$ 100 million … Leta Capital wants to be a friend to Russian-speaking founders everywhere – TechCrunch

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In recent years, as Vladimir Putin has got a stronger grip on his country, it has become increasingly clear that Russian entrepreneurs who want to really get involved with the rest of the world have to leave their motherland. Gone are the days when a startup in Russia caught the attention of many Western investors. Unfortunately, the same applies to Russian-speaking Belarusians, many of whom left the country after brutal raids. Ukraine’s economy also remains below average due to ongoing Russian aggression in the east of the country. So it is up to enterprising Russian-speaking investors in and outside Russia to find the best ways to capitalize on the obvious talent out there.

Leta Capital invests in Russian-speaking entrepreneurs who are located almost everywhere. It is now launching its third and largest fund to date, and says it will invest over $ 100 million in growth-phase UK, European and US-based tech companies over the next three years. The focus will be on seed / round A / round B investments. It intends to invest in the $ 2-5 million range and will focus on software, IT and Internet technologies

The new fund is designed to appeal to Eastern European and Russian-speaking entrepreneurs. Especially those that operate from international hubs like London and New York.

Leta’s founder and former tech entrepreneur Alexander Chachava says that overseas-based Russian-speaking startups these days are often overlooked and undervalued by Western VCs and investors, and I dare say he’s right. Prejudice is not just about skin color, as we all know.

Chachava says his fund has invested over $ 45 million since 2012 to date, investing in 30 technology companies including Synthesis AI, Unigine, InDriver, NovaKid (which I covered last year) and 365Scores.

Exits include the sale of Bright Box HK to Zurich Insurance Group in 2017 and the takeover of the sales and marketing platform Unomy by WeWork.

Chachava said: “While we are significantly expanding our geographic focus to major global hubs, our strategy remains essentially the same: identifying exciting technology startups and high potential entrepreneurs and helping them realize their international ambitions.”

Chachava says his own research suggests there are more than 17,000 Russian-speaking and Eastern European tech entrepreneurs and startups operating in the UK, Europe and the US.

“Our analysis shows that they are still undervalued and overlooked in funding, even though they often generate significant funds in relation to FER. These entrepreneurs are among the most dynamic and tech-savvy in the world and represent a huge untapped opportunity for investors. “

He has an argument. Major companies like Telegram, Revolut, TradingView, PandaDoc and Preply were all founded by Russian-speaking emigrants from their respective Russian-influenced countries.

Leta said its first ever “evergreen” fund was worth $ 15 million. Its second $ 50 million fund closed for the first time in September 2018 and has tied up about 60% of its capital, according to the company.

Leta will be investing from a company in the Cayman Islands but does not currently plan or need an office to invest.

As Chachava told me on a Zoom call, “We haven’t been on the road too much in the last two years, our work has been downgraded to Zoom calls. But before that we spent a couple of months in the US, a couple of months in Western Europe. I’ve been a frequent visitor to London, but I don’t think we need any more space in our modern world. “

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