A $2.5 million venture funding program – AID-Venture – has been launched in Belarus, Bel.biz Group reported.
The consortium of partners consisting of several companies has won the tender for venture capital ecosystem development in Belarus.
Aleinikov & Partners together with a group of companies Bel.biz, venture fund 500 Startups and international educational program for venture investors Angel Labs will implement the project for venture capital ecosystem development in Belarus – AID-Venture. AID-Venture program is designed for 5 years, the estimated investment volume is $2.5 million.
The purpose of the AID-Venture activity is to expand access to venture funding, thus contributing to the growth of start-ups and expansion of the role of the private sector in the economy.
Activity objectives: contribute to the creation of the legal and regulatory framework conducive to venture funding; expand the availability of venture capital: help build the local community of private venture investors and integrate Belarus in the international venture funding ecosystem; build capacity for venture fund creation; strengthen connections between demand and supply: bring investors closer to start-ups.
The program has been supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Matthew Sumpter, Country Director, USAID/Belarus, accentuated the point that the private sector’s contribution to the GDP in Belarus was among the lowest in the region, which impeded the development of technologies and made it hard for Belarus to compete on the global market.
Tatiana Marinich, Bel.biz CEO, said that over the last 3 years start-ups which studied on the basis of pre-accelerated program TechMinsk, raised $7 million.
“Unfortunately, major investments in their projects came from foreign investors. There is still no ecosystem of venture capital investment in Belarus and angel investing is almost undeveloped. At the same time there is a sufficient number of people in Belarus who could be angel investors. Another issue is their competency and their willingness to invest in start-ups if all the legal barriers are removed”, she said.
Denis Aleinikov, senior partner at the Law Firm Aleinikov & Partners, believes AID-Venture is supposed to re-energize business activity.
“Money became the driver of the industry in Russia. Funds began to actively invest in start-ups in the pre-stage – when 9 out of 10 startups die. The government decided that it was ready to burn money for the development of the industry. Later, when there was a cycle of money and projects, everybody could see what type of legislation should be, and they started changing it”, Aleinikov said. (Prime-TASS/Business World Magazine)
