Runa Capital launches third fund

Natalia Lapotko, Mergermarket
22 January 2018

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Runa Capital, a Palo Alto-based venture capital firm, is starting to market its third fund, which is expected to be around $135m and deployed within four years, according to managing partner Dmitry Chikhachev.

The VC firm is looking to attract existing investors, Chikhachev said.

The maximum Runa invests in a project is $10m, usually over several rounds. The smallest investment Runa normally conducts is $1m, as previously reported by unquote" sister title Mergermarket.

The VC firm plans some exits soon, Chikhachev said, declining to reveal any details.

Runa Capital II closed on $135m in May 2016, short of its $200m target.

According to its website, some of Runa's more mature portfolio companies include Moscow-based procurement marketplace B2B Center, in which it made a late-stage investment in June 2012, and London-based peer-to-peer lending platform Zopa, in which it made a late-stage investment in January 2013.

Runa also participated in a series-C funding round in Washington-based Acumatica, a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) software provider, in September 2013. In addition, Runa led a $34m series-C investment in Berlin-based consumer loan portal Smava in September 2016, and then participated in another $65m funding round in the company in December 2017.

Seed investments made by Runa in 2010 that have since proceeded to become later-stage ventures include Finland-based MariaDB and Californian company Jelastic. MariaDB completed a $27m series-C last September and Jelastic's most recent funding was a C round in 2013.

Runa has also exited several portfolio companies. It exited San Francisco-headquartered SchoolMint, a cloud-based student enrolment software company, which was acquired by BV Investment Partners in October 2017 for £24m. In February 2014, Runa sold its portfolio company StopTheHacker, an anti-malware company, to San Francisco-based website optimisation and security developer CloudFlare for an undisclosed amount.

In October 2014, Runa sold online shopping tool Metabar to Russian search engine Yandex for reportedly less than $5m. In 2012, Runa sold a minority stake in ThinkGrid, a UK-based provider of cloud IT solutions, reportedly receiving more than $10m for its shares.

Runa has invested in more than 60 companies in 12 countries. It focuses on education, fintech, B2B software-as-a-service, healthcare and deep tech companies. It invests in US and Europe-based companies, Chikhachev said.