Fast Lane Ventures launches 6 web companies in 1 year, raises $30m
19 April, Moscow
Fast Lane Ventures, a venture company of a novel type, has reviewed its first year in the marketplace.
Fast Lane Ventures is a Russian company with Western investors set up to develop, launch and promote innovative web projects with a view to ultimately selling them to strategic investors.
Fast Lane Ventures was set up April 2010 by entrepreneurs from the Direct Group holding company (projects such as KupiVip, Otto.ru, Ozon.ru, Rusfinansbank, etc.) and has achieved an impressive track record over a year of its operation. To date:
• six web-based companies of various profiles up and running (see list attached)
• a unique team put together with talents from different areas of web development
• a proprietary solution developed to choose innovative ideas and fast-track new projects, called Fast 50, which enables a new venture to launch in 50 days.
Near $30 mln in company and its projects raised from Direct Group holding and some international investment funds (eVenture Capital Partners, Kinnevik, and Russia Partners).
Fast Lane Ventures is a full-service provider. It is currently the only venture company in Russia not only to make its own funds available for the implementation of promising ideas but also to orchestrate the entire process of project launch from scratch on its own. The company offers startups full support (seed money, business process engineering, IT development, marketing, key partners, legal support, etc.), making short work of teething problems.
Fast Lane Ventures’ project development paradigm is based on the success formula of Western web businesses or on trail-blazing proprietary solutions developed in-house. The company is geared to identify and implement ideas without parallel in the Russian market.
According to Marina Treshchova, CEO of Fast Lane Ventures, “the Runet today offers lots of opportunities for private enterprise. The important thing is to make hay while the sun shines. In web business, time is of the essence. Our strategy is to float at least one new venture a month. We have what it takes to do this.”
The target sales of each internet company are $100m two or three years after the launch.
Before the year is out, the company plans to roll out at least eight start-ups.