The VEB Ventures fund, owned by the state corporation VEB.RF, filed a lawsuit against the startup Mircod working in the field of production of devices for the Internet of Things (IoT). The organization is trying to recover more than 73 million rubles for failure to fulfill its obligations.
Web Ventures LLC filed a lawsuit against Mirkod LLC on October 27, 2023, as evident from the arbitration case file. The amount of claims amounts to almost 73.5 million rubles; No further details about the case are provided at this time.
The VEB.RF press service informed RB.RU that the reason for the claim is “non-compliance with the counterparty’s obligations.”
“The volume of investments of VEB Ventures in the Mircod company amounted to 50 million rubles, the amount of debt for this loan today is 73.5 million rubles. VEB Ventures confirms its intention and readiness to use all available means to protect its rights and legitimate interests,” a representative of VEB Ventures told RB.RU.
Mircod did not respond to the publication’s request.
- At the end of 2021 it became known that VEB Ventures had invested 400 million rubles in Mircod. The stake received by the fund and the valuation of the company were not disclosed. It was reported that the funds will be used to increase the developers’ staff, as well as to strengthen their position in Western markets.
- In July 2022 it became known that the VEB Ventures investment fund, created by the VEB.RF corporation, would stop investing in startups. Forbes sources reported that VEB Ventures could face liquidation and that the fund was also considering changing its legal structure, selling assets and changing its name.
Mircod is developing a platform that allows prototyping Internet of Things products and solutions. The company’s Russian legal entity, Mirkod LLC, was founded in 2016 in Tatarstan. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, as of December 21, 2021, the company is 100% owned by Mircod, a structure registered in the United States.
The income of the Russian LLC at the end of 2022, according to the Kontur.Focus system, decreased almost 3 times compared to 2021 and amounted to 40.6 million rubles. The company also received a net loss of 66.4 million rubles, compared to a net profit of 1.3 million rubles in the previous year.
Mirkod LLC’s accounts payable increased by 70% at the end of 2022. Short-term loans exceeded income: 61.4 million rubles against 40.6 million rubles.
Irina Egorova, head of the corporate and tax practice at law firm Intercession, believes VEB Ventures may have problems raising funds from Mircod, given the company’s financial situation at the end of 2022.
“Even if the court makes a positive decision for VEB Ventures, it will be difficult to get this money. At the same time, VEB Ventures can recover funds through bankruptcy and subsidiary liability proceedings,” the expert believes.
United Investors co-founder Alexander Gorny found it difficult to estimate the current value of the Russian part of the asset. He also suggested that Mircod does not currently conduct business in the Russian Federation.
According to Rospatent, Mirkod LLC is also currently registering several variants of the Evimate brand. The website of the same name, with an identical logo, says that Evimate is a digital health ecosystem, which includes a series of “smart” devices that monitor and record vital signs, as well as a single mobile application that stores and analyzes these data.
Author:
Anastasia Marina
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
