According to SPARK-Interfax, the legal entity Otra digital was registered on December 29, 2020, and the company’s activities are related to the development of computer software (software) and advisory work in the field of computer technology. In a conversation with Vedomosti, Ermolaev clarified that the company would not be directly involved in software development, but would advise the players of the venture capital market and invest in promising Russian startups. Otra digital will also become a part of the Digital Disrupt venture club, added Ermolaev. He did not disclose the details of the project.
Ermolaev in 2008-2010 headed the department of state policy in the field of informatization and information technologies in the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications. In 2010, Ermolaev headed the Moscow Department of Information Technologies, from where he left in 2018 after the change of government in the capital. In 2019, together with his former deputy, Andrey Belozerov, he created an autonomous non-profit organization Smart Cities, which should unite manufacturers and consumers of smart city solutions.
Also in 2020, Ermolaev and Belozerov launched a closed private venture capital club Digital Disrupt. The structure of the club assumes that its founders not only invest themselves, but also raise money from other investors.
According to the TAdviser portal, at the beginning of December, the club’s portfolio already consisted of more than a dozen startups, including the Russian subscription car-sharing platform The Mashina, the OverPro e-sports platform and the Kyuubi storage service, in which investors invested 30 million rubles. According to the Digital Disrupt website, he also works with large foreign venture capital funds such as Mindrock Capital, Starta Ventures and 13 Ventures. In particular, together with Mindrock Capital, Ermolaev and Belozerov invested in SpaceX and Momentus, a space logistics company founded by Russian entrepreneur Mikhail Kokorich.
In general, new funds on the Russian market have good prospects, experts say. “It is useful for the Russian market to have more funds and more competition in venture capital, as there is obviously a lack of late-stage funds, as well as niche funds with practical expertise and funds founded by practical entrepreneurs,” argues the ex-investment director of an international venture fund Maxfield Capital Alexey Tuknov. The market is not saturated and there is not enough money on it, confirms the investor, co-founder of the Carprice service and managing partner of Carmoney Eduard Gurinovich.
However, it is still difficult to judge the success of such a project, says Alexander Chachava, managing partner of Leta Capital. “We see a large number of funds that only live one cycle. The funds reach their peak by the third cycle, and it must be understood that 90% of the funds of the first cycle will bring losses to their investors. Therefore, if you have ambitions to build a serial venture capital firm, then you can try. And if you want to make money, it’s better to take the money to an already established fund, ”he explains.
If Ermolaev in his projects manages to build a bridge in the form of a private fund between startups and government agencies as customers, then the industry will only benefit from this, Gurinovich believes. According to him, now no one in Russia has expertise on such b2g startups. However, a venture fund manager needs more entrepreneurial experience than official experience, Chachava said. “Venture investment is, in my opinion, the most difficult investment business, in which one must necessarily have an entrepreneurial mindset,” he concludes.
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