Runa Capital Supports Its Commitment to a Global Portfolio of Investments with the Opening of a US Office in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO, July 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Runa Capital, a leading global venture capital firm, today announced that partner Andre Bliznyuk will move to the US to open an office in San Francisco, California. Additionally, in a move to extend its operations expertise into new areas, it has hired startup veteran Marcos Sanchez to run global communications for the firm.   

In today's global economy successful startups are founded all over the world, which means they are often competing and selling internationally from day one. Building and scaling that type of company requires new skills, a broad network and a different mindset than what most startups are used to.  With this new paradigm in mind, Runa Capital's founding team of partners set out to create a venture capital firm that is different than most.

"Taking venture capital from a firm with operational experience isn't enough anymore", said Dmitry Chikhachev, Managing Partner, Runa Capital. "You want to know that the team brings an international perspective, that's a must. More importantly, you want a firm that has a portfolio of global companies that can be leveraged to bridge the divides between countries and regions. Our San Francisco office gives us a physical presence to work more closely with our North American companies and create a link for our European companies."

Andre Bliznyuk, Runa Capital Partner added, "In addition to venture partner Peter Bauert, who is already based in the US, Marcos Sanchez will be joining us in the start of what will be a growing office as we begin to invest Runa Capital Fund II. Our focus will continue to be on early stage investments in cloud infrastructure and SaaS, including vertical solutions for the healthcare, finance and education industries. We believe our global view of companies from day one coupled with our extensive operational experience will be a key differentiator in what we have to offer startups."

As a part of the new office, Runa Capital also announced the hiring of startup veteran Marcos Sanchez to run its global communications. Sanchez brings over twenty years experience running marketing and communications programs for startups. Most recently, Sanchez was VP Global Communications for mobile app analytics firm App Annie. While there, he took App Annie from being known to mostly the mobile gaming market and turned it into the most cited source and global industry standard for Mobile App rankings.  Prior to that, he held senior marketing positions at Egnyte, Clarabridge and netobjects and was on the founding team of iBand, which was acquired by Macromedia.

Runa Capital's new office is located in the China Basin neighborhood of San Francisco, just across the street from AT&T Park at 128 King St.

About Runa Capital
Runa Capital was founded in 2010 by a group of successful serial IT entrepreneurs, each with significant experience building companies, and has since become a leading Global VC firm with European roots.  Runa Capital is currently investing from Fund II, which focuses on early stage investments in cloud infrastructure and SaaS, including vertical solutions for the healthcare, finance and education industries. Runa Capital has invested in 44 companies across Europe and North America to date, including: Acumatica, Brainly, DrChrono, Lendio, MariaDB, NGINX, Zopa and others. Runa Capital currently has offices in San Francisco and Moscow, for more information please visit www.runacap.com

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SOURCE Runa Capital