Sunrise (Interros Venture Fund)

History

2023

Fund raising through CFA

On July 12, 2023, it became known that the management company of the Voskhod venture fund, whose anchor investor is Vladimir Potanin's Interros, is working to launch new mechanisms for attracting investments. One of them is the receipt of funds from private investors through digital financial assets (CFA).

According to the Kommersant newspaper, Ruslan Sarkisov, managing partner of the fund and co-owner of Voskhod, spoke about the project. According to him, there is little liquidity in the CFA, but such an instrument has a number of advantages. In particular, the investor does not need to wait for the exit from the portfolio company: he can sell the CFA in the secondary market to another interested party. Through such a scheme, Voskhod plans to attract up to 1 billion rubles.

Vladimir Potanin

Another mechanism for obtaining investments is attracting funds from bank customers. Discussion of the issue is being conducted with three large banks, which "themselves came out with such a request." It is expected that a "portfolio of investors" will be formed who will be able to invest in venture projects through a closed mutual investment fund (ZPIF). This mechanism will allow you to receive 1-2 billion rubles from each of the banks.

We would like to see investors in large funds for late-stage projects, because they are very lacking (and always not enough) in Russia for the full-fledged work of the venture capital industry, Sarkisov said.

An important task is the creation of an ecosystem of exits: it is important for a venture investor to return money to depositors with a return. One of the options, according to Sarkisov, is to sell to strategists. But the problem is that there are almost no buyers of innovation in Russia: "there is no order for the introduction of Russian solutions or a request for the purchase of such a business." The second way is public markets. But there are almost no institutional investors in this field either.^[1]

Sunrise invested in NovoSkin

On June 30, 2023, the venture capital fund Rising"," which To Interros is previously owned by "," and then sold to top managers of this corporation, announced an investment in NovoSkin. Financial and its participants did not disclose other terms of the transaction. here More.

Interros sold Voskhod Management Company to top management

The billionaire's investment company Interros Vladimir Potanin sold Voskhod Management Company, which controls the Voskhod venture capital fund, to top managers. This is evidenced by the data of the "" system.SPARK-Interfax

The first to turn to this deal was the newspaper Kommersant. She writes that since the spring of 2023, 80% of Voskhod Management Company has been owned by General Director Ruslan Sarkisov, 10% each by Konstantin Gibalo and Artur Martirosov. The company confirmed the information to the publication, adding that the fund of the same name in the amount of 10 billion rubles remains under its management, where Interros is the only depositor. The representative of Interros told the publication that "the cooperation of companies is carried out within the framework of the agreement." The parties did not disclose the amount of the transaction.

Investment company Interros sold Voskhod Management Company

According to the source of the publication on the investment market, the deal in relation to Voskhod Management Company "was originally conceived as insurance against sanctions." According to him, the sale took place according to the MBO (management buyout) mechanism, which allows the buyback of an asset in the event of a change in the economic and geopolitical situation.

According to Vlad Chukanov, an expert at the Moscow Digital School educational platform (part of Ultimate Education), taking into account the sanctions against Voskhod, the deal cannot be called an attempt to hide the fund from a sanctions strike. Now the fund will have more freedom to make decisions and Voskhod will be able to conclude transactions that it did not conduct under the actual management of Interros, Chukanov said.

Earlier, the assets of Vladimir Potanin, including Interros, fell under sanctions, and in January 2023, the businessman re-registered investment assets from Cyprus to the Far East. On May 19, 2023, Voskhod and Ruslan Sarkisov directly fell under US sanctions.^[2]

Investing 2 billion rubles in technology startups in the Far East

Interros Since its creation in 2021, the Voskhod venture fund has invested 2 billion rubles in technological startups in the Far East. This was Minister of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic Pavel Volkov announced by the State Secretary - Deputy on February 16, 2023.

According to him, Voskhod invests in startups and where venture financing is needed. The fund invests in Russian deeptech projects at the stages of commercialization and scaling, supports early stage projects in the Far East. The main areas of investment are biotechnology and medicine robotics, new mobility, green technologies, agrotechnologies and food tech, micro- and optoelectronics. Within five years, Interros will invest 10 billion rubles in the fund's projects, the agency reported on February 16, 2023. TASS

Within five years, the size of investments will reach 10 billion rubles

Among other projects, Voskhod invested 150 million rubles in the development of Yakutia a neural network Sciberia , a system for analyzing medical images based on computer vision and artificial intelligence technologies.

Interros "considers investments in digital technology and high tech to be its anchor investment. Russia has great potential for the development of digitalization: we have first-class programmers, a thorough mathematical school, good legislation and an advanced regulator. I believe that Russia can provide itself with leadership in the digital economy of the future... You can often hear that Russia must keep up with the leading world powers in the level of digital development. I propose to swing at more - Russia can provide itself with digital leadership, - said the main owner of Interros Vladimir Potanin.[3]

2022: Acquisition of a stake in the developer of software for robots

As TAdviser found out, Voskhod Management Company (the management company of the Interros venture capital fund controlled by the billionaire) Vladimir Potanin acquired a 10.4% stake in the developer ON for Abg Technology robots. The company offers solutions for robotics involved in various production processes - welding, painting, cutting, grinding. More. here

2021

Ruslan Sarkisov appointed head of the Voskhod Foundation

On December 10, 2021, it was announced that Ruslan Sarkisov was appointed general director of the Interros venture capital fund Voskhod, created a month earlier. Read more here.

Creation of a venture capital fund for the development of startups in the Far East

Interros has created the Voskhod venture fund for the development of startups in the Far East. This was announced in early September 2021.

The main task of the Voskhod Foundation is the development of high-tech companies in the Far East to solve industrial problems. The fund is designed to support young promising teams in creating successful companies and bringing their scientific and technological developments to commercial operation. The fund's task is to promote the emergence of innovative Russian companies that can successfully compete at the international level, the Interros press service reports. Within five years, the company invests 10 billion rubles in the fund's projects.

Interros has formed the Voskhod venture fund for the development of startups in the Far East

Interros CEO Sergei Batekhin noted that this is the first private fund of this size in the Far East, where hotbeds of innovation are already appearing. The creation of the fund will close the niche of support for startups at an early stage, when there are big risks, he explained.

According to Batekhin, the creation of the fund in the Far East was facilitated by the efforts that the authorities carried out in terms of supporting science and business in this region. In particular, this is the creation of the Far Eastern Fund for High Technologies and the Russian Research and Development Center. All this work made it possible to create the necessary conditions under which large businesses are ready to come to the region not only to the mining sector, but also to the IT market, Batekhin emphasized.

Investments in modern technologies, including digital, are one of the key business areas of Interros. The Russian Arctic and the Far East are among the most promising regions of the country, whose technological and scientific potential cannot be overestimated. For Interros, the creation of a venture capital fund is not only a large investment, but also a contribution to the innovative development of the entire region, the entire Russian economy, "said Interros President Vladimir Potanin.[4]

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