Kazakh businessman Kenes Rakishev launches venture capital fund

Kazakh businessman Kenes Rakishev has invested in a new $102 million venture capital fund, Tengrinews reports citing Geektime.

The venture capital fund was launched on January 28. Other investors in the fund are Singulariteam Ltd with its chairman and managing partner Moshe Hogeg, RenRen social network and Tencent Holding Group, China's largest holding worth $170 billion.

The fund will focus on early stage investments in start-ups in mobile technologies, robotics, finance and Internet.

This will be the second fund for Singulariteam. The first one invested in 12 companies operating in space technologies, Internet and mobile technologies. “The second fund was launched in light of the success of the first one. We are looking for companies that dream to bring some change into this world,” Moshe Hogeg said.

Many of the companies that were created with the help of the first fund have already attained some success by raising a lot of money, gaining a lot of press coverage and many of them are on their way to become key players in their fields.

The list of these companies include InfinityAR, Stox, Mobli, Intelagent, Beyond Verbal, General Robotics, Sirin, StoreDot, Effective Space, Sprylogics, Meta and Yo.

As for the second fund, according to Moshe Hogeg, they were looking for people with outstanding ideas and concepts. The investors promised to provide everything these people need, so that they could focus on creating something significant. Moshe Hogeg assured that it was not just a typical venture fund that only made investments, instead, they were also entrepreneurs, who created ideas and companies.

It is not the first time Kenes Rakishev and Moshe Hogeg work together. In April of 2013, both investors along with then former Prime-Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert launched a global venture capital fund Genesis Angels to search out and finance promising technologies in robotics. 

Kenes Rakishev is one of the 50 most influential people of Kazakhstan. He serves as chairman of the board of directors for several large companies including Kazakhstan's BTA Bank and SAT & Company, a diversified industrial holding. Under Rakishev's leadership, SAT & Co., which is mainly focused on mechanical engineering, infrastructure and petrochemical projects in Kazakhstan and also has plants and projects in Turkey and China, has grown from its initial investment of $10,000 in 2000 to more than $500 million today.

Kenes Rakishev is also the chairman of the board for Kazakhstan Petrochemical Industries, the lead operator constructing the first integrated gas chemical complex in Kazakhstan, as well as Vyborg Shipyard, one of the largest shipbuilding companies in the northwestern region of Russia.

By Assel Satubaldina