Runa Capital expands US presence with new hire

Bauert is Runa's second US partner. He will focus on helping the firm's Russian portfolio companies expand into the US market, as well as seek new investments for Runa in the US.

Bauert joins the firm following a four-year stint as CFO and COO of Seattle-based desktop virtualisation company Parallels. According to Runa, the company's revenues increased by more than $70m under Bauert's leadership.

Prior to Parallels, Bauert worked as executive vice president of strategy and operations at Norwegian search technology company Fast Search & Transfer, which was acquired by Microsoft for $1.2bn in 2008. Bauert's career in IT spans more than 25 years.

Runa has been involved in a number of transactions over the last 12 months. Most recently, the firm injected $2m into Moscow-based mobile banking service provider Rocketbank. Last month the firm merged its portfolio company ZdorovieOnline with VitaPortal, which is backed by Fast Lane Ventures and Prostor Capital, to create a new Russian online medical advice service. Runa supplied $1m in capital to the new entity.

The firm also jointly invested $12m in Eruditor Group, a provider of online marketplaces for freelancers, alongside Intel Capital and Frontier Ventures.

Runa is based in Moscow and currently manages a $135m fund, which is predominantly focused on the technology sector.

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