Important events in December 2017
/ Rewards, new portfolio projects and waiting for exchanges listing /
Rating
Online media outlet FIRRMA conducted research on activities of venture funds in December. FinShi Capital was on 2nd place in the list of the most active new Russian funds. Of course it’s not TechCrunch, but it still deserves respect, as it is a popular media outlet about startups, economy and venture investments. A lot of venture market investors use its analytics. We found out about this rating after it was posted and were very pleased by this news.
Projects selection and investments
In December we added one more IoT project to our portfolio. We will be able to officially announce it in the end of January. So in total, by the end of the year we had had 4 portfolio projects. Our fund is currently working hard to get one more investment in a wonderful project — an encrypted messenger with a successful founder, who has already had experience developing a popular social network in Russia. All sorts of talks and discussions about this ICO started in December. We won’t be able to announce any details about this project in the nearest future, we can’t violate the terms if agreement. What is important is that venture funds and private investors are very interested in this project, that’s why it is not an easy task to become one of its investors.
Our team hired two additional freelance analysts who have extensive experience in classic finance. A lot of projects are screened out during the initial analysis: many founders just take any existing successful IT project, add “blockchain” to it and that’s it, they seek funding. There are, of course, spheres where blockchain improves the work of existing mechanisms. But you don’t need blockchain to buy groceries in an online store or to pay utility bills. We do not see any prospects in such projects, people simply don’t need them.
Events and meetings
On December 19, Finam invited our Managing Partner Andrey Orlov as an expert to a conference called Blockchain and Digital Assets. Answering the participants’ questions, we noticed that a lot of people have doubts about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency market. People new to this topic kept asking whether it is a bubble, how likely it is to lose the assets invested in cryptocurrencies, why there are so many scam projects etc. We want to emphasize once again that we are certain that cryprocurrency market, though being relatively young, is a fulfilled market. Still you should bear in mind that investments in this market are highly risky, and it doesn’t matter if you invest in funds, ICO-startups or just buy cryptocurrency. To those who are making their first steps in crypto-economy, making their first investments, we advise not to get their hopes up and be too excited about growth rates of cryptocurrencies. Only those who are ready to dive deep in the details of the market are able to make good profits. If you invest without thinking, under influence of emotions, there’s a huge risk of losing all your assets.
The IX International Contest of IR cases in Investor Relations and Financial Communication took place in Moscow on December 20–21. Financial Communications & Investor Relations Alliance (ARFI) awarded the winners, FinShi Capital earned 3rd place in the section of Digital Economy companies. Vyacheslav Sorokin, FinShi Capital’s Partner, presented the topic “Venture funds availability for private investors with the help of ICO”.
On December 28 we had a meeting with our investors.
Meeting with investors
We had a meeting with our main investors in the end of December. We explained in details how we select projects and how we decide to invest in them. We also spoke about destroying the unallocated tokens, about FINP and FINS structure, and technical ways of buying back the tokens. We took stock of everything that had been done in 2017 and discussed our plans for 2018. Those investors, who missed the meeting can get a full report by sending us a request via e-mail.
Our plans
We are planning to finally get FINS listed on exchanges in the nearest future.
We have received a lot of sarcasm and negativity from subscribers of our social networks. The fact that everyone needs to understand is that, unlike startups, funds do not depend on PR and daily news. The main goal of each and every fund is to select proper projects for funding and then ensure their growth. That is exactly what our fund is doing. The future profits of the entire fund depend on this, that includes investors. Unfortunately, we cannot disclose all information before a deal is sealed, or an exit is performed. In some cases, we won’t be able to disclose information even several months after the deal. It is common practice for most of the funds and that’s why they are different from public, actively advertised companies. The absence of news doesn’t mean the fund is not working. We prefer to have less but the best. We hope you’d agree that it is better to have 1–2 important pieces of news a month than daily announcements like “we do, we think, we select, we discuss, we plan…”
In January our fund is going to organize a blockchain event in Tyumen (Russia) and take part in conferences in Cyprus and Saint Petersburg. As part of our portfolio project roadshow we will also meet up with potential co-investors from Asia and Europe.
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