Vostok Emerging Finance (VEF) has announced its first investment deals since splitting into a standalone venture. Previously part of Vostok New Ventures, VEF split away this summer to become an investment fund focused exclusively on the financial services sector.
Russian merchant finance firms Revo and Sorsdata are becoming VEF’s first two Fintech investments since the split. The two firms are related. Revo has merchants who provide solutions in-store, and the firm also offers checkout incentives such as loyalty points or additional savings to their customers. With the advancement of mobile internet data collection such as user locations, the ability for merchants to offer solutions and incentives to customers that are near or within their stores has become an emerging area of technology within the fintech and Payments sector.
A sister company to Revo, Sorsdata is involved in the big data market space. Aggregating consumer data, Sorsdata provides solutions for merchants to send personalized marketing messages to their customers.
According to VEF, they are investing a total of $2.5 million in Revo and Sorsdata for a 12.5% stake in each firm. The deal provides VEF the ability to increase their stake to 25% by year end 2015.
Dave Nangle, Managing Director of VEF, commented on the investment: “We are very excited to announce Vostok Emerging Finance’s first investments since its split and separate listing from Vostok New Ventures earlier this summer. The investment in Revo and Sorsdata fits with our investment remit, as well as our focus to invest in strong management teams as much as strong scalable concepts. We look forward to working with and supporting the company in the years to come.”
