The Second Coming of Intel Capital
Intel Capital Venture Fund has resumed business in Russia after a break of nearly a year. In early 2007, three managers, including the chief, left the fund, and Intel Capital needed nearly a year to find a new head. It isn’t surprising actually. The venture finance experts are scarce in Russia.
Intel Capital’s new director, Georgy Kolpachev, was previously employed with Mint Capital as investment manager. Kolpachev said he was studying the files and couldn't speak of some definite plans. “I’m actually the only one in the fund so far. I’m taking over the office from foreign colleagues, who have dealt with Russia and CIS,” he specified. “As to the team’s widening, I can say nothing about it yet, as it depends on the project number. As to the number of projects, I would like to make from one to four deals a year, and the amount of investments is unlimited.”
Intel Capital was set up in 1991; it has injected over $6 billion in about 1,000 companies of 40 countries of the world. Officially, the fund arrived in Russia in 2004 by launching an office and investing $10 million ($6 million provided by IFC) in ru-Net Holdings. In addition to ru-Net Holdings, Intel Capital has invested in Spark, WiTel, SWsoft, InfiNet and Akella.
For Intel Capital, it took nearly a year to find a new chief. Former head of the Moscow office Dmitry Kulish left in early 2007 and remaining two managers, Roman Simonov (employed with Delta Private Equity Partners) and Vitaly Belik (Russian Technology) followed his example.
“The situation was almost comical. The fund had worked a couple of months ago, but three people left it and there was no fund at all,” said a source close to Intel Capital.
According to Intel director for Russia and CIS Dmitry Konash, the managers resigned for personal reasons and the fund has been controlled by managers from East Europe’s office after it. “No deals have been clinched this year,” the official said.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 02, 2007
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