21 Nov 2022 15:32

Flashpoint setting up $75 mln venture IT investment fund for Ukraine

MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) - Flashpoint Venture Capital, an international tech investor in B2B SaaS companies managing six funds with a total worth of over $450 million, intends to set up a new fund of around $75 million, which will be known as the Ukrainian Tech Fund and will cater only to Ukraine's needs, said Flashpoint Managing Partner Igor Bilous, who once headed the State Tax Service and the State Property Fund of Ukraine.

"We want to become a little more focused on Ukraine [...] to put together this small fund of $75 million and build a larger number of enterprises for a larger number of entities from Ukraine, invest in them," Ukrainian media quoted Bilous as saying at the Ukrainian Investment Roadshow conference, which took place in London last week.

Flashpoint Venture Capital is currently in talks with leading international financial organizations and the UK government on the possibility of financing this fund, he said.

According to Bilous, a consultative council has been set up: its members are former Ukrainian Economic Minister Natalia Mikolskaya, People.ai CTO Andrei Akselrod, the Ukrainian economy minister's former advisor Marko Ivashko, who is also well known in Ukraine's direct investment sector, Revenue Grid CEO and co-founder Vlad Voskresensky, and executive director of the Ukrainian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association Dmitry Kuzmenko.

The fund is expected to be able to invest $1 million to $3 million in 12-15 companies each at the lead stage, buying stakes of at least 10% in them and actively participating in portfolio management.

"It is not charity but real business. And we would like to invest today," Bilous said.

The company currently has a staff of 30-35 people, three of its four top managers are Ukrainians, and the company has its headquarters in London and offices in New York, Warsaw, Budapest, Riga "and hopefully in Ukraine soon," he said.

Flashpoint Venture Capital has made 59 entries and 12 exits and has a far-reaching network of more than 130 investors from different countries, he said.

The Flashpoint portfolio includes three Ukrainian companies - Preply, Allset and All Right - in which more than $17 million has already been invested, Bilous said, adding that more than 450 companies have been analyzed, and an in-depth analysis has been conducted into 205 of them.

Flashpoint's plans for 2027 include having 20 new Ukrainian portfolio companies with a staff of more than 1,000 people, as well as its own office in Kiev employing five people.