Almaz Capital
{{Short description|International venture fund}}
{{COI|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Almaz Capital
| logo = Almaz Capital Logo.svg
| alt = Almaz Capital
| type = Private
| key_people = Managing Partner: Alexander Galitsky, General Partners: Geoffrey Baehr, Pavel Bogdanov, Charles E. Ryan, Aniruddha Nazaré
| industry = Venture capital
| assets =
| num_employees =
| foundation = 2008
| location = Portola Valley, California, United States
| homepage = https://almazcapital.com/
}}
Almaz Capital is a global VC fund headquartered in Portola Valley, California, United States investing in early stage, capital efficient technology companies in high-growth sectors. Almaz Capital focuses on disruptive
deep tech companies in b2b software space, including AI/ML and Blockchain applications, IoT
and Edge Computing Enablers, Cybersecurity, etc. Since its foundation the firm's portfolio has included about 50 companies, with more than 300 million US dollars invested in them.{{cite web |url=https://www.comnews.ru/content/105150/2016-12-15/innovacii-bez-granic |title=Инновации без границ | author = Ксения Прудникова |date=2016-12-15 |publisher=Comnews |access-date=2019-02-19}}
The fund's investors include European Investment Fund (EIF), Cisco, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group.
Almaz Capital is headquartered in Portola Valley, California, has an office in Berlin and representative offices in offices in Kyiv (Ukraine), Warsaw (Poland) and other Central and Eastern
European countries.{{cite web | url=https://almazcapital.com/contacts/ | title=Contacts – Almaz Capital }}
Almaz Capital's partners are Alexander Galitsky, Geoffrey Baehr, Pavel Bogdanov, Charles E. Ryan and Aniruddha Nazaré.
History
In 2004, Cisco approached Alexander Galitsky, former scientist and technological entrepreneur who was appointed as president of the first Tech Tour {{cite web | url=https://www.techtour.com/ | title=Tech Tour }} in East Europe — a specialized forum in which international investors visited countries with growing venture markets and got to know local startups,{{Cite web |title=Как фонд Александра Галицкого стал лидером венчурного рынка |url=https://www.forbes.ru/finansy/investitsii/247848-kak-fond-aleksandra-galitskogo-stal-liderom-venchurnogo-rynka |access-date=2022-06-20 |website=Forbes.ru |date=25 November 2013 |language=ru}} and offered him financing to establish a venture fund to invest into East European startup companies. Galitsky selected the bridge fund model and has focused on investing in and connecting Eastern European startups creating promising technologies for global markets with western companies that can benefit from engineering resources in Eastern Europe.{{cite web |url=http://firrma.ru/data/articles/3920/ |title=Инвестор Александр Галицкий: от космоса до "Алмаза" |language=Russian |trans-title=Investor Alexander Galitsky: from space to Almaz |author=Elena Krauzova |date=2014-10-21 |publisher=Firrma |accessdate=2019-08-20 |archive-date=2019-02-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190215050540/http://firrma.ru/data/articles/3920/ |url-status=dead }}
Alexander Galitsky founded Almaz Capital in 2008 together with three partners: Charles Emmitt Ryan, founder of {{interlanguage link|United Financial Group|ru|ОФГ Инвест}}, senior advisor at Deutsche Bank and former CEO of Deutsche Bank Russia; Peter Loukianoff who was working for Alloy Ventures and Pavel Bogdanov. Geoffrey Baehr,{{Cite web |title=Geoffrey Baehr – Almaz Capital |url=https://almazcapital.com/our-team/geoffrey-baehr/ |access-date=2022-06-20 |language=en-EN}} a former General Partner at US Venture Partners (USVP), who used to curate joint projects with Galitsky in the 1990s when he was CNO at Sun Microsystems later joined Almaz Capital as advisor. In 2011, Loukianoff resigned from Almaz Capital and Baehr became fund's fourth general partner.{{cite web |url=http://www.forbes.ru/finansy/investitsii/247848-kak-fond-aleksandra-galitskogo-stal-liderom-venchurnogo-rynka |title=Как фонд Александра Галицкого стал лидером венчурного рынка |language = Russian |trans-title= How a fund of Alexander Galitsky has become the leader of the venture capital market |author=Elena Tofanyuk |date=2013-11-26 |work=Forbes |accessdate=2019-08-20}}{{cite web |url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2014238 |title=Александр Галицкий огранил Almaz Capital |language = Russian |trans-title= Alexander Galitsky has faceted Almaz Capital |author= Vladislav Novy |date=2012-09-03 |publisher=Kommersant |accessdate=2019-08-20}}{{cite web |url=https://www.vedomosti.ru/technology/articles/2012/06/27/almaz_ne_delitsya |title=Основатели Almaz Capital Partners переругались между собой |language = Russian |trans-title= The founders of Almaz Capital Partners fell out with each other|author=Roman Dorokhov, Anastasia Golitsyina |date=2012-06-27 |publisher=Vedomosti |accessdate=2019-08-20}}
Funds
Almaz Capital Fund I was backed in 2008 with a capital of $72 mln. Among its investors, Almaz Capital I attracted $30 million from Cisco and more $20 million were given by UFG partners. After a year, a third investor appeared in the Fund — Еuropean Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) who invested around $20 mln. The first fund’s activity was focused on the search for interesting projects within the territory of CIS countries to be in demand in the global market.{{cite web |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cisco-russia-interview/cisco-to-invest-in-russian-tech-startups-idUSN0125931420080702 |title=Cisco to invest in Russian tech startups |author=Ritsuko Ando |date=2008-07-02 |publisher=Reuters |accessdate=2019-08-20}}{{cite web |url=https://rb.ru/article/cisco-systems-budet-podnimat-rossiyskie-startapy/5322607.html |title=Cisco Systems будет поднимать российские стартапы |language = Russian |trans-title= Cisco Systems will boost Russian startups |date=2008-07-02 |publisher=Rusbase |accessdate=2019-08-20}}
In 2013, Almaz Capital II was established. It raised around $200 million from its limited partners.{{cite web |url=http://www.ewdn.com/2013/08/09/almaz-capital-invests-in-us-big-data-solution-provider-and-launches-new-102-million-fund/ |title=Almaz Capital invests in US big data solution provider and launches new $102 million fund |date=2013-08-09 |publisher=East-West Digital News |accessdate=2019-08-20}} Cisco remained Almaz Capital's major investor in fund II with other major investment coming from UFG, EBRD and the International Finance Corporation. In an interview for the Vedomosti newspaper, Galitsky noted that Almaz Capital II attracted money from several family offices.{{cite web |url=https://www.vedomosti.ru/technology/characters/2017/01/23/674527-nas-interesuyut-komandi |title=Нас интересуют команды, которые нацелены на глобальный рынок |language= Russian |trans-title= ‘We are interested in teams that target the global market.’ |author= Pavel Kantyshev |date=2017-01-23 |publisher=Vedomosti |accessdate=2019-08-20}} The second fund excluded Russia’s originated companies from the list of new investments and expanded the geography of its activity to cover not only CIS countries but also some regions of East Europe.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}
Almaz Fund’s III with a capital of $191 mln final close was in 2021. EBRD still remained the main investor enriched by European International Fund (EIF).{{Cite web |title=EIF |url=https://www.eif.org/who_we_are/governance/board_of_directors/minutes/board_of_directors_minutes_20200514_en.pdf}} The geographical focus mostly moved to the Eastern European countries, although CIS is still in the scope of interest of the Fund.{{cite web | url=https://www.ebrd.com/work-with-us/projects/psd/almaz-capital-fund-iii.html | title=Almaz Capital Fund III }}
References
{{Reflist}}
Category:Financial services companies established in 2008
Category:Companies based in California
Category:Venture capital firms of the United States
Category:Financial services companies based in California
Category:American companies established in 2008
Category:2008 establishments in California