A group of venture capital funds with total assets of US$150 million (£74.5 million) has been launched to invest in start-ups in the former USSR. DFJ-VTB Aurora is a joint venture between technology-focused venture capitalist Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), based in the US, and Russian commercial banking group VTB.

A group of venture capital funds with total assets of US$150 million (£74.5 million) has been launched to invest in start-ups in the former USSR. DFJ-VTB Aurora is a joint venture between technology-focused venture capitalist Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), based in the US, and Russian commercial banking group VTB.

The funds are denominated in rubles and will be managed by four partners, three in Russia and one in Silicon Valley in the US. In addition to these funds, planning is underway for an offshore fund with flexibility to invest in technology companies both inside and outside the region.

Tim Draper, founder and managing director of DFJ, comments: ‘DFJ has been observing the Russian start-up environment for the past several years.

‘It is safe to say that with the influx of institutional money, Governmental support, and the migration of management talent of Russian origin back to Russia, the ecosystem for technology start-ups is now emerging.’

California-based DFJ has offices in 33 cities worldwide and $5.7 billion under management. Over the past 20 years its successful investments have included webmail provider Hotmail, internet telephony specialist Skype and Chinese search engine Baidu.

VTB Group has $52 billion in assets and operates through 150 full-service branches across Russia. In addition, it has a network of subsidiary banks in the Commonwealth of Independent States, Europe (including one in the UK), Asia and Africa.