M&A Becomes the Main Liquidity Channel in the Russian Venture Market: Dsight H1 2026 Research Findings

Dsight has released a new report on the Russian venture capital market, with investment company KAMA FLOW serving as a partner. The research was also supported by B1 Group and T-Bank. In the first six months of 2026, analysts recorded 35 deals worth $29.3 million. The number of deals fell by 35% year-on-year, while total investment volume declined by 62%.

- The market has become more concentrated. The five largest rounds accounted for 82% of total investment volume, while the two largest late-stage deals accounted for 54%. The median deal size fell from $0.6 million to $0.21 million, a 65% decline.
- The decline affected all stages. At the early stage, the number of deals fell from 18 to 10, while investment volume decreased from $20 million to $10.4 million. At the seed stage, the number of deals dropped from 22 to 15, while investment volume declined from $5 million to $2.2 million.
- Investors remain focused on B2B. B2B Software led by number of deals with 5, followed by IndustrialTech with 4. IndustrialTech attracted the largest investment volume, at $11.4 million. The largest rounds of the first half of the year were raised by Callisto Vision ($9.1 million) and ROBO ($6.8 million). KAMA FLOW invested in both deals.

In the first half of the year, there were 33 M&A deals worth $829 million. In terms of deal count, M&A nearly matched traditional venture capital — 33 deals versus 35 — while the total value of M&A transactions was 28 times higher than that of venture investments. With IPOs and secondary transactions remaining limited, selling a company or a stake to a strategic buyer has become one of the main exit routes for founders and early-stage investors.

Evgeny Borisov, Partner at KAMA FLOW, comments:

> “The largest rounds reflect the current market sentiment: a drive to reduce operating costs and achieve a more predictable revenue model. M&A is also becoming part of the growth strategy for our portfolio companies — through acquisitions, they strengthen their technology base and expand their product offerings. In the second half of the year, KAMA FLOW plans to close new deals. The slowdown in market activity creates more opportunities for selective investments in high-quality assets, as well as for pursuing exits from our portfolio.”

The base-case scenario for the second half of 2026 calls for targeted seed and early-stage rounds and continued high M&A activity, but no broad recovery in traditional venture capital financing.

The full report is available in the attached file.