Sistema JSFC, a Russian conglomerate with over $10 billion of annual revenue, has jumped onto the Indian startup bandwagon.

It has floated a proprietary $50 million (Rs 340 crore) Asia Fund to support Indian startups operating in the technology and niche consumer retail segments.

He declined to reveal the future size of the Asia Fund on confidentiality grounds. Rozanov said the Singapore-registered fund would be advised by Insitel Services, the wholly-owned Indian unit of Sistema JSFC.

Andrey Terebenin, an ex-Sistema JSFC executive board member, has relocated to India as senior managing partner of Insitel to oversee the advisory services function of Asia Fund.

“Sistema JSFC has an abundance of investible resources, and we realised funding startups could be a great way to leverage our knowledge about how business works in India by virtue of our presence in the telecom business, and also at a time when the Modi-led government is committed to galvanising the startups ecosystem,“ said Rozanov.

Sistema’s decision to diversify into the Indian startup financing scene comes at a time when Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications is taking over the Russian conglomerate’s Indian mobile telephony venture, Sistema Shyam Teleservices, which operates under the MTS brand.

In the first wave, Sistema Asia Fund will provide earlystage financing to startups which already have a revenue stream.

 “We will, typically, fund tech startups and others involved in innovative consumer-centric businesses aligned with e-commerceonline retail model such as furniture leasing, food delivery to payment gateways,“ said Terebenin.

He said the fund will shortly close a couple of earlystage financing deals with Indian startups operating in its preferred domains. Both Sistema JSFC executives, however, declined to confirm the potential ticket-size of such financing deals, but a person aware of the matter pegged it “upwards of $1 million each“.

Asia Fund will also support Indian startups in its preferred domains looking to expand into the Russian market.

Source: The Economic Times