RUSSIA Bank Becomes an Investor in the NTI Venture Fund

RUSSIA Bank became one of the investors of the Venture Fund of the National Technology Initiative. The volume of the bank's investment liabilities amounted to 875 million roubles.

The total size of the NTI Venture Fund is now 3.5 billion roubles, of which 1.5 billion roubles contributed by the RVC Infrafund at the expense of the NTI subsidy, 875 million roubles came from RUSSIA Bank and more than 1 billion roubles — from other investors and the Kama Flow fund management company.

The Venture Fund of the National Technology Initiative was created by RVC in 2018 to support innovative projects that develop end-to-end technologies critical for the formation of new NTI markets. Among them: artificial intelligence, big data analysis, and storage technologies, blockchain, quantum technologies, new energy sources, robotics, virtual and augmented reality technologies, neurotechnologies. The fund was created in an investment partnership format for ten years; the investment period is five years. Based on an open competitive selection, the Kama Flow team was chosen as the fund's management company.

The investment strategy of the NTI Venture Fund involves investments in Russian seed and early-stage projects. The volume of investments in one portfolio company is no more than 10% of the total volume of investment obligations. At the moment, the fund's project funnel includes more than 500 companies. Thermal sheets for a total of RUB 170 million have already been signed with two companies, consideration and signing of term sheets with three projects for a total amount of 300 million rubles are being prepared.

“We believe that support for advanced Russian projects in the field of high technologies is a promising area in the investment business, which is of great importance for the future of our country,” says Igor Andreev, vice president for investment issues at JSB Russia JSC. “There are many young and talented developers, inventors and IT businessmen working in Russia, and additional funding will help many of them to realize their brilliant ideas. That is why we decided to become partners of a venture capital fund”.

“The accession of the new LP has become a significant step in the development of the NTI Venture Fund - since its creation, its volume has more than doubled”, said Alexey Basov, Deputy General Director — Investment Director of RVC. — Russian technology projects operating in priority areas for NTI will receive new tools to attract liquidity. They will be able to effectively use the “window” of opportunities that the crisis opened. We expect that the fund's management team will announce the closure of the first deals shortly".

According to Mikhail Fedotov, director of RVC subsidiaries, “the fund offers not only money but its expertise and support for technological projects”. “We welcome the emergence of a new partner who is in line with our chosen strategy and not only brings in the capital but will help turn investments into smart money. The experience and capabilities of Bank of RUSSIA will be especially in demand within the framework of such a capacious and demanded area as fintech”, said Mikhail Fedotov.

“We are confident that the key to the success of the country's technological development is an increase in the investment capital available to technology entrepreneurs, which means an increase in the number of private investors, corporations and financial institutions involved in the venture capital market,” emphasized Evgeny Borisov, Deputy General Director of the Kama Flow investment company. “Now, our immediate task is to ensure synergy between the Fund's partners in the interests of our target and portfolio companies, whose number we plan to increase actively".