Q&A: Xanada CEO on shaking up the igaming VC market 

Vladimir Malakchi, former chief commercial officer at Evoplay, has launched a new venture capital fund, Xanada, where he will serve as CEO, marking the time first time in his career where he will take on the mantle of chief exec.

The Cyprus-based company is looking to make waves in the igaming sector by helping businesses scale up rapidly.

Malakchi has pointed to a core ethos of building personal relationships with the investment targets, with an ecosystem known as the Xanada Lodge aiming to foster connections across the portfolio.

The new CEO has previous investment space experience, having operated as an angel investor with both the BADideas.fund and Salesforge in recent months.

Although Xanada is in its infancy, it has grand plans to bring what Malakchi believes is much needed expertise to help igaming startups grow to their full potential.

Speaking to EGR, Malakchi talks about what Xanada will look to offer the igaming market going forward and how his career to date has led him to the CEO role of a VC fund.

EGR: Why have you decided to head into the VC sector and launch Xanada Investments?

Vladimir Malakchi (VM): When I started at Evoplay, they asked me the typical question: ‘Where do you see yourself in five years?’ Even back then, my consistent response was my aim to re-enter the venture capital industry. In my previous role as an analyst in the venture capital sector, I was pretty successful and that gave me lots of knowledge and connections that very soon became one of my biggest passions in life.

Then, I worked in the startup sector and saw for myself how difficult it is to find a really interesting fund; not just one that will give you money but one that will give you real expertise you can trust. A lot of the time you’re sending out pitch decks but nobody’s responding because they’re so busy, and I hated that. I prefer to get at least some facetime with the person who’s overseeing the project to try and make sure everything goes well. For four years I’ve been vying to return to venture capital. I trust that it’s now the right time to move on.

EGR: How ready do you feel to take on your first CEO role?

VM: To be honest it’s never been a goal for me. I’ve always preferred to be more of a shadow guy who works only with the business model because I’m usually more focused on the commercial side. I’m a really big fan of making relationships with people and building ecosystems around them. My new role includes more responsibilities as now it’s connected not only to some parts of business, but the whole business building and running, whereas now I’m more responsible for building all the processes.

But taking into account my previous experience as a commercial officer, when I was building legal, financial departments completely from scratch, I see the role as a continuation of what I’ve done before, just an expanded version.

EGR: Is there anything you’ll miss from your old role and the day-to-day operations on the B2B side of the industry?

VM: Yes, I’ll miss the direct impact and quick pace of my past B2B roles where I helped build processes and teams directly. At Xanada Investments, though, my job has changed a lot. Now, I look after the whole company, not just sales or partnerships. This bigger role lets me shape our entire business strategy and the broader industry.

Switching to this new role means I’m also setting up our internal processes to make sure we can grow and succeed in the long run. It’s more about guiding the whole company’s growth and ensuring all parts work well together, which is a much bigger task than just focusing on commercial activities.

EGR: What type of business will you look to target early on?

VM: Right from the start, we’re looking at businesses that are set for rapid growth and good profits but also fit well within our broader ecosystem. We focus on companies that really understand their market and are ready to hit the ground running with new, market-changing ideas.

Our targets are varied — from gaming platforms and affiliate marketers to tools that improve customer experiences. We’re open to all kinds of markets and choose projects based on how well they match our goals and their potential to shake things up. We don’t impose any limits; our selections are based purely on alignment and potential.

EGR: What size investments will Xanada Investments look to make? Will there be lots of small investments or a few larger investments?

VM: It will be somewhere in the middle. We’re trying to build an investment of up to $2m. For the most part, we’re targeting what is interesting to us – namely projects that are interesting where the founders are aligned.

For me, the founders are the most important part of any investment. If we see they have a fire in their eyes for what they’re doing, that they’re motivated, and that they have a good relationship with the project – but they need say $2m or $3m – we’ll probably invest in them. For the most part, we’re trying to invest $1m to $1.5m on average.

EGR: Are there any particular markets Xanada Investments is looking to target with its investments?

VM: Maybe in about a year’s time there will be a specific market that we understand more than the rest but for now we’re talking to everybody. If we’re talking about operators for example, we’ll look to target fully regulated markets. On the whole, we’re not targeting anything specific for now.

EGR: How big a team are you looking to build for Xanada Investments going forward?

VM: It’s hard for me to say how many people will be in each department until we hire a head of department. Everybody builds their teams in different ways and they have different processes. For now, the core team will be five people, and from there we will decide how many people will be in the company. I assume it will be around 10 to 15 people, but time will tell.

EGR: What do you think will be your biggest obstacle to quick growth?

VM: The first risk is there won’t be enough interesting projects at the right time. Another thing that might slow us down rather than stop us completely is all the legal stuff associated with certain markets, but again, it’s a very low risk of being a big obstacle. We have closed on five investments already, and we will continue finding interesting projects with the same dynamic. We have already received around 80 applications and are now going through them thoroughly to evaluate their potential and offer them our help in particular cases.

The next one I would name is the instability in the venture capital industry within igaming as it is still being built and we can see more new funds appearing on the market. As it develops, there will be more and more challenges to talk about.

EGR: What will be the biggest industry benefit that comes about by having Xanada Investments enter the market?

VM: The option to grow. You can have a good product, understand your business, have a good reputation in the industry, but you might not have the network connections you need. This is something we can help with. Not everyone knows where to find the money, and secondly, not everyone knows that you can receive the money as well as a lot of support. It’s possible to work with someone who will also become part of your company, share the same values, speak positively about your product and most importantly teach you something new. This is how you can add value to your product.

At Xanada Investments, we offer an investment opportunity that goes along with the real experience and success in business building and scaling within igaming. That’s a rare case, when investors are also experts in the industry and know how to actually build the business.

EGR: In your time working in the investment space, what’s the most important thing you’ve learned and how will you implement that at Xanada Investments?

VM: Trust your intuition – whatever it is that you’re thinking. There might be a time where you come across a project that you’re not sure about but your gut might be telling you that there’s something worthwhile there. When analysing a new project, you take on a lot of logical information. When you get a feeling one way or the other, it’s coming from information that you’ve gathered, deep in your subconscious – your brain is sending you a signal.

Of course, you need to rely on specifics – check over all the numbers and stats but I prefer to trust my intuition. Undoubtedly, in the world of business, all decisions and partnerships are made based on numbers and commercial results. However, there are also cases when the project shows stunning commercial data or prospects, but my intuition says, we shouldn’t work with it, then I choose to trust my inner gut. Probably, that’s a talent you’re getting through years of experience and practice.