Alexander Galitsky, the founder of Almaz Capital, was born on 9 February 1955 in Ukraine. From an early age, Alexander was interested in literature and planned to become a journalist in the future.

Their stories by him were even published in the local newspaper. On the contrary, Alexander’s father saw talent and potential for exact sciences in his son, so he persuaded young Alexander to enter MIET (Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology).

In 1991, Galitsky had a business trip to Silicon Valley for the first time, and he was astonished by the quality of projects and infrastructure there.

At the same time, Alexander Galitsky started to work with Sun Microsystems, a US IT company that was on par with Microsoft. Sun Microsystems team together with Galitsky developed the first Wi-Fi technology and VPN service.

Contents:

• Almaz Capital venture fund
• Alexander Galitsky on the specifics of working in the pandemic
• Alexander Galitsky. Regrets and challenges

Almaz Capital Venture Fund

The history of Almaz Capital began at the First European Tech Tour which took place in Russia. The event attracted many promising start-ups from post-Soviet countries.

At that time, American technology system company Cisco Systems planned to expand and needed a fund that would invest in promising start-ups from Russia and Eastern Europe. So, the company representatives proposed Alexander Galitsky establish a venture capital fund. This is how Almaz Capital was founded.

More about Almaz Capital venture fund

Alexander Galitsky On The Specifics Of Working In The Pandemic

One of the major principles of Alexander Galitsky is to build strong interpersonal communications with new partners and to form trusting business relationships. Communication is one of the most working ways to find partners, and many start-ups came to Almaz Capital by word of mouth and through a professional networking base.

“When we invest, we look at the idea of a start-up, the technology, the final product, and the prospect of launching it on the market. But first of all, we invest in the team. After all, we will have to work together for the next 5–10 years.”

— Alexander Galitsky

The main distinctive feature of working in 2020–2021 was online communication with company representatives, remote working format, and a lot of uncertainty. When the pandemic hit, the process of communication became distorted and moved into a virtual environment, but it still remained a priority.

“It’s hard to invest in a business if you have seen its managers only on a computer screen.”

— Alexander Galitsky

For this reason, at the beginning of the pandemic, the fund worked with already familiar companies with which there had already been prior arrangements. These companies included DMarket, a blockchain-based platform for trading in-game items.

Alexander Galitsky had been acquainted with Vlad Panchenko, the founder and the CEO of the project, even before the pandemic, so it was easy to close the deal.

As for working with new, unfamiliar projects, the Almaz Capital team had to communicate and negotiate with potential partners online. Despite all challenges, Almaz Capital managed to sign contracts with 5 companies during two years of the pandemic.

Alexander Galitsky. Regrets And Challenges

Venture capital investing is not always about success. Like any other investor, Alexander Galitsky has faced various obstacles and now regrets about some of his decisions. For example, Galitsky admits that not investing in UiPath was a huge mistake.

“UiPath has come to us twice. The first time at a price of $10 million and then in 2021 it went public at $35 billion.”

— Alexander Galitsky

Due to the divergence of interests, Alexander Galitsky had to leave all Russian public projects. He used to be a part of such organizations as the Venture Market Council, RVC Council, IT Development Panel, the MSU business incubator (which he visited only once), Russian Quantum Center, and such companies as Megafon, Skolkovo and SkolTech, Alfa-Bank.

Initially, all these projects were aimed at entering the global market, but later they changed their development course and focused on the local markets. For this reason, Galitsky decided to quit these organizations.

Another challenge for Almaz Capital was to change the business to suit the demands of the COVID-ridden world. This could not but entail innovations in the company’s work.

For example, now the team is able to make decisions about investing in a project without meeting entrepreneurs offline, although Alexander Galitsky still prefers personal communication.

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