The EBRD has signed up to participate as an anchor investor in Russia Partners Technology Fund, a Cayman Islands-registered limited partnership aiming to raise USD 250 million for equity investments in technology-driven and innovative business sectors, primarily in Russia but also in other CIS countries.
The formal commitment by the EBRD, which is ready to invest up to USD 75 million in this technology and innovation-focused initiative, enables the fund to achieve first close. Final close is expected to follow within a year. The EBRD will have the right to nominate a representative to the new fund’s Investor Advisory Board.
This brings the EBRD’s cumulative commitments to private equity and venture capital funds since 1993 in Russia and the CIS to USD 1.4 billion, spread over 43 funds. The Bank is the largest and most active institutional investor in private equity in the wider EBRD region with commitments to 133 funds totalling over USD 3.5 billion over the same period of time.
Through this project, the EBRD aims to lay a groundwork which would stimulate the development of technology-focused venture capital in Russia and the CIS in order to attract experienced sector investors to this market. This is a key part of the Bank’s strategy to help build a knowledge-based economy in the region.
Russia Partners is one of the leading private equity firms in Russia and a long-standing partner of the EBRD in this sector. Its parent entity, Siguler Guff & Company, is a US-based private equity firm managing over USD 10 billion of assets.
The EBRD has previously invested in two previous private equity funds managed by Russia Partners, committing a total of USD 125 million to Russia Partners II and Russia Partners III funds in 2004 and 2007, respectively.