Runa Capital


Runa Capital is an international venture capital firm headquartered in Luxembourg that invests in deep tech, enterprise software, and fintech infractructure early-stage startups. From 2010 through 2022, Runa Capital raised around $500 million in 4 funds and invested in over 100 companies in more than 14 countries of Europe and North America, including Nginx, MariaDB, Zopa, Brainly, drchrono, Smava, Brainly and Mambu.

History

Runa Capital was founded by technological entrepreneurs Serg Bell and Ilya Zubarev, and their MIPT university friend Dmitry Chikhachev. The idea of the venture firm took shape in 2009 and was formally incorporated in 2010. The partners contributed their own money into the first fund and raised capital from friends and other international investors including Achim Weiss and Andreas Gauger, founders of German hosting provider 1&1, and Edward Nicholson, former CEO of Brunswick-UBS.
In 2011, Andre Bliznyuk joined Runa Capital as a General Partner. In 2022, the firm promoted its principals, Konstantin Vinogradov and Michael Fanfant, to general partners focusing on Europe and the U.S., respectively. In 2023, Serg Bell ceased his involvement in Runa Capital and resigned as a general partner. In 2020, the firm added Jinal Jhaveri as a venture partner.
Since 2020, Runa Capital operated the so-called Runa Open Source Startup Index, a quarterly ranking of the 20 fastest-growing open-source software startups.

Funds

  • Runa Capital I, firm's first namesake fund was launched in 2010, reached its final size of $135 million by 2012 and was focused on investments from seed to Series B stage. The initial idea was to fund globally oriented Eastern European startups in the fields of cloud computing, machine learning, virtualization, mobile and internet apps, but later the partners expanded their investment area to Europe and USA.
  • Runa Capital II was launched in 2014 and reached $135 million by 2016 with large commitments from the first fund's backers. The second fund aimed at Series A and B rounds. The firm's new office was opened in California in 2015.
  • Runa Capital III exceeded the target sum of $135 and reached $157 million in May 2020. The third fund followed the focus on deep tech with additional interest towards quantum computing startups.
  • Runa Capital Opportunity Fund I was launched in May 2022 and raised $69 million by Autumn 2022.

    Investments

Runa Capital invests from $1 million to $10 million, largely in Series A rounds. From 2010 through 2022 it invested in over 100 companies, equally split between North America and Europe:
CompanyDescriptionHQ locationInvestedAcquiredAcquirer
NginxOpen-source web serverSan Francisco20112019F5
MambuSaaS banking platformBerlin2012——
BrainlySocial learning networkKraków2014——
AnyroadExperience relationship management platformSan Francisco, CA2021——
LendioLoan marketplace for SMELehi, UT2013——
PasqalQuantum computer developerPalaiseau2021——
SmavaConsumer loan portalBerlin2018——
drchronoElectronic health record platformMountain View, CA2017——
ZopaPeer-to-peer lendingLondon2013——
MariaDBRelational database management systemEspoo; Redwood City, CA2015——
AcumaticaCloud ERPBellevue, WA20132019EQT AB
ZypeVideo content management platformNew York2017——
ReelgoodSan FranciscoStreaming aggregator2019——
ZipdrugPersonalized pharmacy careNew York, NY20192020IngenioRx
EcwidSaaS-based e-commerce platformEncinitas, CA20112020Morgan Stanley, PeakSpan Capital
OxygenDigital bankSan Francisco, CA2019——
ProcurifyCloud-based procurement softwareVancouver2016——
StopTheHackerAnti-malwareBurlingame, CA20122014CloudFlare
OfficeRnDFlex space operating platformSofia2021——
CapptainMobile analyticsParis20122014Microsoft
bunny.netCloud StorageLjubljana, Slovenia2022——

Affiliated funds

In 2012, Runa Capital established the $30 million Quantum Wave Fund focused on startups in the field of quantum technology, which effectively served as a "materials science" arm for Runa Capital. In 2019, Runa Capital became a limited partner in the second fund of crypto-focused venture firm 1confirmation.