Venture capital is contracting amid high rates, and market valuations are constrained by private deals and a dearth of participants.
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The Russian venture market contracted in 2025: the number of deals fell by almost a third, the total investments by 10%, to 7.2 billion rubles.
As Kommersant reports, citing a study by Russian Venture, against the backdrop of the overall decline in deal activity, the amount invested by private venture funds rose due to a few large rounds, while investments by corporations and the state declined. The classic venture market by volume remains several times lower than the 2021 levels.
Pavel Okhonin, partner at the investment company KAMA FLOW, ties market dynamics to macroeconomic conditions:
“In the period of high rates, the volume of investments in the segment of alternative investments, which includes private equity and venture capital, declines worldwide. In Russia, throughout 2025 rates were extraordinarily high (even despite a small decline at the end), so this trend is observable here as well. It should be noted that doing a detailed analysis of such a small deal volume of 7–10 billion rubles and arguing about how many deals were closed, 80 or 100, makes little sense. The share of Russian venture in GDP is several times lower than in developed and developing economies. This means that going forward, the market for direct investments in Russia essentially has to be rebuilt, and that is what creates the growth potential.”
Photo: Evgeny Pavlenko, Kommersant