Fastlane Ventures

Fastlane Ventures, headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus, emerged as a prominent venture builder focused on the Russian internet market during the early 2010s. Unlike traditional venture capital firms that primarily invest in external startups, Fastlane Ventures adopted a "startup factory" or "venture builder" model, conceiving, developing, and launching its own innovative internet businesses from scratch. This strategy aimed to capitalize on the rapidly growing digital economy in Russia by building companies in various sectors, including e-commerce, travel, and online services.

The firm was co-founded by Marina Treshchova and Pascal Clement and quickly gained traction, attracting significant capital. In 2011, Fastlane Ventures secured $15 million in funding from Direct Group, followed by an additional $20 million in 2012 from a consortium of investors. This substantial capital allowed them to pursue an ambitious strategy of rapid company creation. Their operational model involved providing initial capital, strategic guidance, and shared operational resources to their internally developed ventures, aiming to launch between 10 to 15 new companies annually during their peak activity.

Key portfolio companies that Fastlane Ventures developed include OnlineTours.ru, a prominent online travel agency, and Dombook.ru, an online real estate platform. While some sources associate them with larger Russian e-commerce successes like Lamoda or KupiVIP, Fastlane's core activity revolved around building and scaling their own directly incubated projects. The firm's intense period of activity largely spanned from 2011 to around 2015-2016, after which their public profile and new venture launches significantly diminished, reflecting a shift or conclusion of their primary venture building operations. Given their unique model of internal company creation rather than external investment, typical "first cheque" sizes for external startups are not applicable to Fastlane Ventures.