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Russian-Born Entrepreneur Launches Fund to Draw AI Startups to Columbus
Ratmir Timashev plans to invest $100 million over five years through a new venture firm called Oh.io. The firm will cover sales and marketing teams for up to 24 months if the startups locate operations in Columbus. Eight companies have signed on so far.
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Ratmir Timashev plans to invest $100 million over five years to attract AI startups to Columbus, Ohio. io, that will pay for sales and marketing teams for 18 to 24 months if the startups establish a base in the city. The firm targets growth-stage companies with $1 million to $5 million in revenue from the United States, Europe, and Israel.
io receives an option to invest at a lower valuation once the period ends. Eight startups have joined so far.
Timashev moved from Russia to Ohio State in 1992 to study chemical physics. He later co-founded Veeam, a data-management company sold for $5 billion in 2020. Forbes estimates his net worth at $5.4 billion. He has donated $150 million to Ohio State, including a $110 million gift in 2020 for a software-innovation center.
Timashev joined the Columbus Partnership, a group of about 80 local chief executives, earlier this year.
Local advantages cited Jason Hall, chief executive of the Columbus Partnership, said the region already hosts one of the country’s largest data-center clusters and a $28 billion Intel semiconductor campus. Five Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in the city, including Vertiv, which supplies cooling and power systems for data centers.
Timashev said the missing element is startup founders. He compared Columbus to his birthplace, Ufa, noting similar work ethics and values. "Columbus has great industries like retail, insurance and banking, it has lots of healthcare and pharma startups," he said.
