Venture Investor Profile: Inventure Incubator

Interlocutor: Alexander Loktev , CEO of the Inventure Internet Project Incubator
Age: 39 years
The amount of funds for investment: several tens of millions of dollars (for more, see the text of the article)
Maternal structure: Russian Media Ventures venture fund
Invested projects: not yet (incubator opened on January 14, 2008)
Education: Faculty of Journalism, Moscow State University, Academy of National Economy under the Government of the Russian Federation, MBA Kingston University (UK)
Previous jobs: Kommersant Publishing House (1990-1998; from a correspondent to the chief editor of the Kommersant newspaper and the general director of Kommersant- Daily CJSC) , YUKOS (1998-2004; head of the public relations department, management of the company's media holding) Publishing House “Sekret Firmy” (2004–2007; co-founder, CEO and chief editor)
Contacts:
Address: Rumyantsevo Business Center . The office is not open yet, finishing works are on.
e-mail: lyudmirsky@ya.ru

General investor information

It seems that a structure has finally appeared in Russia, not only ready to invest in Internet projects at the seed stage, but also emphasizing this. According to Alexander Loktev, the Inventure incubator is looking for companies at this stage, and only in rare cases will they invest in companies that are at the start-up stage of their development.

Alexander Loktev: “ The further the project proposed to us is from the startup stage, the more interesting it is for us .”

At the same time, he notes the existing shortage in Russia not only of high-quality start-ups, but of start-ups in general. By the way, the incubator specializes mainly in online projects. Unlike venture funds and most business angels who are looking for such projects that only need their sufficient funding, the incubator plans to “grow” the proposed Internet projects from scratch, helping start-up developers at all stages - from detailed market assessment and feasibility study to selection the necessary specialists (both developers and profile specialists from the business environment) and determine the best strategy for launching and marketing the project. At the same time, it should be realized that the incubator helps the start-up team exactly, and this does not mean that it will do all the work for them. Since the incubator considers projects that are actually at the idea stage (pre-seed stage), then startups will have to accept the idea that Inventure will receive a share of 50% + 1 share in the project - the incubator is oriented towards the controlling stake (albeit if the incubator interested in a project that is at a later stage of development, then, as they say, options are possible).

Inventure is a subsidiary of RMV (Russian Media Ventures) venture fund owned by CTC Media’s founder and Maximum radio station Peter Gervi and shareholders of Eastern Europe’s largest media advertising market operator Video International ( according to the company’s own data, the turnover in 2007 about $ 3 billion). The well-known projects financed by RMV - Top4Top.ru and the information and business website , which is being done in conjunction with the Kommersant Publishing House and the Reuters news agency, have nothing to do with Inventure, except that these projects and Inventure have a common “parent”.

The volume of funds intended for investment, according to Loktev, is "several tens of millions of dollars", while he does not name the amount more precisely, arguing that the amount may vary depending on the number of projects in which the incubator will be interested in investing - if will not be enough, but at the same time there will be interesting projects, it is always possible to go to the main shareholder and justify the need to allocate additional amounts. The volume of funds planned to be invested in 2008, Loktev also does not mention that, in general, it is logical - by calling it, but not finding a sufficient number of promising projects, you can “run into” at the end of the year the unflattering reviews about the incubator of analysts and competitors that will shout that the “incubator failed”, and people who invest in questionable projects just to “master” the means for reporting and press releases, are completely different from the leaders of Inventure - there is a very good impression from communication with the management of the incubator lku obvious that they are very "drayvovye" (a better word, I could not pick up) and passionate about their work.
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An organizational incubator consists of several blocks that “lead” a startup from the moment of its first contact with the incubator to the moment the fund “leaves” the project: search , production , development , support and analysis . Above all the blocks is the Investment Council . The functions of each unit will be described below.

The approach to identifying interesting projects adopted by Inventure is quite interesting: the incubator analysts have compiled a “matrix of interesting areas for investment”, where they, by analyzing the markets and development trends of Runet, rank various niches according to their prospects. In the future, Loktev promises to publish this “matrix” on the Inventure website.

Work with startups

Since the process of interaction between a startup and a venture capital investor is reminiscent of the relationship between a man and a woman, who selects a partner for marriage, I decided to break it into several parts for better perception:

• The initial negotiations of startups with investors (reminds me of the process of courtship);
• The investor reserves for himself the time required for a more detailed study of the project, during which startups undertake not to contact other investors (engagement);
• The signing of a financing agreement and the creation of a common person (wedding) with the investor;
• Joint work on the preparation of the project for launch (honeymoon);
• Launch and development of the project (family life);
• Exit investor from the project (divorce).