The Russian state-owned atomic energy company Rosatom is in the process of raising a corporate venturing fund.
Speaking at the Open Innovation forum in Moscow, Alexey Kalinin, Rosatom project director, said: “We are in a tender process to appoint a general partner (GP) to manage the fund and hope to close in early 2013 with $250m to $300m.”
Rosatom will commit R2bn ($65m) to the fund, which will be matched by state-owned Russian Venture Company (RVC), with the rest coming from the private sector.
RVC currently has 12 funds: one each in biotech, infrastructure and seed, two international and seven ‘universal’. The company is keen to encourage more corporate venturing in Russia and is expected to launch other new funds as co-investment platforms with private businesses, mostly seed and early stage, including in the areas of space, nuclear, cleantech, smart systems and aircraft.