Palo Alto based Garage Technology Ventures is partnering with Moscow based incubator Digital October to invest in Russian high tech startups with international potential. The news was reported yesterday by Russian business daily Vedomosti based on exchanges with Digital October General manager Dmitry Repin and Garage Technology Managing Director Bill Reichert.
Digital October will be in charge of the selection process and submit one project each month to the American fund.
Garage Technology could co-invest with Bricolage, a Russian fund created two months ago by Russian billionaire Mikhail Abyzov, a shareholder of Digital October. Abyzov announced he would invest no less than $300 million in Russian startups through this fund.
Reichert also considers creating a new incubator with Digital October as well as a seed stage investment program in Moscow, Vedomosti reported.
In April, Digital October announced an agreement with TomorrowVentures, a US investment fund founded in 2009 by Google chairman Eric Schmidt. The partnership also aimed to select Russian startups which could be pushed internationally. Conversely, TomorrowVentures will also consider developing some of its portfolio companies on the Russian market with the help of Digital October.
