Alexander Povalko

The new CEO of JSC "Russian Venture Company" (RVC) and the chairman of the board of the company, according to the order general meeting shareholders, Alexander Povalko, who worked in the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation and was a member of the Board of Directors of RVC, was appointed, according to the website of the Ministry of Economic Development.

“RVC is faced with the task of developing new strategy development, taking into account the following key points. First, as a project office, RVC should bring support and implementation mechanisms to full deployment and operational capacity. Secondly, it is necessary to continue the integration of RVC and the Skolkovo Foundation, especially in terms of organizing venture financing for Skolkovo projects,” said Oleg Fomichev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of RVC - Deputy Minister economic development RF.

At the end of June, the Board of Directors of RVC Igor Agamirzyan, who held the position of General Director and Chairman of the Board of the company since April 2009.

An open competition was announced for the position of General Director of RVC. The selection of a new candidate was carried out by the Ministry of Economic Development, which oversees RVC. Three main contenders participated in the competition - Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Samara Region, Minister of Economic Development, Investments and Trade of the Samara Region Alexander Kobenko, Deputy General Director of the Innovation Promotion Fund Pavel Gudkov and Deputy General Director of RVC Evgeny Kuznetsov. Kobenko won the competition, and in October, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, according to news agencies, "instructed the board of directors to prepare a directive for the appointment of Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Kobenko, Minister of Economic Development, Investments and Trade of the Samara Region."

reference

Alexander Povalko from 2012 to 2016 served as Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, supervised the development and implementation of the state strategy in the scientific, technical and innovation fields and the education system. From 2008 to 2012 was deputy head State Committee Russian Federation for Youth Affairs, Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs. From 2007 to 2008 served as director of the department strategic planning ZAO RENOVA-StroyGroup.

Graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute. Ordzhonikidze with a degree in radio engineering, as well as State University them. Maimonides majoring in Applied Mathematics.

RVC was established in 2006 on the initiative of the Ministry of Economic Development, which oversees the company, the state is the only shareholder. The authorized capital of the company is 30 billion rubles, and its goals are the formation of a venture investment industry and assistance to the state in the development of the Russian innovation industry. RVC is a fund of funds, that is, it invests not directly in projects, but in funds, in which it always attracts private co-investors.

In 2015, the creation of the project office of the National Technology Initiative (NTI) - a long-term strategy technological development country aimed at creating new global markets by 2035.

Russia Moscow

Agamirzyan Igor Rubenovich ( CEO, Chairman of the Board of RVC OJSC)

RVC OJSC (RVC) - State Fund of Funds and Development Institute Russian Federation, one of key tools states in building a national innovation system. The headquarters is in Moscow.

RVC was established in accordance with the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated June 7, 2006 No. 838-r.

Owners and management

100% RVC belongs to the Russian Federation, size authorized capital- 30 billion rubles.

Chairman of the Board of Directors:

• Vardanyan Ruben Karlenovich - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Troika Dialog group of companies (independent director).

Members of the Board of Directors:

• Agamirzyan Igor Rubenovich - General Director of RVC OJSC;
• Guriev Sergey Maratovich - rector of the non-state educational institution"Russian School of Economics" (independent director);
• Yigal Erlikh - head of the venture program "Yozma" (independent director);
• Oskolkov Ivan Valeryevich - Director of the Department of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia;
• Sitnikov Alexey Yurievich - Head of the Department of International Cooperation non-profit organization"Foundation for the Development of the Center for the Development and Commercialization of New Technologies" (Skolkovo Foundation);
• Udaltsov Yury Arkadyevich - member of the board, director of innovative development OJSC RUSNANO.

Management Board of JSC RVC

The board consists of seven people:

• Agamirzyan Igor Rubenovich, General Director - Chairman of the Board;
• Potapov Alexander Evgenievich, Deputy General Director - Executive Director;
• Korolev Nikolai Lvovich, Deputy General Director - Operations Director;
• Andrey Vvedensky, Director of the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development;
• Kuznetsov Evgeny Borisovich, Director of the Department for Promotion of Innovations and Social Programs;
• Ryazantsev Yan Vladimirovich, director of the investment department;
• Tsygankov Mikhail Arnoldovich, Chief Investment Portfolio Manager.

Activity

RVC invests through private venture funds created jointly with private investors. The total number of funds formed by RVC OJSC has reached twelve (including 2 funds in foreign jurisdiction), their size is 26.1 billion rubles. The share of JSC "RVC" - more than 16 billion rubles.

Priority areas for investing in venture funds formed with the participation of RVC OJSC are determined in accordance with the List of Critical Technologies approved by the President of the Russian Federation, which includes:

• security and counter-terrorism;
• living systems (understood as biotechnologies, medical technology and medical equipment)
• industry of nanosystems and materials;
• information and telecommunication systems;
• rational use of natural resources;
• transport, aviation and space systems;
• energy and energy saving.

• ZPIF OR(V)I "VTB - Venture Fund" (3.061 billion rubles);
• ZPIF OR(V)I Bioprocess Capital Ventures (RUB 3 bln);
• ZPIF OR(V)I Maxwell Biotech (3.061 billion rubles);
• ZPIF OR(V)I "Leader - Innovations" (3 billion rubles);
• ZPIF OR(V)I Tamir Fishman CIG Venture Fund (RUB 2 bln);
• ZPIF OR(V)I S-Group Ventures (1.8 billion rubles);
• ZPIF OR(V)I "New Technologies" (3.061 billion rubles);
• ZPIF OR(V)I "RVC Seed Investment Fund" (2 billion rubles),
• RVC Infrastructural Investments LLC (RUB 500 million, it is planned to increase the authorized capital to RUB 2 billion);
• RVC Biopharmaceutical Investments LLC (500 million rubles, it is planned to increase the authorized capital to 1.5 billion rubles);

Funds in foreign jurisdiction

• Russian Venture Capital I LP;
• RVC IVFRT LP.

At the beginning of June 2012, RVC funds invested 118 innovative companies, including the manufacturer of stations for solar energy BrightSource, Symbiotel IP-telephony project, Innalabs' inertial navigation systems, Russian Navigation Technologies OJSC, manufacturer and integrator of satellite monitoring and transport control systems, Seismoshelf's seismic equipment, OncoMax biotechnology company, etc. The total amount of invested funds is 10.2 billion rubles.

In 2012, RVC, together with the Fund for Assistance to the Development of Small Forms of Enterprises, the Fund for Infrastructure and educational programs Rosnano and the Russian Bank for Support of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME Bank) established the first in Russia rating of innovative companies TechUp.

RVC signed 27 cooperation agreements with the regions of the Russian Federation.

Criticism

In July 2010, the collegium of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation reviewed the results of a comprehensive audit of the effectiveness of the management of property contributions of the Russian Federation. The press release of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation on the meeting of the collegium says:

“In general, the planned control and indicative performance indicators of RVC OJSC for 2009-2010 are not balanced with the goals and relevant target indicators of the socio-economic development of the Russian Federation, defined in the Concept for the Long-Term Socio-Economic Development of the Russian Federation until 2020 and other documents of the strategic planning, including the Strategy for the Development of Science and Innovation in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2015. There is no system of indicators that characterize the effectiveness of the use of property contributions from the Russian Federation to the authorized capital of innovative companies. Main part financial resources RVC OJSC is not invested in venture projects or innovative enterprises, but placed on deposits in banks.

According to the supervisory authority, RVC preferred to direct funds not for its core activities, but for deposits in banks: over the specified period, a total of 5.45 billion rubles were invested in venture projects. from the authorized capital of RVC, and the remaining funds, more than 25 billion rubles, remained in bank deposits.

see also

Notes

Links

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

The head of the Russian Venture Company (RVC), Igor Agamirzyan, stepped onto the huge stage of the Open Innovations Forum, one of the main technology shows in Russia, and began to casually and slightly imposingly talk about how innovations should be developed. “As long as we do something for the day after tomorrow, there is still hope for success. It's like shooting at a moving target - if we don't shoot ahead of the curve, we're guaranteed to miss," Agamirzyan argued. Six months later, he himself was targeted and in June 2016, seven years after his appointment, he resigned.

Why did Agamirzyan have to leave his post, and why did the government think about liquidating the oldest venture laboratory?

seed stage

At a meeting of the State Council in February 2006, a dispute broke out over the future of venture capital investment in Russia. Deputy Minister of Economic Development Andrey Sharonov and Minister of Communications Leonid Reiman argued. Sharonov believed that the state venture fund should be universal, Reiman defended his position: focus only on Information Technology. Vladimir Putin put an end to the dispute: “I don't care: either IT (industry) or general. But this year." So it was decided to create a Russian venture company.

RVC was conceived as a fund of funds, with the task of creating 10-15 venture funds to invest in startups. RVC invested money together with private investors, receiving 50% minus 1 share in funds; it did not invest directly in companies. The idea didn't come out of nowhere. For example, in Israel, a similar state fund Yozma with a total volume of $100 million was already functioning. At the time of the creation of Yozma in 1993, there was practically no venture capital market in the country, and after 10 years there were already 60 venture funds with a total volume of $10 billion, came large corporations Cisco, IBM, Intel, Microsoft. The state fund itself was privatized back in 1997 and successfully exited most of the projects.

In Russia, they hoped for the same success and even invited one of the creators of Yozma, Yigal Erlich, to the board of directors of RVC. The Russian state fund received 30 billion rubles ($1.1 billion) in management. The new structure was headed by Alexei Korobov, who previously headed the apparatus of the Committee on Budget and Taxes of the State Duma and worked as First Deputy Chairman of the RFBR. Korobov held his post for only two years. “I don’t see support either from the Ministry of Economic Development or from the board of directors [RVC],” Korobov explained the decision to resign. His departure was provoked, among other things, by the claims of the Prosecutor General's Office.

By the beginning of 2009, RVC invested only 15% of the money it had in funds, the vast majority of the funds lay on deposits in banks - RVC earned about 3 billion rubles on interest, Korobov said. The Prosecutor General's Office considered such activities ineffective: the funds are dead weight, and not invested. Moreover, to several funds law enforcement claims arose. And it was decided to correct the principles of operation of the state venture fund.

Deposit stage

In April 2009, a new CEO appeared at RVC - Igor Agamirzyan. He has also worked in Russian science, and in large Western IT companies Microsoft and EMC. “He came to RVC from world business with the idea of ​​heading the headquarters of the technological revolution, building a venture economy in Russia,” says one of Agamirzyan’s acquaintances. With his arrival, the concept changed: RVC began not only to invest in funds, but also began to popularize investments in innovative projects. “Startups do not grow in an open field: they need to be fertilized, watered, and cared for. It is quite clear where this topic with popularization comes from, ”says Aleksey Solovyov, managing director of Prostor Capital venture fund.

Agamirzyan repeatedly repeated that there are many ideas in Russia, but it is impossible to make a business out of them. “The investment of the development institute in business development ultimately gives more profit to everyone in the venture capital market,” he says in an interview with Forbes. The team led by the new CEO enthusiastically got down to business: they began to work on the development of the legislative framework, created own network private investors and companies, held conferences and start-up competitions. “We still lacked competencies, management teams, and a regulatory framework,” says Oleg Fomichev, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Economic Development.

At the same time, RVC continued to invest in funds, but after the claims of the Prosecutor General's Office, a clause appeared in the contracts on providing full information on the movement of funds. In total, in 2010, funds with the participation of RVC invested 2.7 billion rubles. However, the state-owned company's investments lagged behind the business plan. For example, in 2010, at the seed stage, 20 companies were invested instead of the planned 25, at later stages - 38 instead of 53. This raised questions from the Accounts Chamber: 7 billion rubles, the rest of the money lay on long-term deposits. In the next two years, investment rates increased slightly: in 2011, funds with the participation of RVC invested 2.3 billion rubles, in 2012 - 2.9 billion rubles.

Why did RVC keep funds on deposits? As Agamirzyan explains, the money was reserved for funds, but was transferred to them only as projects were prepared. “This is how LP work all over the world. Deposits in banks cannot be considered free funds,” Agamirzyan believes. According to him, the money was placed in banks on the condition that they go to loans to small and medium-sized businesses. “RVK made money on this and redistributed money for promotion technology business”, explains Agamirzyan. However, a Forbes interlocutor, close to the board of directors of RVC, says that only half of the amount was placed under such conditions.

Stage of growth and shrinkage

In 2013, there was a peak of venture investments in Russia: at the end of the year Russian market came in second in Europe and fifth in the world. “When RVC was created, its money was half of the market, but by 2013 big money came in, and RVC funds began to occupy about 5% of the market,” says Fomichev. According to RVC, in Russia at that time there were 173 venture funds that managed about $5.2 billion in capital. In Russia, the well-known American fund Accel Partners closed the first deals, and Intel Corporation actively invested.

RVC fulfilled its function? As sources in RVC and several venture funds told Forbes, it was in 2013 that the government came up with the idea to change the CEO of RVC. “He didn’t suit a lot of people. Did little real business, a lot of events and PR. At the same time, the company had huge funds in the accounts that did not give anyone rest, ”says a partner in one of the venture funds, who was offered to head a state-owned company. Claims against Agamirzyan were still the same: RVC is too small and invests slowly.

It is customary for venture funds to conduct transactions in the jurisdictions of Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands, and Delaware. RVC followed general rules and even invested in foreign funds herself. Back in 2010, she created management company Russian Venture Asset Management Ltd for investments in the UK and RVC Usa Inc in the USA. In 2012-2013, RVC invested through them in three startups and four funds in Silicon Valley. "We have invested in foreign companies to organize technology transfer to Russia. And in financial plan these were the most profitable investments of RVC,” says Agamirzyan. However, in 2013 the government took the path to deoffshorization. “Before 2013, it was practically impossible to create venture funds in Russian jurisdiction — not a single foreign or Russian investor felt protected,” says Fomichev. According to him, the creation of new funds in 2013 and early 2014 practically froze: negotiations began anew even on those transactions where due diligence had already been carried out. As a result, several funds in 2014 were nevertheless registered in Russia according to new scheme as joint stock companies. The legislative framework for this purpose, it was created back in 2011, but transactions were not practiced.

The venture capital boom in Russia was short-lived. Already in 2014, after the annexation of Crimea and the sanctions that followed, many Western funds stopped investing in Russia, and Russian funds increasingly chose to invest in foreign companies. The situation was aggravated by the developing economic crisis. At the end of 2014, the volume of the Russian venture ecosystem amounted to $1.69 billion, although in 2013 the volume reached $2.89 billion.

RVC forecasts indicated that funds created in 2007-2008 would receive a return on investment no earlier than 2017. RVC needed a reserve of funds for additional tranches to existing funds and projects. But the money in her accounts still haunted many. “At first, the state seemed to agree that money in the venture capital market should work, but during the crisis they forgot about it and asked for the money back,” says a source close to RVC. According to another source, in 2015, Rosnano and Skolkovo allocated 60 million rubles each, and RVC - 110 million rubles, to hold the Open Innovations forum in 2015. “It's like planting potatoes in the morning and digging them up in the evening because you want to eat,” Agamirzyan resents.

Merge stage

In December 2014, the problem of the lack of innovation in Russia again sounded from the highest tribunes. President Vladimir Putin, in a message to the Federal Assembly, announced a new program to support technological developments, which was called the National Technology Initiative (NTI). “On the basis of long-term forecasting, it is necessary to understand what challenges Russia will face in 10-15 years,” the president said. Ideologist new program became the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, but the task of implementing and managing money was assigned to RVC.

“There wasn’t much money in the budget, and NTI had to be launched,” the federal official explains. RVC then refused to invest in IT projects and looked at promising industries like biotechnology, where there was not enough private funding. “For RVC, the project has become a lifesaver. After all, clouds were already gathering over RVC amid dissatisfaction with the fact that they were doing more PR, ”adds the Forbes interlocutor. The project was agreed with Presidential Aide Andrei Belousov, and Pavel Bulavin, who worked in international consulting and managed several projects in the organizing committee of the Sochi Olympics, became the director of the NTI project office. But again there were problems.

Formally, Bulavin was subordinate to Agamirzyan and had to coordinate all decisions with him. But, as several people told Forbes, they had a personal conflict. “I found a scythe on a stone, both sides are approximately to blame,” says one of Forbes’ interlocutors. The problem was solved by separating the powers of Agamirzyan and Bulavin, but the creation of the project office was delayed for two months. This caused a strong reaction from both Belousov and Arkady Dvorkovich, who since January 2016 became the project curator in the government apparatus, according to a Forbes interlocutor. A spokesman for Dvorkovich declined to comment for this article. “There was no personal conflict, Bulavin’s subordination to me was initially purely formal, the division of powers was agreed from the very beginning,” says Agamirzyan.

At the same time, the struggle for RVC money resumed - at the end of 2015, 20.1 billion rubles lay on deposits. The management of Skolkovo offered to send money to the state-owned company to finance residents, the initiative was supported by the Ministry of Finance. Representatives of Skolkovo declined to comment, the Ministry of Finance did not respond to a request from Forbes. “Agamirzyan and his team have completely gone into “higher matters”. Their "castles in the air" did not like the Ministry of Finance, who wanted to know what the budget allocated amounts were for, ”says a Forbes interlocutor in one of the development institutions. In 2015, RVC held tenders for almost 700 million rubles: most of them concerned conferences, speeches, competitions (for comparison: in 2013, the volume of tenders was half that). At the same time, RVC funds transferred about 651.2 million rubles, most of the money went to recapitalize the American fund.

According to an RVC employee, Agamirzyan wanted the state-owned company to be perceived on the market as one of the venture funds, and not an instrument of the state. “No one liked that RVC adopts a strategy at an internal meeting, and does not hold a strategic session with representatives of other development institutions and members of the government,” says Forbes source. At the same time, RVC, on the one hand, was supposed to earn money, and on the other hand, to develop the venture capital market free of charge. “All this time, all the discussions were, in fact, about how to combine these two areas, how to streamline work,” says economist Alexander Auzan, a member of the board of directors of RVC.

The Ministry of Economic Development had to defend the independence of RVC before the Ministry of Finance. “In the event of a merger with Skolkovo, RVC would simply become a money bag, because Skolkovo’s mandate contains nothing about supporting the venture capital market,” explains the position of the Ministry of Economic Development, a Forbes interlocutor familiar with the negotiations. There is no final decision on the merger of Skolkovo and RVC yet, says Open Government Minister Mikhail Abyzov. “All proposals for the reform of development institutions have been sent to the government, there is a worker process,” he says. Nevertheless, a decision has already been made to move RVC to Skolkovo. “But this does not mean that the company will be managed by Skolkovo,” says Fomichev. “In the context of reduced budget funding, cutting the functions of one or more development institutions is inevitable,” says Andrey Trapeznikov, Deputy Chairman of the Board for External Communications at Rosnano.

Against the backdrop of negotiations on the future of RVC, Agamirzyan wrote a letter of resignation. “They parted ways with Agamirzyan, and dull discontent has accumulated,” says a top manager at one of the development institutions. However, according to him, it is impossible to formally say that RVC did something wrong. “The state-owned company, in fact, did not have specific tasks, so everything that they did at RVC was simply not noticed by the market,” adds the Forbes interlocutor. As an acquaintance of Agamirzyan says, he could not create a team focused on practical results: “They became hostages of their isolation from life, the desire to reason beautifully.”

By the end of 2015, according to Agamirzyan, 23 funds with a total volume of 33.7 billion rubles were created with the participation of RVC. For 10 years, the state-owned company participated in the financing of 200 projects and made about 20 "exits". “In total, during this time we have earned more than 10 billion rubles, paid several billion in taxes and dividends to the state,” says Agamirzyan. Now his duties are temporarily performed by his deputy Yevgeny Kuznetsov, but the Agency for Strategic Initiatives and the Ministry of Economic Development are holding an open competition for the position of general director of RVC. “I hope there will be about 100 candidates. The task is also to make the new person look at everything with a fresh look, says Fomichev. “By the end of September, we will have a new CEO, and in November we will move to Skolkovo, and a new life will begin for us.” In mid-August, 134 applications were received for the post of General Director of RVC.