Olga Turzhanskaya, head of Qiwi Venture, the corporate venture capital unit of Russia-based payments company Qiwi, has moved from sell-side to buy-side equity analyst and on to private equity then venture investing through her career. This gives her a comprehensive picture on private and public investments in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Turzhanskaya joined Qiwi Venture in early 2014, a year after the payments company floated on the US’s Nasdaq stock exchange. Russia-based internet company Mail.ru, in turn backed by corporate venture money from South Africa-listed media group Naspers, had made over $300m from selling its shares in Qiwi. Qiwi’s flotation spread its wealth to other startups.
A month later, in late April 2014, Andrei Romanenko, an executive at Qiwi, set up Run Capital, a $30m venture fund targeting Russian tech startups at the pre-seed and seed stages. The Russian entrepreneurs who launched Run Capital alongside Romanenko, Sergei Fedyushchenko, Igor Mikhailov, Andrei Muravyov and Nikolai Romanenko, were all linked to Qiwi.
And other executives have also been dealmaking, with Sergey Solonin, Qiwi’s CEO, in July joining Russia-based contractor services marketplace YouDo’s $6.2m series C round, alongside Sistema.
But, while Qiwi Ventures had struck some deals before Turzhanskaya joined, including Carbay.ru, it has seen plenty of interest afterwards, with mobile payment application AnyBalance raising $150,000 in May 2015. Others in its portfolio include 47 Restuarants, PIN Bonus, POSFinance, Centrobit Agora, Bunch, Zaimix, Your Audioguide, Easywallet, Tutt.ru, Checkit and PrimeGate, according to database Rusbase.