Our Story

We are hands-on investors with a focus on scrappy entrepreneurs building large scale tech-enabled businesses

Entrepreneurial experience

Runa is managed by successful serial entrepreneurs and seasoned executives with vast startup experience. Our founding partners have built several global software companies, including Acronis, Parallels and Acumatica.

This entrepreneurial experience enables us to better understand founders’ pain points and identify the best solutions.

Transatlantic network

Our investments span over 15 countries in North America and Europe. This robust transcontinental network allows founders to develop strategic relationships around the globe.

Runa is uniquely poised to help founders scale their businesses in both domestic and global markets. We pride ourselves on helping founders evaluate and enter different geographies, create competitive strategies and develop acumen on when, how, and where to scale.

Product and operational expertise

Strong expertise in technologies allows us to identify the best deep tech deals and to scale our portfolio companies. Our partners have built a few tech startups with $100M+ revenues and know how it works.

Partly because of this, Runa is a partner of choice for such open source champions as the most popular web server Nginx and a fast-growing database MariaDB.

Our operational experience allows us to provide insight and support for critical tasks such as recruiting, fundraising, growing sales, and instituting formal organizational structures to support a scaling business.
Our Chairman Ilya Zubarev and Serg Bell co-found Parallels, a large web hosting automation and virtualization company
1999
Our Chairman Ilya Zubarev and Serg launch a Parallels spin-off called Acronis.

The global cyber protection company was valued at $3.5B after Blackrock invested $250m in 2022
2003
Dmitry Chikhachev, Ilya Zubarev and Serg Bell launch Runa 1, a $135M fund
2010
Andre Bliznyuk joins Runa from Goldman Sachs as a General Partner in the US
2011
Serg Bell returns to Acronis as CEO
2013
Runa opens its Palo Alto office. Andre Bliznyuk leads the expansion
2014
Runa raises its second fund with $135M invested in North American and European startups
2014
General Partner Dmitry Galperin leads Runa’s Central & Eastern European expansion by opening Berlin office
2018
Runa launches its third fund with over $150M for new startups
2019
Runa makes its 100th investment, spanning unicorns such as Brainly, Mambu and Zopa
2020
Konstantin Vinogradov and Michael Fanfant become General Partners in London and Palo Alto, respectively
2022
Runa returns its HQ to Europe and chooses Luxembourg as its global base
2022
Serg Bell dedicates his full-time focus to a European private tech University
2023
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Investment thesis

Runa predominantly invests in early stage startups at the Series A stage and also completes Seed and Series B investments. Our initial check typically ranges from $1M to $5M, and we continue investing in our portfolio companies as they scale. We offer flexible round structures, frequently leading rounds as well as co-investing with other firms.

We support founders who are building disrupting companies across three areas: B2B SaaS, deep tech (ie., middleware, open source platforms, machine learning, and cloud infrastructure), and software for regulated industries (ie., fintech, edutech, and digital health)
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B2B SaaS

The availability of data and an abundance of APIs will drive the next generation of enterprise software

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The largest small business loan marketplace in the U.S.

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The largest small business loan marketplace in the U.S.

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The largest small business loan marketplace in the U.S.

Deep Tech

The exponential growth of data will require new infrastructure for processing and consumption

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Open source high-performance web server and load balancer

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Open source enterprise database management system

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Web application firewall and vulnerability scanner

Regulated Industries

Tech companies revolutionize conservative verticals: financial services, education and healthcare

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Leading consumer lending marketplace in Germany

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Knowledge-sharing platform connecting 150M+ students globally

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Electronic health record and medical practice management platform

Quotes

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Runa’s team assisted us greatly with corporate structure and insights into specific issues for non-American founders. They were involved day to day, in matters ranging from general operational issues to detailed constructive criticism of our fundraising deck.

Gus Robertson CEO, NGINX

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Runa offers more than just money and expertise. They're investors that truly care about the teams that they back and are willing to go above and beyond what is typically expected of an investor to ensure success for their entrepreneurs.

Michael Howard CEO, MariaDB