Starta Ventures is a seed stage fund located in New York. What does it do?
- Invest in startups and help them enter the US market (for businesses from Eastern Europe and Russia);
- Raise funds and help businesses find sources of financial support;
- Co-invest with business angels;
- Accelerate startups;
- Provide an online acceleration program.
Starta Ventures has several areas of activity: it searches for promising startups, trains them, and introduces them to the US market; it works with small businesses to find and attract investments; and it collaborates with third-party investors and business angels by offering them high-potential “finds” to invest in.
Starta Ventures invests at the pre-seed and seed stages – the earliest stages of development. At the pre-seed stage, a startup’s goal is to verify its hypothesis or business idea and turn it into an actual product (MVP).
Once the product has been made, the seed stage begins. At this point, a startup must define its own product-market fit, or the feature that its clients need and that can’t be found anywhere else on the market. After this, the startup can begin raising round A investments, which go towards growth and production. Starta Ventures is actually ready to provide support at this point, too.
What kind of startups is Starta Ventures interested in?
The company invests into platform-based and integrated software solutions for a wide range of applications: from mass market to industry. These could also be software-hardware solutions in the fields of AR, IoT, robotics, innovative devices, equipment, quality of life devices, and so on.
In other words, the fund works with tech startups that deal with breakthrough concepts. Another important thing to note is that Starta Ventures somewhat specializes in working with projects from Russia and Eastern Europe.
“Our New York accelerator helps tech startups enter the international market. We see great potential in the creators of projects from Eastern Europe; you need only explain to them how to adapt their idea to the specifics of the US and its business culture. After that, their zeal and insight will do the trick,” says Alexey Girin, the founder and partner at Starta Ventures.
The Starta Accelerator fulfills several important functions: it helps projects adapt, immerses them into the American business culture, puts them in touch with local clients, business angels, and investors, and helps raise funds. According to the company’s staff, this is their approach to creating a venture group of the new generation. After graduating from the accelerator, the best startups receive investments from Starta Ventures and its investor network.
Importance of adaptation
The Eastern European and American markets are very different. The US business environment is ripe with offers, which is why it’s important to learn how to pinpoint your product-market fit with utmost precision. An international client will value the approach and the angle, the mission and the idea of the product, which are often relegated to background roles at Russian startups. The company also helps projects establish business relations and find useful connections.
Of course, the Starta Accelerator welcomes only those ideas that have the potential to “rule the world” and the business models of which are capable of global expansion. As for all other matters, including organizational ones, the company will help sort those out.
Online Pre-Accelerator
Starta Ventures is currently offering a six-week business training program. Just like the regular Starta Accelerator, it will provide its participants with access to the professional community and allow them to meet experts as well as other budding innovators.
Applications to the Online Pre-Accelerator are still open. Sign up here.
