Elbrus Capital, a venture capital firm spun off from Russia-based investment bank Renaissance, has made its first exit through the flotation of internet holding company Mail.ru.
Elbrus, then known as Renaissance Private Equity, invested in Mail.ru in 2007 before raising its first fund at $180m the following year.
Dmitri Krukov, the former managing partner of Renaissance Private Equity, set up Elbrus with Alexander Savin, the ex-chief executive of A1 Group, an investment arm of Alfa Group, and Robert Thielen, founder and managing partner of Waterland Private Equity, after buying out the investment bank’s stake at the end of last year.
Mail.ru, a Russia-based online media group backed by Naspers’ corporate venturing unit, raised $912m in its London Stock Exchange initial public offering earlier this month after pricing at the top of its range and seeing a 30% jump in its value on the first day of trading.
Mail.ru sold 32.9 million global depositary receipts at $27.70 each for a market capitalization of $5.7bn.