AFK Sistema, a Russian LSE-listed conglomerate, has launched a proprietary $50-million (Rs 340 crore) Asia Fund to support Indian startups operating in the technology and niche consumer retail segments.
“The Sistema Asia Fund will start with an initial tranche of $50 million, which will be increased significantly in the near future once our startups financing business grows in India,” The Economic Times quoted Sistema’s CFO Vsevolod Rozanov as saying.
The new fund will focus on tech startups involved in “innovative consumer-centric businesses aligned with e-commerce/online retail model such as furniture leasing, food delivery to payment gateways,” said Andrey Terebenin, an ex-Sistema JSFC executive board member who has relocated to India the fund’s advisory services function of Asia Fund.
As noted by The Economic Times, Sistema’s decision to diversify its activities in India comes at a time when Reliance Communications, a leading Indian telecom group, is taking over Sistema’s Indian mobile telephony venture, Sistema Shyam Teleservices, which operates under the MTS brand.
A new frontier for Russian players
A growing number of Russian tech players have launched activities in India or begun exploring local opportunities.
Thus Ru-Net, a Moscow-based venture fund backed by Leonid Boguslavsky, a figure on the Russian and international high-tech scene, invested in several Indian e-commerce companies, including Freecultr.com and BeStylish.com in 2012, and Indian mobile recharge platform FreeCharge in 2014.
DST Global, a major global venture fund managed by Yuri Milner, is also investing in the subcontinent enthusiastically. In July last year, DST Global participated in a $36 million funding round for Grofers, a competitor of PepperTap. In 2014, the fund led a $210 million investment round in leading Indian online retailer Flipkart.
Another Russian investor interested in the Indian market is Boris Ryabov, managing partner of venture fund Bright Capital. Last year he contributed an undisclosed amount to a $1.7 million round of funding for Indian food delivery service Inner Chef, along with Ukrainian and local investors.
Skolkovo, the international tech hub under completion on the outskirts of Moscow, is also strengthening ties with India. In February last year, 15 of its resident companies took part in IndiaSoft, a major industry conference and B2B networking event. In September, a delegation of scientists, educators and ministry officials from India paid a visit to Skolkovo on a fact-finding mission to study the opportunities available for Indian students and startups in Russia.
