Softline Venture Partners

Softline Venture Partners is a Russian venture capital fund, part of the Softline group of companies. Softline Venture Partners considers venture capital investments exclusively in independent software developers in the early stages of their development in Russia, the CIS, as well as non-CIS countries. Softline Venture Partners Venture Fund started in December 2009. The volume of investments in one project is up to USD 1 million, the total volume of the fund is $20 million.

Portfolio

For 2021, there are more than 20 projects in the fund's portfolio. The volume of investments in one project: from $100 thousand to $1 million.

As of July 2014, Softline Venture Partners has funded 15 projects:

• Tekmi,
• Mirapolis,
• ActiveCloud,
• Daripodarki (in the fall of 2014, the deal to sell a majority stake in the Daripodarki portfolio project to a strategic investor was closed. The buyer is the European public company Edenred, a player in the prepaid services market. The structure of the transaction involves the redemption of 100% of Daripodarki within five years. The share acquired by Edenred at this stage is 50.03%. Under the terms of the contract with Edenred, Daripodarki retains Russian management. Daripodarki's annual turnover is approximately €28mn. Daripodarki sells about 1.95 million gift cards a year. 90% of the company's revenue comes from corporate customers, 10% from online retail.)
• Client24,
• Copiny,
• Smart Start,
• Apps4All,
• CloudContext,
• EZLogin,
• Allsoft.ru,
• Online Patent,
• iTMan,
• VideoBaker

The focus of Softline Venture Partners is teams of independent developers from Russia and the CIS countries.

SVP makes venture capital investments in independent software developers (ISV - "Independent Software Vendors"), organized in Russia and the CIS, as well as in other countries of the world. This narrow specialization makes SVP a unique project in the Russian market and allows you to fully concentrate on this segment of the venture capital investment market, deepening your competencies in this area, developed over more than 17 years of work in the software market.

Softline Venture Partners – is a $20 mln Softline Group corporate venture fund, that was established in 2008. Specific focus is on the Internet and mobile applications, "cloud" services, enterprise software and e-commerce.

Selection criteria

The main criteria that determine the investment decision are:

• availability of a professional development team;
• Having a unique idea/product
• commercial value of the product.

Additional features

Independent software companies, in which Softline Venture Partners directs its investments, in addition to providing funding, are given the opportunity to take advantage of Softline's unique competencies in the field of software licensing and marketing.

Softline Venture Partners offers software developers additional useful opportunities, both in partnership with other leading market participants and on their own. Special programs apply to various aspects of developers' activities - from obtaining software for development to selling and promoting created products.

In April-May 2009, the first international competition for students and graduate students Dev Generation 2009 was held. The project Actio.tv became the winner of the competition and received the main prize - an investment of 100 thousand dollars. The competition is planned to be made annual, the approximate start of the next stage is 1 quarter of 2010.

History

2024

Investing 2 billion rubles in cybersecurity startups

On October 10, 2024, it became known that Softline Venture Partners, a venture capital fund of the Russian integrator Softline, intends to support several projects to develop solutions in the field of information security (information security). A total of 2 billion rubles are planned to be invested in these startups.

According to the Vedomosti newspaper, referring to information received from representatives of Softline Venture Partners, the fund is interested in IT companies that create products that "meet the requirements and tasks of corporate customers" of the integrator. In particular, we are talking about the developers of EDR solutions (Endpoint Detection & Response - a technology for continuous monitoring of the security status of workstations, searching for dangerous events and blocking these threats), firewalls, crypto gateways for encrypting network flows, as well as SIEM systems (information security and security event management tools) and other information security products.

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Unsplash

It is noted that against the background of the departure of foreign suppliers of information security products from Russia and due to the increase in the intensity of hacker attacks, cybersecurity is becoming a priority. Investors rate startups on their growth potential, innovation and competitive advantage. Despite the total fall in the Russian venture capital market by 80% in 2023, the cybersecurity services segment showed an increase of 31.1% with a final result of 65.9 billion rubles.

Softline Venture Partners expects that in the future, positive dynamics in the Russian information security market will continue. The head of the fund, Elena Volotovskaya, notes that cybersecurity is one of the most important and dynamically developing technological sectors of the economy. Ensuring cybersecurity is one of the tasks of the national project "Data Economics and Digital Transformation of the State," which replaces the Digital Economy program. ^[1]

Plan to invest up to 1 billion rubles in EdTech companies

Corporate venture capital fund Softline Venture Partners is starting to accept applications for investment from technology companies in the educational segment. As representatives of the fund told TAdviser on April 9, 2024, the total investment will amount to 1 billion rubles.

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Freepik

There are a number of requirements for challenger companies. In particular, they must have a finished product with proven value, create content in the field of AI, information security or program development, have an annual turnover of at least 50 million rubles, demonstrate an increase in financial indicators year-on-year, provide platform solutions with a subscription model of V2V or V2S, as well as be focused on training adults, or receiving higher/secondary education.

In general, companies are evaluated according to the criteria of innovation, potential for growth and competitive advantages. Softline Venture Partners plans to complete acceptance of applications in June 2024.

"2023 was not the most successful for the direction of EdTech, which, according to the general investments of Russian investors, took only 8th place among other industries. So we decided to support the industry in 2024, because a high level of education is one of the priorities for the development of the state. In addition, we consider the sector itself promising for investment, its potential has not yet been exhausted. "

The companies selected by the fund will have the opportunity to use the sales channels of Softline Group of Companies to promote and develop products, will receive synergy with the Softline Academy, access to an extensive and stable base of corporate customers, as well as direct access to legal, financial, methodological and marketing expertise and product withdrawal to regions of Russia and friendly countries.

Investment of 100 million rubles in the Findler system from Rebrendy Consulting

The corporate venture capital fund Softline Venture Partners invested 100 million rubles in the Findler product from Rebrendy Consulting. The funds are planned to be used for further product development and marketing, representatives of the Softline group of companies told TAdviser on March 29, 2024. Read more here.

2023: Investing $1m in Kickidler

In mid-May 2023, it became known about investing $1 million in Kickidler. Softline Venture Partners (SVP) venture fund of the Russian company Softline, which received 40% of the startup as a result of the transaction, has invested in the developer of solutions for recording working hours and monitoring employee efficiency. More. here

2022

Secession from the founders of Mirapolis

1C bought a share of Softline Venture Partners in Mirapolis, a company specializing in creating IT solutions for managing human capital development and digital transformation of HR processes in medium and large businesses. TAdviser reported this to Softline on September 22. Read more here.

Investing $2 million in Exodrive

On August 10, 2022, an investment of $2 million in Exodrive was announced. Softline Venture Partners, a corporate venture capital fund, has invested in the Russian developer of telematics solutions. The startup intends to spend the funds raised on its technological development and expansion of its international presence. The parameters of the investment transaction were not disclosed. Read more here.

2021

Investing in ElectroNeek

ElectroNeek, a player in the Russian robotic automation market, announced on June 1, 2021 that it would raise $20 million. The investment round was led by Baring Vostok with the participation of Yellow Rockets.vc, Dragon Capital, I2BF, Angelsdeck, Softline Ventures, business angels Sergei Dashkov, Anton Litvyakov and other investors. Taking into account the investment, the value estimate of ElectroNeek exceeded $100 million. Read more here.

Acquisition of a stake in T-1 Group

Softline Venture Partners, a corporate venture capital fund of Softline Group of companies, announced to TAdviser on March 5, 2021 that it had become a co-owner of the Russian T-1 Group JSC, which specializes in creating and developing services based on navigation technologies for consumer and corporate markets. The parties do not name the size of the share and the amount of the transaction. Read more here.

Investing in NFWare

Startup NFWare, the developer ON for virtualizations network functions on January 14, 2021 TAdviser announced the attraction of $1.4 million from an international group of investors, including Softline Venture Partners. More. here

2020: Investing in a step-by-step service to develop HintEd web applications

In June 2020, HintEd attracted investments from the venture capital fund Softline Venture Partners and YellowRockets. Under the terms of the deal, investors will receive a 13% stake: Softline Venture Partners - 10% of the company's value, YellowRockets - 3%. The amount of the investment was not disclosed. Read more here.

2019

Partial exit from the project "Online Patent"

On December 9, 2019, Starta Capital announced that National Register of Intellectual Property JSC, which owns the intellectual property deposit and protection service RIS, has become the owner of a controlling stake in Online Patent. As part of the deal, its investors - RWM Capital, Softline Venture Partners, Starta Capital (Starta Ventures group), Moscow Seed Fund, as well as private investors Mikhail Shtepan and Nikolay Belykh - partially withdrew from the project. Read more here.

Investment for ProctorEdu

On August 7, 2019, Softline announced that its corporate venture capital fund Softline Venture Partners will invest 20 million rubles in ProctorEdu. Read more here.

Investment for ElectroNeek Robotics

On June 11, 2019, it became known that the Russian office automation startup electroNeek Robotics announced the attraction of a round of investments in the amount of $0.5 million. Investors in this round included Softline Venture Partners, I2BF Global Ventures and YellowRockets.vc. Read more here.

2017: Launch of IT business accelerator together with "Support of Russia"

In October 2017, Opora Rossii, together with Softline Venture Partners, began accepting applications from teams creating IT solutions to participate in the business accelerator. Applications are accepted from projects that have existing prototype solutions. The innovative partner of the project was the Skolkovo Foundation IT cluster.

The accelerator focuses on projects in the fields of cloud technologies, mobility, information security, the Internet of Things (IoT), digital technologies (digital), machine learning ( ML) and artificial intelligence ( AI). Read more here.

2013: Investments in cloud software to account for IT assets

In June 2013 , the Softline venture capital fund announced a joint investment with the Moscow Seed Fund in a SaaS platform to solve the problem of accounting, supervision and management of IT assets - ITMan, designed for small and medium-sized businesses. The total investment amounted to about $400 thousand. DETAILS.

2011: $500,000 investment in Emegamall online sales system

On February 17, 2011, Softline Venture Partners, a venture capital fund, closed a deal to invest in the Emegamall project, a multi-channel online sales system. The project was valued at $2 million, the fund acquired a blocking stake. The result of the transaction was the signing of an investment agreement of $500,000

2008: Venture Fund Launch

At the end of 2008, the Softline Venture Partners project was launched - venture capital investment in independent software developers in Russia and the CIS. The amount of investment in one project is up to $1,000,000. In addition to providing financing, Softline provides the opportunity to use its unique competencies in the field of software distribution and marketing .