Runa Capital funding comes from a rare breed of investor: a venture firm founded by serial entrepreneurs who have actually built and exited global software companies. Founded in 2010 by Serg Bell, Dmitry Chikhachev and Ilya Zubarev — the founders behind Acronis, Parallels and Acumatica — Runa Capital invests in early-stage software and deep-tech startups. Headquartered in Luxembourg since 2022, the firm closed Runa Capital Fund IV at $116 million in October 2024.
Thesis & focus
The firm's focus is "deeptech, enterprise software and fintech infrastructure": machine-learning applications, open-source software, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, developer tools and quantum computing, plus "software for regulated markets" such as payment platforms, online lenders and challenger banks. Runa Capital describes itself as "hands-on investors and long-term partners" on a mission of "empowering scrappy entrepreneurs building large scale tech-enabled businesses" — and the partners' own operating history at Acronis, Parallels and Acumatica is the credibility behind the pitch.
Sectors & stages
The firm invests at Pre-Seed, Seed and Series A across Europe and North America — more than 100 investments in 14 countries. Note for Indian founders: the firm is not active in the Indian market.
Fund size & cheque size
Runa Capital Fund IV closed at $116 million on 9 October 2024, taking lifetime fundraising past $550 million. Earlier funds: Fund III at $157M (May 2020, above its $135M target, with an added quantum-computing focus), Fund II at $135M (2015) and Fund I at $135M. The firm states a first cheque of $0.5–5M per company; TechCrunch reported typical investments of $1–10 million, predominantly Series A.
Runa Capital funding: notable portfolio
Standout outcomes include Nginx (acquired by F5 Networks for $700M), Mambu (valued at $5.5B), Ecwid (acquired by Lightspeed for $500M), Acumatica (acquired by EQT) and DrChrono (acquired by EverCommerce). The portfolio also includes MariaDB, Zopa, Brainly, Pasqal and Sydecar. Recent investments include Twenty (open-source CRM, November 2024), Keep (open-source AIOps, August 2024) and Revi (July 2024).
Partners & team
General partners include co-founder Dmitry Chikhachev, Andre Bliznyuk, Dmitry Galperin and Michael Fanfant (US-focused), with venture partner Jinal Jhaveri, the former CEO and founder of portfolio company SchoolMint. The firm's people page marks Konstantin Vinogradov as a former general partner.
How to apply for funding
Runa Capital runs a genuinely public application route. Its contact page carries a "Looking forward to your startup" form asking for name, title, email, company name, website, description, HQ location, a business metric and a pitch deck, alongside the email [email protected] and phone +1 650-644-1122. The firm says it "carefully reviews all incoming investment requests". It also publishes the ROSS Index, a respected quarterly ranking of top open-source startups by GitHub-star growth, running since 2020 — a signal of how seriously it takes the open-source world it invests in.
Why it matters for founders
Runa Capital funding suits deep-tech and B2B software founders at pre-seed to Series A who want operators-turned-investors: the team has built companies like Acronis and Parallels, writes $0.5–5M first cheques, and offers a public application route that gets reviewed. If you are building open source, ML infrastructure, cybersecurity or fintech infrastructure, [email protected] is worth a cold, well-crafted email.