Managing partner of the venture fund Ruta.vc Olena Pshenichna announced the closure of the project because «expectations exceeded reality.» It was planned that in 2024 Ruta.vc would make 5 investments in startups in the SportTech sector, but this did not happen.
Managing partner of the venture fund Ruta.vc Olena Pshenichna announced the closure of the project because «expectations exceeded reality.» It was planned that in 2024 Ruta.vc would make 5 investments in startups in the SportTech sector, but this did not happen.
Pshenichna told about this in a comment to Forbes Ukraine. «We closed the project. Expectations were higher than reality,» the managing partner of the fund noted.
The publication notes that closing funds without any investment is a rare phenomenon on the Ukrainian market; it usually happens when they run out of funds.
«During my active journey as an investor and entrepreneur in sports technology, I have seen the number of requests to the market. And this is an incredible number. I have seen what a large ecosystem it is possible to build. Due to the large number of international connections, there is an opportunity to help our projects reach the international level,» said Dmytro Bondarenko, general partner of the Ruta fund, who is a co-owner of the Sport Life sports club, during the launch.
Olena Pshenichna noted that the SportTech market is growing worldwide. «Last year alone, 34 new funds were added. And we want to be the leader that will help Ukrainian startups enter international markets and be a strong platform for them,» said Ruta, the managing partner of the fund.
Last summer, in a comment to Mind.ua, she reported that Ruta.vc plans to finance five startups in 2024 with investments ranging from $50,000 to $1 million.
The reason for the closure of the Ruta.vc fund could be that the partners were unable to raise money, says Oleg Malenkov, a partner at TA Ventures. According to him, he does not know of «a single successful venture firm» that has made money focusing exclusively on sports startups.
Ruta’s website (which is now defunct) stated that it was interested in startups in the following industries:
In June 2024, 11 partners were ready to provide funds to the fund, Pshenichna said. «If there are no quick results, and there are often none in this business, then it is quite difficult to attract LP capital,» Oleg Malenkov noted.
Recall that earlier, the Ukrainian-British company JobCannon announced the creation of a venture fund for HR technologies. It is ready to invest $100,000 — $200,000 in startups from Ukraine, Britain, Israel, and Central and Eastern European countries.
