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AVENIR
AVENIR was founded in Moscow by Boris Zhilin and Olga Masyutina in 2015 as an investment holding backing Russian-language startups.
AVENIR
AVENIR is an SEC-registered investment adviser in NEW YORK, NY, registered since 2020. The firm manages approximately $2.8 billion in regulatory assets. It has 20 employees and 11 investment advisers.
General information
Firm type
Generalist
Year founded
2015
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Europe
Country
Russia
City
Moscow
Corporate office
Moscow, Russia
Principals
Boris Zhilin
Founder
Olga Masyutina
Co-founder and CEO
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at AVENIR?
Boris Zhilin and Olga Masyutina founded the firm in 2015 and appear to function as its investment committee. Zhilin brought US institutional experience from Bear Stearns and Armor Capital, while Masyutina had senior roles at Renaissance Investment Management and Alfa-Bank. No other investment professionals are named publicly.
Does AVENIR operate as a single-family office or as an institutional asset manager?
AVENIR calls itself an 'investment holding' but does not disclose whether it manages third-party capital or exclusively proprietary wealth. The co-existence of a UK commercial mortgage portfolio, gold exposure via SPDR Gold Trust, and early-stage Russian startups suggests a flexible mandate closer to a private investment office than a regulated fund manager.
How is AVENIR related to Armor Capital Management?
Boris Zhilin co-founded Armor Capital Management with Dov Plitman. AVENIR and Armor share Zhilin as a common principal, placing them in the same orbit, but the two entities maintain separate names and, by all public indications, operate distinct investment activities.
What investment stages does AVENIR target?
The firm’s website tags its startup-engagement as early stage, seed, and start-up. Public portfolio examples like Properly and ParkApp are consistent with pre-seed or seed-stage cheques written into Russian-language consumer and enterprise platforms.
Does AVENIR maintain philanthropic structures, and how are they separated?
Two philanthropic vehicles are associated with the principals: the More Love Association (registered in Italy as an ONLUS) and the Victor Zhilin Foundation. There is no public evidence that these foundations are funded directly by AVENIR’s holding company, but they share a family-wealth lineage.
What is AVENIR’s geographic footprint?
Its headquarters is in Moscow, Russia. The firm’s portfolio companies serve Russian-speaking markets, while its Avenir III B.V. subsidiary holds commercial mortgages in the United Kingdom. Gold exposure sits in a US-listed trust, giving the portfolio a cross-border treasury component.
Which sectors does AVENIR explicitly avoid?
AVENIR does not publish a negative sector list. Its disclosed portfolio concentrates on PropTech, MedTech, SaaS, TravelTech, Mobility, and FoodTech. Heavy industrial, deep-tech hardware, and biotech are absent from all public materials, suggesting the partners stay within asset-light enterprise and consumer verticals they can diligence through founder referrals.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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