Venture is coming back: deals are increasing, risks are lower.

The Russian venture capital market is showing signs of revival: in 2024, the volume of deals increased by 46%, and the number of public rounds has nearly returned to pre-crisis levels. One of the driving factors behind the recovery is the decrease in valuation multiples and the growth of potential returns.

As KAMA FLOW partner Kirill Tishin noted in a comment to “RG,” this opens up new opportunities for investors. An additional stimulus for the market could be a shift toward a more accommodative monetary policy: “If the Bank of Russia moves to lower the key interest rate and it reaches 14–15% by 2026, the situation could change quite significantly. Our own monitoring confirms rising interest in venture projects: in 2024, we recorded 113 public rounds totaling over 8 billion rubles, compared to 94 rounds in 2023.”

There is also growing interest in Russian startups from investors in friendly countries: “Our startups continue to attract venture funds, including foreign ones, thanks to a combination of deep engineering expertise and economic efficiency. One of the key factors is the availability of highly qualified specialists in science-intensive fields at a noticeably lower cost: the labor of an engineer in Russia is 30–40% cheaper than in China or India.”

All of this points to the venture market entering a new stage of development.

 

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