The Firrma edition has published an annual rating of business angels - the most active private venture investors in Russia. Like last year, Alexander Rumyantsev became its leader

Thirty-year-old Olga Kotsur started creating a mobile application under the working title "Crib for the seller" in 2013 while studying at Harvard University. Although the idea of ​​a technology startup appeared earlier, which was fully facilitated by her meteoric career. After studying at MIPT, she graduated from the Russian School of Economics, which sent her for an internship at the London office of Lehman Brothers. She then worked for the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where she specialized in telecoms. It was BCG that sent her to Harvard to get an MBA, paying for her education.

A retailer with a smartphone or tablet running Crib Sheet (now called Mercaux) can quickly find the right size by scanning the label, or recommend thoughtful clothing sets (from products sold in this store) to customers in response to the question “What wear it?" According to Kozur, the Mercaux service helps increase the average check by 8-11% through cross-selling.

The application has already been implemented by several Russian and international companies: Benetton, Loriblu, Kiko Milano, Kira Plastinina, Inсity. Each store pays $150-$300 per month for a subscription, depending on the feature set. Kotsur hopes to sign contracts with clothing and footwear retailers worth $1.3 million by mid-2017.

shop assistant

“I was surprised that offline clothing stores have not changed, technology has not reached them,” says Kotsur. Sellers need to keep a lot of information in their heads: know the assortment, product balances, new items. They often cannot properly advise the client, looking for the right model or size for a long time, now and then running to the checkout. “I faced terrible retail work in Moscow, London, and the USA,” recalls Kotsur. Salespeople need a tool to help them work better, she decided.

In the US, Kozur found a soul mate, a Harvard classmate from India. The partners registered a company in the US and hired a group of developers in India to prototype the app. The programmers did the work for free - under the promise that they would be taken to the team if everything worked out. In the summer of 2013, the Plug and Play business incubator invested $25,000 in Mercaux. Its leaders regularly come to Harvard and the project seemed promising to them, says Kotzur. This allowed us to pay off the developers and continue the business.

The entrepreneur talked to retailers - for example, with network managers Donna Karan, Macy's, Nordstrom, to understand their problems. It became clear that retail needed a more sophisticated tool than sizing. Later, the partners invested another $30,000 of their own savings in the development.

Looking for investors

In early 2014, Kotzur's partner left the business and moved to California, a difficult period for Kotzur, she recalls. The project developed slowly, the studies were coming to an end, and it was necessary to make a decision whether to continue the business. For six months, the founder of Mercaux met and talked with about 20 investors and funds in Europe, Russia and the United States: “I understood better what needs to be changed in the presentation of the product and what points of the business to pay attention to, for example, it is better to think over the sales cycle and expansion strategy business."

Clothing technology

Innovations in clothing chains are primarily related to multimedia technologies and logistics optimization, Burmistrov clarifies. Mobile applications for sellers are not widespread yet, he notes.

To get things off the ground, you need venture capital money, a strong team, and a real client ready to implement the application, Kotzur explains. She had a team ready to jump in when there was money, but the clients didn't work out. Many retailers were interested in the app, but were only willing to implement it after another company tried it out. American investors did not want to invest in business in Russia, says Kotsur.

In the fall of 2014, an American venture investor agreed to invest $250,000 in the project on the condition that Kotsur find a co-investor. A friend introduced her to business angel Alexei Menn, to whom Mercaux seemed promising. The American changed his mind about investing in the application, and Menn invested a total of $300,000 in the project. “It was an investment in Olya – she understands retail, she has MIPT and Harvard behind her, she is ready to fight,” Menn explains. Now is a good time for such projects - large retailers with a turnover of $4 billion are ready to sit down at the negotiating table with startups, so everyone wants to develop digital technologies Menn notes. According to him, the technology can be sold abroad, and he is interested in such projects.

In three years, the project managed to attract $1.4 million in venture investments from two funds and Menn.

Technique - youth

At the beginning of 2015, Kotsur opened an office in Moscow and hired two developers from Yandex, who later became full-time employees of the company (now there are 14 people on the staff). Until mid-2015, Kotsur actually worked without a paycheck, she says. Then the company got its first client (Kotsur came to his management through a friend) - the Kira Plastinina chain of stores, with which Mercaux conducted a pilot project to introduce the application in 10 stores of the network. The customer was satisfied, but soon the network management changed, and Mercaux decided not to use the new one. But with results pilot project Kotsur went to other networks. She met many retailers at specialized conferences, as happened, for example, with Benetton. Investors introduced the management of Incity Kotsur. And with the international network Kiko Milano, selling cosmetics, it turned out to be even easier to make friends - the former CEO Kira Plastinina went to work there. In the Russian division of Benetton, the Mercaux application has been used since April this year in three stores in Moscow and five in the regions, says Ruslan Malich, General Director of Benetton in Russia. The network is young sellers (average age - 20-25 years) and they are interested in using the application, he assures. The app, according to Malic, makes it easier to work with the assortment, and there are about 6,000 models in Benetton stores. Merchants themselves can come up with sets of clothes (“looks”) that other stores will then use to recommend to customers, and this is an additional motivation for staff to study the range, notes Malich. He hopes that the innovation will lead to an increase in the conversion of visits to purchases and an increase in cross-selling, but he does not undertake to estimate the economic effect yet.

Free hands

In 2015–2016 sales at many retailers began to decline and the share of personnel costs in the revenue structure increased, says Mikhail Burmistrov, general director of Infoline-analytics. And the most advanced retailers are interested in innovations to increase sales efficiency: mobile applications, online learning, says the analyst. However, most of the networks are now busy with something completely different: they are closing unprofitable stores, developing multi-channel sales, reducing costs, they do not get around to improving staff efficiency, Burmistrov is convinced.

Clothes chains in Russia are conservative, their sellers usually oppose any innovations and the introduction of applications such as Mercaux is sure to cause resistance from the staff, said Dmitry Netkach, managing partner of Watcom Shop Mechanics. Managers themselves are often against it. “I don't really believe that such a decision would help us sell better,” says Eduard Ostrobrod, Vice President of Sela. The seller must know the assortment by heart; for this, training and probation he clarifies. Sela has about 1,000 clothing models and remembering them is not such a difficult task, the vice-president believes. The seller's hands must be free. Wrong, if he will stand in front of the buyer, buried in the tablet, Ostrobrod is convinced. In addition, the offer of clothing sets can annoy the buyer: everyone has their own style and not always one “look” suits different people, he adds.

“If we had a larger collection, I would buy such an application,” says Olga Promptova, co-owner of DD-Shop. For her company, it is not relevant: the assortment is small, there are many regular customers. But if you have a lot of SKUs, the app will help you communicate with the customer like you would in a boutique, which you can't find in mass-market stores, Promptova says.

Kotsur is now planning to develop in Europe, since Russian retailers have other priorities. Until now, Kozur has been looking for potential customers herself, and recently hired several UK retail consultants to help find customers. By the end of the year, Mercaux plans to sign about 10 contracts with European retailers, says Kotzur.

Mercaux has developed an online service for ordinary clothing stores that helps them sell not individual items, but “looks”. Both investment funds and retailers believed in the idea - Kira Plastinina became the first client

Head of Mercaux Olga Kotsur (Photo: Ekaterina Kuzmina / RBC)

Designer for the seller

The Mercaux program, developed by Olga Kotsur's company of the same name, allows the retailer to increase sales by improving the level of service. It provides each seller with access to an up-to-date electronic catalog with all their products - they can be combined into ready-made images, and this function is available to sellers directly in stores. At any time, the seller using a computer, tablet and even a phone (while the program works only on Apple products) can get complete information about the availability of a particular product in the store, sizes and suitable combinations.

For example, on the request “white jeans”, all available models appear on the screen, and if they are not in a particular store, the program will tell you at which nearest network points you can find the items you need or offer to buy them online. Thus, says Kotsur, offline and online sales of one brand kind of support each other.

The service gives recommendations on how to create a complete look with the selected item: for example, blue sneakers and a sweatshirt from the same store are suitable for white jeans. Such recommendations can be made both by specialists of the retailer's head office in a special web interface, and by the sellers themselves in the constructor built into the application. “In the morning, when the store is open, and there are no visitors yet, sellers can combine “looks” - complete looks, which can then be immediately offered to the client. In addition, it is much easier to remember the entire assortment of the store and develop a sense of style, ”Kotsur is sure. The image must be seen and approved at the main office - then it will get into the database and it will be able to be offered in all stores connected to the service.

Network managers have new opportunities to control and analyze sales: by entering the account of any connected store, the manager can track the frequency of requests for a particular model, size, color. “Based on this data, the office can deliver the most sought-after goods to each store, again increasing sales,” says Kotsur. “The fashion retail market is so huge that to increase sales by even a few percent means to increase revenue by several million.”

Mercaux earns on a paid subscription to his service -​ from $30 to $100 per month for one device, such as a tablet.The cost is calculated based on the number of sellers in each store and the selected functionality of the service: in total it includes eight modules - creating images, communication between the head office and the seller, control of inventory balances and etc.

“Our beauty is in the ease of installation and availability for the end user – the seller,” says Kotzur. The integration of Mercaux takes no more than two weeks, she assures, and employees intuitively begin to use all the features of the system in 30 minutes.

Mercaux in numbers

RUB 2.25 trillion— the volume of the clothing, footwear and accessories market in Russia in 2014

226 international retail chains operates on the Russian market

6664 The store owns the top 25 clothing retailers in Russia

$1 million– general investment in the Mercaux project

$30-100 - subscription cost per device

$20-50 thousand— plan for the company's revenue for 2015

5-10% - Promised sales growth when using Mercaux

Source: RBC.Research, Fashion Consulting Group, Mercaux

Idea from Harvard

Entrepreneur Olga Kotsur worked at The Boston Consulting Group, specializing in management consulting where she studied the application information technologies in traditional business areas. “Everyone was talking loudly about the possibilities of e-commerce, many were investing in it, and the huge market for traditional stores has not changed for decades,” she says. — Large companies they put all their efforts into developing their own online stores, while 80% of sales occur offline, and this is where customer loyalty to the brand is formed.

Mercaux is a cheat sheet for a store clerk, because“his main task is to communicate with the buyer and help him, and not keep in his head the whole array of constantly changing information about models and sizes,” explains Kozur.

The idea is to create a service designed to help consultants in traditional stores and boost sales, Kotsur came in 2011. She was able to start implementation in 2012. when she received her MBA from Harvard University in the USA. She took this theme as the basis of her educational project and, having received the support of several professors, presented it to 15 American and European retailers , including Burberry, Nord Strom, Neiman Marcus - some of them showed interest.

In 2013, together with fellow students at Harvard, Kotsur established in the United States eponymous company, the ownership structure is not disclosed. In the same year, Mercaux applied to the Californian Plug & Play incubator and, having passed the selection, began to develop a pilot version of the service there. Development costs entrepreneur refused to disclose.

In October 2014, Mercaux attracted the first investment - about $25,000 from the Rough Draft Ventures fund, which invests in university student projects.Having successfully completed the incubator program and MBA studies, Kozur returned to Russia to gather a team here and launch a project.Now the company employs eight specialists responsible for the development, communication with clients and the development of the project in Europe.

The first customers appeared: A this moment 30 sellers are connected to Mercaux in different stores. Company signed a contract with the Kira Plastinina chain to test the service in six stores; in the coming months, it is planned to automate all 214 retailer points of sale. This was confirmed by the CEO of the Kira Plastinina network, Jan Heere. During the first months of cooperation, sales of connected stores grew by an average of 8-10%, assures Kozur . Approximately the same growth after connection - by 5-10% - Mercaux promises future customers.

According to Kotsur, a contract has already been signed with another large chain of 400 stores, but she declined to elaborate. At the beginning of 2016, three Russian and two European networks should be among the clients, the entrepreneur claims. “We are focusing on Europe – e-commerce is already well established there, which allows us to easily integrate with the product catalog, and offline retail is better developed than in America and Russia,” she explains.

In September 2015, Mercaux raised another $800,000 from Maxfield Capital and business angel Alexei Menn. Theyfund investment director Alexey Tuknov confirmed their investment in the startup. At the end of 2015, Mercaux intends to earn $20-50 thousand, says Kotsur.

INVESTORS

“The project has development potential”

Senior Investment Manager at LETA CapitalSergei Toporov

“The use offline of technologies that have long proven themselves online seems quite logical. Offline retail must eventually come to the widespread use of such systems to increase its competitiveness, so the prospects for the project can be very large. But, naturally, this process will require several years due to limiting factors. First of all, the inertia of large retail: stores need to be interested by offering a “pilot”, then a larger “pilot”, etc.

For a small retailer with a small assortment, the product will most likely not provide benefits that would cover the cost of the service. Although if you build a cloud architecture, give a product for free, and earn, for example, on processing, then small shops I wouldn't write it off.

The project has the development potential - both in a full-fledged independent business, and for absorption major player automation market. Our fund could invest in the project, growth by 10-20% in a large retail account recommender system- it can be a lot of money.

True, the personification of interaction with the store for the buyer will now be not the seller, but the seller, buried in the tablet. In this vein, it is not clear why a seller is needed at all - customers have their own mobile devices to receive the same information. This factor may fade into the background, for example, with the ubiquity of devices such as Google Glass, when obtaining information about the product for the seller will not interrupt communication with the client.

It's not entirely clear what geographic market the company is targeting: Mercaux's website is in English only."

“Retailers are ready to pay for the service”

Investment Director of Maxfield CapitalAlexey Tuknov

“Before deciding to invest, we studied several projects in the field of increasing sales in retail. In this niche Mercaux was the best. The project has a strong team, a qualified angel investor, and a quality product. In addition, the project took its first steps in the market - we followed its success with the first clients, received feedback from market players and realized that retailers are willing to pay for services that increase revenue.

Now Russia is considered as an important, but not the only point of presence of the company. In the future, Mercaux plans to enter the UK, where there is already interest in solving them.”

"Synthesis of a clear product and a great team"

Business angelAlexey Menn

“The main reason why I decided to invest in this project is the synthesis of a clear product and a great team. The product has a well-built architecture, and it has already shown the first positive results in working with Russian stores. All team members have an excellent education, a deep understanding of the market and a willingness to delve into all the details of the service.

I was interested in offline retail and I know that this is a rather conservative market that allows changes every seven to ten years. Now is the moment when digital and offline are starting to merge. In the near future, many large chains will implement a system to improve their service, and Mercaux and I plan to become a "low-cost carrier" in this area.

To write your own system to help the seller, you need a strong team and serious financial investments, Mercaux offers turnkey solution for a low fee by the standards of the market. The focus of the project is on working with European retailers - the team is preparing to move to London, but also Russian market remains interesting for us.

CLIENT

"First results are very encouraging"

Network CEO Kira Plastinina Jan Heere

“The introduction of Mercaux is a big plus for the image of our stores: customers react very positively, noting the improvement in service. Communication between the head office and the stores of this group has been simplified: the main information is “filled” by us into the tablet and is available for use on the trading floor.

Now we are at the testing stage, but the first results are very encouraging: sales growth, higher average bill, understanding of the collection among both sellers and buyers. System integration costs were quite small, so the service shows fast profitability investment. In 2016, we plan to gradually roll out the program across the entire chain of stores.”

COMPETITOR

Head of Marketing Department of the Hexagon bar coding centerAnton Sevostyanov

“Our Mobile Sales Assistant product and the Mercaux project perform the same functions, but we do not consider them competitors. We provide a dedicated hardware solution with a built-in barcode scanner, while Mercaux does a service with user-level devices.

Using an iPhone or iPad, it is quite difficult to read a barcode: you need to open the shooting window, you need to focus the image, after which recognition occurs, then the shooting window closes, and a barcode appears in the field, which is searched for. In the case of professional devices, you simply press the scan button and get the result - it takes a fraction of a second. Mercaux is not the first to try this service on tablets and phones."

EXPERT

“Introduction will require high costs”

Chief consultant of Fashion Consulting Group on business technologies in retailNatalia Chinenova

“The project is interesting for fashion retail, though not for all chains. Implementation of the system requires high financial and organizational costs. The Mercaux software product must be integrated not only with the warehouse program, but also with the database retail stores. Unfortunately, for many Russian operators, warehouse modules are self-recordings with a logic that is not always clear. Therefore, the integration process may require changes software product customer and additional costs.

Indeed, almost all sellers have personal devices, but it is not certain that they will want to use a personal device to work in the store. And buying a special device for each seller is again an additional cost for the company.

In general, Mercaux will not make life easier for the seller, since it only tells you if a particular product is in the store or in stock. Someone will have to take these goods and bring them to the customer. The speed of service will not be reduced from this, and even buyers may be dissatisfied if, instead of communicating, they get buried in mobile device seller. And if the seller still does not know how to use the program, then the service process will even lengthen. So the introduction of Mercaux is not a panacea for increasing turnover.”

"Secret" presents the annual rating of the most active Russian business angels, compiled by Firrma Group with the support of RVC and the National Association of Business Angels (NABA). Participants are private investors, for whom investing in Russian and foreign startups is their main business, not a hobby or patronage. The main criterion that determines the place in the rating is the number of transactions in 2016 that received public confirmation. For a detailed methodology, please refer to

Alexander Rumyantsev

public data

personal data

Invested startups

Average check, $

A2 Leasing System, CyberGame.tv, My Schedule, Reg.fm, Flashsafe, Maroom, Agroinnovations, Zig-Zag, Little Pirate, MamaDoma.Biz, Teleport

Rumyantsev has been investing in startups for just over a year - and 15 deals at once. The former financier says that he came to the startup industry to earn money. As an investor, he is omnivorous, but he admits that he especially loves fintech, ecology and VR. He invests relatively small amounts - several million rubles. Judging by the handwriting, Rumyantsev acts mathematically: he has his own methodology and even a small team (although usually angels are still single filibusters). It is interesting that he does not communicate very closely with colleagues in the shop (which is rare in this business), and therefore he has no or almost no joint deals, but at the same time he is quite open (this is even rarer): 11 out of 15 deals are confirmed by public sources. Of the interesting transactions - Flash.so, whose founder Alexei Churkin managed to give his "endless flash drive" to Dmitry Medvedev, and the Agroinnovations startup with the Electronic Herd project, which monitors the number, health and quality of care for cows.

Alexander Borodich

public data

personal data

Invested startups

Average bill, $

GetShop.TV (twice), GrowFood, Inverse, WiMark System, Buklya, TicketsCloud, MingIvision

Boris Zhilin

public data

personal data

Invested startups

Average bill, $

100 000–200 000

UberChef, BoomStarter, ParkApp, Done

Zhilin lives in Lausanne, but at the same time, a significant part of his transactions are with partners from Russia (for example, with another well-known angel Alexei Menn and VTB24 top manager Nadia Cherkasova). In general, Zhilin is one of the few Russians who invest in domestic companies from abroad. And he does it very actively: 13 transactions per year (four are confirmed by sources), and 12 of them are in Russia, which is rare for a "foreigner". Zhilin is called a flexible investor, and he confirms this: “I believe in maximum flexibility and I am ready to consider investments both at the very early stage of development (a team with an idea) and at later stages when growth funding is required.” The average check is quite high - $ 100-200,000. From the interesting in the portfolio: Zhilin, together with Alexei Menn, invested 20 million rubles in the apartment renovation service Made by Ilya Oskolkov-Tsentsiper, co-founder of Afisha and the Strelka Institute. Other notable projects include food delivery services FoodFox and Elementaree, as well as a cook-to-home service called UberChef.

Bogdan Yarovoy

public data

personal data

Invested startups

Average bill, $

Style Consierge, MasterZen, WiMark System, HiConversion

Yarovoy from Kaliningrad is one of the few active business angels living in Russia and not in Moscow. The former chairman of the board of European Bank began investing in venture not very long ago, but rather quickly turned this occupation into a conscious process. He organized the SmartHub venture company, which combines the functions of the club of angels (Yarovaya and the team are developing it as a platform for co-investment) and an accelerator. In communication, Yarovaya is corporately restrained, but nevertheless he invests recklessly: 16 companies in two years, five in the last year (public sources confirm four transactions). He plans to close “one or two more deals” before the New Year. The average check is quite high - $50–70,000. The stages are classic for seed and pre-seed angels. Among the interesting companies in the portfolio are the Russian-British photo marketplace Lobster (deal in 2015), TicketsCloud, AppFollow application monitoring service (the first release of IIDF in the history).

Julius Zegelman

public data

personal data

Invested startups

Average bill, $

AirCall, AllSet, Rolith

A successful California law practice owner, Zegelman has been investing in startups for years. At the same time, while living in America, he also looks at Russian or Ukrainian projects, although, of course, there are more American projects in his portfolio. Zegelman's investment speed is mesmerizing. According to him, this year he alone and with partners invested in 19 projects (only one from Russia). Three deals have been confirmed publicly. In addition, this angel manages to make exits, which, of course, is the highest class for an investor. The technological focus of Zegelman's investments is wide: cloud technologies, fintech, devices, Internet of things, e-commerce and new materials. Stages - from pre-seed to series A. Here is a typical investor transaction in 2016. Paris-based help desk start-up Aircall, an $8 million round (that's a solid European Stage A), which, in addition to Zegelman, involved several large and medium-sized investors, including Balderton Capital and FJLabs.

Oleg Cheltsov

public data

personal data

Invested startups

Average bill, $

Doctrine, Giroptic, 90 seconds (all - France)

Venture partner of Runa Capital and creator of the Fotolia photobank, Cheltsov, a Frenchman with Russian roots, was once a music producer and is known for discovering the singer Patricia Kaas in Russia. Since the early 2000s, he has invested in more than 50 companies and made about ten successful exits. Cheltsov is still investing a lot. Mostly in France (the local venture capital market is considered quite vigorous). It is difficult to determine the average check, because this angel is usually invested as part of a syndicate. As a rule, this is a strong stage A (which is not very typical for an angel). In 2016, Cheltsov made three deals, all of them “French”.

Sergey Solonin

public data

personal data

Invested startups

Average bill, $

YouDo, Arena Marketing, Instamart

Co-founder of Qiwi, one of the main "blue chips" of Runet, invests in technological projects different scale for a long time - as an LP (partner with limited liability), through the Qiwi corporate fund, as well as individually. The focus of Qiwi is everything related to payment and financial technologies, but the focus of Corned beef is more difficult to understand. His portfolio includes the Arena-Marketing sports ticket distribution service, YouDo, and the Instamart grocery delivery service (by the way, Albert Sagiryan, managing director of Sberbank CIB, participated in this transaction). It is only clear that the investor Solonin prefers to invest at stage A or higher, and that he is interested in fintech in any case, so he headed the FinNet working group of the National Technology Initiative (NTI).

Igor Matsanyuk

public data

personal data

Invested startups

Average bill, $

One of the most closed IT entrepreneurs and investors has completely gone into the shadows in recent years. He lives mainly in Vilnius, where he actively participates in the life of the local technopark. His main brainchild, Game Insight, a major global developer of mobile games, also moved there. Previously, Matsanyuk invested in dozens of startups - first himself, then through his own IMI.VC fund and indirectly as an LP in several Russian funds (which, however, is not documented anywhere). Now little is known about Matsanyuk's investments, and there is a feeling that he was somewhat disappointed by the startup topic. On the other hand, this year he joined the board of trustees of the GenerationS accelerator. Matsanyuk's relatively recent investments include TicketsCloud, a new technopark in Vilnius, and an unnamed medical project.

Oleg Evseenkov

public data

personal data

Invested startups

Average bill, $

RollCon, Green Investments

Evseenkov invests a lot - in a year, according to him, he invested in 18 startups (however, only two were found). Basically, they invest at the preseed and seed stages in an area that is far from being the most popular among angels - "industrial technology". However, for former top manager Rosnano and RAO UES, as well as the Minister of Industry Ryazan region it's a perfectly logical choice. In addition, Evseenkov preach an unusual investment model. “My business model is less about exits and more about dividend yields,” he says. The average check is $50 thousand.

Edward Fiyaksel

public data

personal data

Invested startups

Average bill, $

50 000–150 000

no data

Perhaps one of the most successful Russian business angels. It was Eduard Fiyaksel who made several bright angel exits in the history of Russian venture, and immediately sold the projects to a strategist. So, in 2014, he sold the broadband Internet access operator Megamax and Internet Lab to companies from the Virgin group of Richard Branson. The multiplier for transactions, according to the investor, exceeded 28. This investor loves areas that are not very popular among angels: telecom, the Internet of things, medical devices. Invests from $50-150,000 at the seed and start-up stages - that is, on average, a little more than most angels. This year, Fiyaksel has invested in eight startups (public sources point to two). Fiyaksel is the Head of the Department of Venture Management at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. Permanently residing in his native Nizhny Novgorod, he leads the local association of business angels "Starting Investments".

Sergey Dashkov

public data

personal data

Invested startups

Average bill, $

Whatshelp, hellobaby

Dashkov is a member of the Venture Club, one of the most active angel groups. The range of investment interests is very wide: Big Data, fintech, new energy, VR, Internet of Things, biotech, etc. The portfolio includes projects such as Veeroute and Minglvion. Dashkov says he has closed eight deals this year, but only two are publicly available. The first is a customer support service via Whatshelp messengers (an $80,000 round, which also involved Pavel Cherkashin, a veteran of the angelic movement, and several other private investors). The second is the HelloBaby baby app. Dashkov invested in it together with the production center Riki Group (the owner of Smeshariki, Fixiki and Malysharikov) and several members of the Venture Club.

Andrey Golovin

public data

personal data

Invested startups

Average bill, $

Golovin, a veteran of the angel movement, began investing in the 1990s. At the same time, he does not really like the publicity and partying that is inherent in the angel market (Golovin is one of the few who does not make joint deals, and this is generally rare), so it is not so easy to meet him. He invests not only in venture capital, but also in infrastructure - for example, this year he invested in coworking in Spain. Geography, like all experienced angels, goes beyond the borders of the country: for Golovin, these are the Baltic states and Spain. There are also many topics of interest to him: platforms for developing bots and business communications through messengers, cross-border e-commerce, distributed online business systems, new interface technologies, etc. The main criterion for selecting projects is the quality of the team. “We need people not only with bright eyes, but with good experience and a professional background,” he explains. “I even had to make early exits because I began to doubt the competence of project leaders.”

Oleksandr Chernyak

public data

personal data

Invested startups

Average bill, $

300,000–2 million

Instacarro (Brazil), Mobalytics (USA)

Chernyak is a big angel who invests up to stage B inclusive (and this is definitely the domain of adult venture funds) up to $2 million. Mostly in his native Ukraine, but manages to watch good projects in Russia and even in Brazil, where Chernyak, according to him, already has one project. Interested in e-commerce, food tech, fintech, smart consumption and travel services. Perhaps one of the most stellar (at least among the known) transactions for an investor was an investment in CarPrice. Today it is one of the most promising young technology companies - you can’t even call it a startup anymore. Now such giants as, for example, Baring Vostok sit in it, but Chernyak was one of the first investors. Yak was one of the first investors.

Igor Shoifot

public data

personal data

Invested startups

Average bill, $

250,000–1 million

Sixa (USA), California in Ukraine (Ukraine)

This angel makes deals in the amount of $250,000 to $1 million - in fact, in the venture funds zone. Shoifot has lived in the US since the 1990s, but regularly invests in Russia and other countries former USSR(especially often in Ukraine). In America, he is also known as the founder of such companies as Epsylon Games, Fotki.Com, vInternship. Shoifot is on friendly terms with the RBC founders' fund - TMT Investments. The investor is interested in several topics: marketplaces, e-commerce, clouds, Big Data, media. Of the latest interesting transactions - the Sixa project. Shoyfot is also known for regularly making good exits - for example, he sold Kanvas to the giant AOL.

Alexey Menn

public data

personal data

Invested startups

Average bill, $

25 000–400 000

Done, Elementaree

Menn has been an active player in the market for about three years. In addition, he founded his own venture fund Sun Capital, through which he also makes deals. How an angel invests $200-400,000 in a startup. Menn differs from many other participants in the rating in that he loves not only classic venture deals. “Traditional industries that haven't had technological changes for a long time are interesting,” he explains. “Retail, construction, food tech, e-sports, various b2b services are especially interesting.” At least one of his portfolio companies is known to many young Muscovites - this is the "food designer" Elementaree.

Igor Kaloshin

public data

The rating was commissioned by RVC in partnership with the National Association of Business Angels and vc.ru. “The main criterion for us: for a person, venture investments should be business and work,” its authors note. The rating includes investors who have made at least 2 venture deals in the last 12 months. In addition, at least two transactions must be confirmed by public information.

1. Alexander Rumyantsev. 30 transactions, of which 28 were confirmed

Rumyantsev became the leader of the rating for the second year in a row. The size of the average investment is from 500 thousand to 3 million rubles, and the volume of investments for the year is not less than 15 million rubles. This year, he doubled the number of transactions: from 15 to 30. By the end of December, the investor plans to increase the number of startups in his portfolio to 50.

2. Vitaly Polekhin. 10 transactions, of which 2 were confirmed

Polekhin is the head of the National Association of Business Angels and the Club of Angels of the Skolkovo Business School. The average size The check amounted to $50-150 thousand. Polekhin invests not only startups, but also venture funds: for example, AddVenture.

3. Sergey Dashkov. 10 transactions, of which 2 were confirmed

Dashkov is a MIPT graduate and co-founder of SDS-Foods. He invests in projects in the field of the Internet of things, virtual reality, fintech, etc. The average check size is $150 thousand, and the volume of investments per year is $1 million.

4. Andrey Golovin. 7 transactions, of which 2 were confirmed

Golovin does not like to advertise his investments. It is known that he now manages a network of co-working spaces in Europe. The average check size is €10-15 thousand, the volume of investments per year is €60 thousand.

5. Roman Povolotsky. 6 transactions, of which 6 were confirmed

Povolotsky is a newcomer to the rating, who ended up in a venture from the IT business. He is a game developer and producer and runs Taiga VR. invested in Tilt Shift, the Imperium team with the VR Helper project, Aura Lab, the RGUPS team and Avatar-1. Data on the average check and the volume of investments is not yet available.

6. Dmitry Sutormin. 5 transactions, of which 2 were confirmed

Sutormin is another newcomer among the most active business angels. He has invested in Woom, RCML, Prostodom, Platfomni and ACT. Having entered the market in 2016, this year it made two full launches: SkyPark SDN and Enaza.ru. The average size of a check is $250,000, the volume of investments is $950,000.

7. Eduard Fiyaksel. 5 transactions, of which 2 were confirmed

Fiyaksel is an investor from Nizhny Novgorod and lecturer at the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the National Research University Higher School of Economics with a professorship. The average volume of a check is from $50,000, the volume of investments per year is $400,000.

8. Bogdan Yarovoy. 5 transactions, of which 2 were confirmed

The ex-chairman of the board and co-owner of European Bank Yarovoy runs the SmartHub business angel club in Kaliningrad. The average check size is $50,000. The total amount of investments over the past 12 months has not been disclosed.

9. Oleg Evseenkov. 3 transactions, of which 3 were confirmed

Evseenkov has been consistently investing in a large number of startups for many years in a row. At the same time, he often invests in companies that can return investments with dividends. The average size of a check is $30,000, the volume of investments is $200,000.

10. Alexey Menn. 3 transactions of which confirmed - 2

Menn is a partner at Sun Capital. He invested in Russian startups Elementaree and Made. The average check size is from $400. The volume of investments is not disclosed.

In total, 49 business angels were included in the rating. It is compiled on the basis of research and public information, as well as data received from the shortlisted angels themselves, whom the compilers interviewed personally. In addition, almost all participants completed a survey. Among the newcomers not included in the top ten are Dmitry Sysoev, Artem Rudi, Evgeny Zhulanov and Nikolai Kartorzhnov.