Last month the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) received $2 billion from foreign investors to support Russian startups developing AI projects, the business daily Vedomosti reported, citing exchanges with RDIF representatives. The money came from sovereign funds and global corporations in the Middle East and Asia, including the UAE.
The RDIF plans to invest variable amounts in up to 10 AI startups every year. So far, the fund has received project proposals from some 100 companies in Russia and selected 20 of them for further talks. Among the projects to be funded are Oncobox, which helps oncologists decide which drug to use for each patient, and Motorica, a startup that designs and manufactures functional prosthetics.
The RDIF is interested both in AI technologies and adjacent areas such as cloud computing, data centers, and AI for businesses, government, and people.
Chinese-Russian R&D
In a separate deal, the RDIF and the China Investment Corporation (CIC), a sovereign wealth fund responsible for managing part of China’s foreign exchange holdings, intend to set up a joint Russian-Chinese R&D fund for innovations. The funding, no less than $1 billion, is to be provided by the two partners equally. The fund will invest in both Russian and Chinese projects working on AI, innovative materials, and space technologies.
Cooperation with China is nothing new to the RDIF. Back in 2012, the RDIF and the CIC officially launched their first private equity fund named the Russia-China Investment Fund with a capital of $2 billion. In 2017, this fund participated in a $1 billion round for Chinese e-car maker NIO.
The next year saw the emergence of another joint $100 million project, the Russia-China Venture Fund, launched by the RDIF and Chinese TusHoldings group. The latter is a leading Chinese innovation-focused enterprise, supported by Tsinghua University.
The RDIF is also committed to bring up to $294 million to the giant e-commerce joint venture which was recently created by Alibaba, Mail.Ru Group and MegaFon.
Created in 2011, the RDIF manages $10 billion in its own funds and another $40 billion from its partners. The fund comes as a co-investor in each deal.
