Russian VC firm Runa Capital has a new fund, and it's refocusing on European tech

While China and India have increasingly become hotspots for venture capital, Russia has also seen a lot of activity.

Russian investor Yuri Milner’s DST Global closed its fourth fund earlier this week, and now Runa Capital, a Moscow-based venture capital firm, is announcing today the first close of its second fund. Runa is not disclosing the amount, although it said it is within the common industry practice of initially closing 10 to 20 percent of the targeted total. The fund’s target total size is $200 million, and Runa will invest in tech companies worldwide, with a special focus on Europe.

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“Large investors of Runa Capital II plan to invest to the second fund, their capital shall make the half of target size, which indicates their confidence in our investment strategy,” said Runa managing partner Dmitry Chikhachev in an official statement. “The second half of Runa Capital II, we plan to obtain from new investors.”

The new fund’s investment strategy will be similar to the firm’s previous fund. It will continue to invest in cloud computing, hosted services, virtualization, complex software and IT solutions for financial technology, education, healthcare, and social tech. The fund’s geographical focus will shift more toward Central, Eastern, and Western Europe, along with Turkey and Israel.

Individual investments will range between $1 million and $10 million, with an average investment of $3 million to $5 million, according to managing partner Dmitry Chikhachev.

Some of the firm’s previous investments include Ecwid, Nginx, and Capptain, which Microsoft recently acquired.

Runa Capital was founded in 2010 by Serguei Beloussov, Dmitry Chikhachev, and Ilya Zybarev. Its first fund totaled $135 million. Andre Bliznyuk joined as a partner in 2011.