focusing on investing in Internet and tech companies,” stated BVC Managing Partner Mihaly Szalontay.
The new fund is looking for seed and round A investment opportunities with a specific focus on e-commerce services, mobile and advertising technologies, communitainment, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.
BVC I was established in Moscow in 2010. Among its limited partners is Mikhail Vinchel, one of Mail.Ru Group’s founders. Its portfolio includes Ponominalu.ru, SravniKupi, Netology Group, Dashboard Systems, Shazam, GetIntent, ivi.ru and two additional undisclosed investments, as well as Chess.com as a personal account investment of BVC’s founders.
Buran is just one among several Russian or Russia-connected venture funds shifting their focus to invest globally.
In a similar move last year, Runa Capital — which initially targeted Russian startups — launched its second fund to invest more in Central, Eastern and Western European regions as well as Turkey and Israel. Runa II ultimately opened an office in Silicon Valley, after investing in several US startups.
