Starta Ventures, a tech investment group with Russian roots operating internationally, has launched a new venture fund targeting startups from Eastern Europe.
“We’ll focus on high-tech startups with global potential from Eastern Europe – which includes Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and others,” said fund representative Elena Shushunova in an exchange with Ukraine Digital News.
Blockchain startups at the pre-ICO stage are among the targets: “Thus, we hope to receive additional exit opportunities as the tokens issued by the startups will be listed token exchanges.”
Starta Capital Fund II is also interested in HR-tech, medtech, fintech, adtech and media, with a preference for those based on AI technologies and blockchain.
The fund will invest up to $200,000 at the seed stage and up to $1 million in rounds A, not including co-investors.
This fund has original characteristics. Investors may not only join the new fund, dubbed Starta Capital Fund II, as LPs, they may also take directly their own equity stake in any company in which the fund will invest.
This mechanism is based on smart contract security tokens which are “aligned with equity stakes in the companies,” the fund stated.
Alexey Girin, co-founder and general partner of Starta Ventures, hopes to “attract through this syndicated investment mechanism, three to five times as much co-investment capital than the value of the fund itself.”
When joining a deal, co-investors will be requested to pay a setup fee and an up to 15% fee on exits or sales. Meanwhile, Starta Capital Fund II will not charge management fees to its LPs – another original characteristic of this fund.
The fund is in the process of raising funds with a $20 million target. Under plans, the first deals will be completed in May.
The Starta Ventures group includes Starta Capital Fund I (launched in 2013), the Starta Accelerator in New York (launched in 2015, completed an ICO in 2017), a blockchain startup accelerator named Token Rockets, and a co-working space named Sputnik Space, also located in New York.
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