Sesame Summit 2026 – application open

How Russian investments reacted to COVID

There was a noticeable decline in the number of investments from $204 m in 1H2019 to $51 m in 1H2020 due to COVID, while the number of deals increased from 15 to 19 at the same period.

The chart below shows some info on the dynamics of corporate investment amount, number of deals, and VC events. Excluding transactions of more than $50 m (statistical outliers), the investment activity of corporations is increasing, and the pandemic did not have a negative effect.

blank

Thus, we became curious how the number of VC deals affected these figures. During the discussion, there was an idea that it makes sense to calculate the correlation between 3 variables that are represented in the graph above (sorry folks, we tried to make it simple, but it didn’t completely work out).

blank

To aggregate the data about events we used Crunchbase (the overall figure did not change a lot comparing 2018 with 2019 due to the fact the vast majority of events going online), when both investment amount and number of deals were taken from our last report “Venture Russia 1H 2020” which was prepared with the support of Kaspersky, EY, DS Law and Crunchbase.

The result can be seen in a table below. Interestingly, that somehow it reflects the reality that we have now in the pandemic time.

We discovered a direct relation between the number of deals and the number of events, as well as between the latter and the investment amount.

Thereby, the more events are happening, the more start-ups are increasing their chances to receive investments from investors or to make a deal.

Furthermore, a reversed tendency might be seen in the number of deals and investment amount. It can be noticed that the average round was $13,83 m with 8 events against $2,68 m with 6 events in 1H2019 and 1H2020, respectively.

blank

To sum up, the beginning of this year was difficult for the global economy. Despite the new online reality and the decrease of offline events, Russian corporations continued to invest capital, test new hypotheses, and improve business-performance by piloting start-ups (even though not as active as before).

We are Dsight – a Russian BI (Business Intelligence) platform, with the focus on the technology market. We are constantly monitoring venture activities of Russian investors and start-ups.

P.S.

If you want to find out more about Russian market, we would highly recommend you to check out:

Open Innovation Forum 2020 – 19-21 October 2020 – The Forum’s main goal is to develop and commercialize new technologies, promote global tech brands and create new tools for international cooperation in innovation. The program includes plenary and themed sessions, educational events, seminars and master classes, innovative shows, business meetings and, of course, informal networking.

Techweek Moscow – 16-19 November 2020 –  More than 350 speakers, practicing experts from leading Russian companies will take part in the conference. 18 thematic streams were organized: digital business transformation, VR / AR, fintechb, AI & BigData, blockchain, HR-tech, digital marketing and sales, product management, ED-tech, sharing economics, soft skills.

AINL 2020 – 7-9 October 7-9, 2020 – The 9th conference on Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language (AINL 2020) invites everyone interested in intellectual technologies, both from academic institutes and innovative companies. The conference aimed to bring together experts in the areas of text mining, speech technologies, dialogue systems, information retrieval, machine learning, artificial intelligence and robotics; to create a platform for sharing experience, extending contacts and searching for possible collaboration.

you might also like

blank
Events 2 days ago

Last week, I spent three days at Bits and Pretzels in Munich — a startup-focused event with a distinctly Bavarian flavor. Think Oktoberfest meets startup conference, complete with dirndls, lederhosen, and more beer than you might expect. As someone building an AI-powered event platform, I went in with a specific mission: Observe how startups actually market themselves at events. Here’s what I discovered: GoodBytz: The power of good demos What they did: Robotics startup GoodBytz set up a booth where its robots prepared kaiserschmarrn (a traditional German dessert) all day long. Why it worked: Nothing beats seeing a product in action. While other booths had brochures and demos, GoodBytz’s robots were actually cooking. The smell, the movement and the end result stirred together an experience that people will remember and talk about. The lesson: If you have a physical product, show it in action. The old writing adage generalizes well: Show, don’t tell.  Let people see, hear and touch the product. WeRoad: The bathroom hack What they did: Posted “Missing Investor” flyers in bathroom stalls with QR codes pointing to their website. Why it worked: Pure genius. Every startup at the event was looking for investors, but the “Missing Investor” headline, while a bit on the nose, proved irresistible. Plus, bathroom stalls are one of the few places where people have 30 seconds to actually read something. The lesson: Think about where your target audience’s attention will remain undivided. Sometimes, the most effective marketing leverages the most unexpected places. Emqopter: Visual impact matters What they did: Designed a bright orange booth that displayed their drone prominently. Why it worked: In a sea of grey, white, beige and brown, Emqopter’s bright orange booth was impossible to overlook. The drone was real, too, and proved a real conversation starter. The lesson: Your booth is competing with hundreds of others. Make it visually distinctive and ensure your product is the hero. Quests: Community building using the product What they did: Created a busy, branded booth with accessories (toy car, traffic cones, a bulletin board) and used their anti-loneliness app to build communities among founders at the event. Why it worked: Quests used their product to solve a real problem right at the event, and the busy booth design generated energy and curiosity. The lesson: Use your product to solve a problem at the event — if it’s possible, of course. Demonstrate your value in real time. Dyno: Event-themed marketing What they did: Distributed branded electrolyte packs with the tagline “Your hangover ends. Your pension lasts – with Dyno.” Why it worked: Dyno aligned its messaging perfectly with the Oktoberfest theme. Every attendee was thinking about beer and hangovers, so Dyno’s goodies were quite relevant. The tagline was clever, memorable, and directly addressed a pain point most people at the event might have to deal with later. The lesson: Tailor your marketing to the event’s theme and culture. The more you tie your messaging and product to the context, the more memorable you become. So, what did I learn? Event marketing is about more than just showing up and setting up a booth; you have to understand your audience and create experiences that people will remember. Here’s what really struck me: most startups and even big companies don’t know how to leverage events properly. They book the booth, show up and hope for the best; maybe they bring some branded pens and a pop-up banner. Then they’ll go back home and wonder why they spent €5,000 in exchange for 50 business cards that never convert. The startups that stood out at Bits and Pretzels understand something fundamental: event ROI isn’t about booth size or location; it’s about strategy, creativity and planning. None of the startups above improvised on-site, or planned something the night before the event in their hotel rooms. They laid everything out 4-6 weeks before the event. A solid pre-event strategy is what separates successful event marketing from expensive booth rental.  But what matters most for early-stage startups is that you don’t need a massive budget to stand out. WeRoad’s bathroom stall hack probably cost €50 to print the flyers. A standard booth package at Bits and Pretzels would go for €3,000 to €5,500. The ROI difference is staggering when you compare the cost per meaningful conversation. That’s the difference between simply spending money and investing smartly. Building Sesamers has taught me that helping startups find the right events is only half the equation. The other half is helping them understand how to maximize ROI once they’re there. Good props aren’t a marketing expense; they’re opportunities to meet customers, investors and partners, and strike up engaging conversations.

blank
New Materials 3 days ago

Lios Group, the Irish startup behind SoundBounce, was a winner of JEC Composites Startup Booster 2018, and has been making significant strides since taking home the award.

blank
New Materials 1 week ago

Tree Composites aims to accelerate the energy transition with innovative composite joints.

Subscribe to
our Newsletter!

Stay at the forefront with our curated guide to the best upcoming Tech events.