• IQcard

  Participated · Series B · Dec 2013

  IQcard offers prepaid VISA and Mastercard cards that serve individuals and businesses without the need to open a bank account. Its card product supports family budgeting, parental control for a child’s first card, financial education, safer internet purchases, travel spending, payments for goods and services, money transfers, loan access and participation in bonus and coupon programs. The company is led by CEO Catherine Konovalov and is based in Moscow, Russia. IQcard raised $3.7M in a Series B to support its growth. The company intends to use the funds to develop services, expand opportunities for B2B partners, continue current promotions and launch new projects with large retail chains. It also plans to enter new markets using the proceeds.

• Sapato.ru

  Participated · Equity · Jun 2011

  Sapato.ru is a Russian online shoe retailer launched in June 2010. It secured $12 million in additional capital from Intel Capital, with existing investors Direct Group, eVenture Capital Partners and Kinnevik participating, bringing total funding to approximately $20 million. The company said the investments will be used to expand its assortment, increase marketing and improve customer service by enhancing its CRM platform. By May 2011 Sapato.ru’s turnover had grown 50-fold to more than $2.8 million and it has handled over 75,000 orders in less than a year. It currently offers more than 5,700 models from over 200 brands and reports about 100,000 active customers. Sapato.ru is the first startup of Fast Lane Ventures, a Russian company set up by Western investors to launch, accelerate and promote innovative Internet projects. Sapato.ru is an online footwear store launched in June 2010 that positions itself as a Zappos clone. The site stocks more than 3,000 models from 100 world-known brands and aims to expand to 10,000 models of men, women and kids footwear in 2011. The company plans to use new funds to increase assortment, improve customer service and to launch an aggressive marketing campaign. Sapato.ru says it will emulate Zappos’ customer-service focus as it scales. The Russian footwear market is estimated to be worth over $15 billion but remains almost entirely offline, presenting a large addressable opportunity. CEO Matthieu Lannegrand described the online footwear market as still immature but full of potential.

• KupiBonus

  Participated · Equity · Jul 2010

  Beaucoup.ru operates a group‑buying/daily‑deals site focused on health and beauty, offering discounted spa treatments and similar services. The site currently runs deals in Moscow and plans to expand to additional Russian cities. The model applies the familiar daily‑deal approach to the beauty vertical. Beaucoup.ru is a project of Fast Lane Ventures, an incubator founded by Pascal Clément of Direct Group and Oskar Hartmann, founder of KupiVIP.ru. The company recently secured an investment of approximately $1 million from Mangrove Capital Partners, with Direct Group and Global Buying Group also contributing. No operating metrics (revenue or user counts) are provided in the article.

No current team members are available.