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Andrii Degeler
Andrii is the Head of Media at TNW, with over a decade of experience in covering the European tech ecosystem. Talk to him about new and exci Andrii is the Head of Media at TNW, with over a decade of experience in covering the European tech ecosystem. Talk to him about new and exciting developments in tech, especially those involving vastly underreported industry niches and geographies.
The final month of spring brought quite a few exciting news stories from tech startups and established companies in Central and Eastern Europe. In this round-up, we have put together the most significant tidings to keep you on top of things.
If you think that something is missing, or would like to draw our attention to an important story, feel free to ping the author in Twitter (@shlema) or by e-mail at [email protected].
Startups, funds, and accelerators
- Slovak capital fund management company Neulogy Ventures has launched two new funds of €23 million in total to invest in early stage startups.
- Serbian startup COFA Games has joined Startup Sauna accelerator programme in Helsinki.
- Top executive from Russian payment giant Qiwi has launched a $30 million venture fund for local startups.
- Bulgarian seed fund LAUNCHub has announced its new batch consisting of one startup from Romania, four from Bulgaria, and one from Slovenia.
- Russian VC fund Frontier Ventures with $50 million under management seeks to attract another $50 million from 5 to 10 new investors.
- Prague-based accelerator StartupYard has announced the names of the seven teams in their spring 2014 mentoring programme.
- Romanian tech conference How to Web has launched MVP Academy, a pre-accelerator programme for young entrepreneurs.
- Global Impact Competition CEE 2014 has announced its winners — Stepsss and Harimata.
- London-based Seedcamp has announced its new batch of seven startups, four of which represent CEE countries.
- Polish company Next.Step has launched a $100 million fund to invest in Ukrainian startups.
- Ukrainian startup Hashtago has joined the biggest tech acceleration programme in India, GSF Global.
- Polish-Ukrainian digital sports data technology startup BETEGY has signed an exclusive 3-year licensing agreement with Chinese lottery operator.
- Croatia’s first incubator ZIP has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for its pre-acceleration program.
- Bulgarian fund LAUNCHub has €200,000 to invest in Bitcoin projects.
- Polish Vocabla, a startup geared towards students of English, has sailed past 400,000 users mark.
Deals, deals, deals
- Ukrainian startup Kaznachey (Rus. “Treasurer”) has landed $200,000 in funding with a total valuation of $1 million.
- French-Russian nanotech company Crocus Nano Electronics has raised $60 million to complete its next-gen memory project.
- Bulgarian startup Flipps has landed $2.4 million in funding from Earlybird Digital East Fund and its existing investor Tim Draper.
- Russian mobile payment and transaction processing provider Net Element has raised $11.2 million in funding from Cayman Invest SA.
- The Grishin Robotics fund, headed by director general of the Mail.Ru Group Dmitry Grishin, has purchased a minority stake in Orbotix, a manufacturer of robotic toys.
- Romanian startup Style Jukebox has secured “up to €200,000” from Bulgarian seed fund LAUNCHub.
- Hungarian startup Tresorit has received $3 million in Series A funding from Euroventures, its existing investor.
- London-based Russian fund TMT-Investments has invested $200,000 in Israeli project Drippler.
- Russian VC fund Runa Capital has made a big exit as Microsoft acquired French startup Capptain.
- Romanian startup docTrackr has announced its acquisition by American SaaS technology provider Intralinks for $10 million.
- Russian search giant Yandex has participated in a $4.1 million capital injection in SalesPredict.
- Estonian taxi dispatcher management programme Taxify has secured $100,000 in funding from several business angels.
- Russian retail intelligence startup CrowdSystems has raised a $1 million Series A round led by InVenture Partners.
- Romanian online marketing enterprise Conversion Marketing has acquired Conectoo, which was started by the How To Web founder Bogdan Iordache.
- Russian e-retailer Ulmart has acquired a ‘close to 50%’ stake in Spotify-analogue music service Zvooq and e-book library Bookmate.
- Russian e-commerce store creator Ecwid has raised a $5 million Series B round led by iTech Capital.
- Russian fund DST Global has led a $210 million investment round for India’s e-commerce giant Flipkart.
- Romanian startup TJobs has announced a ‘seven digit investment’ from Earlybird VC’s Earlybird Digital East Fund (EDEF) and iEurope Capital’s Fund II.
- Russian venture fund Maxfield Capital has invested more than $1 million in Israeli language-learning startup SpeakingPal.
- Piano Media, the Slovak paywall solution provider, has announced a Round C funding from its existing investor 3TS Capital Partners and Gründerfonds.
- Belgrade/London-based SaaS startup TruckTrack has launched the beta version of its app and raised a €260,000 seed round.
In other news
- Russia’s President has signed an ‘anti-blogger’ law that brings popular bloggers under the same legislation as media organisations.
- Microsoft, Oracle, and Hewlett-Packard may stop working with Russian banks and companies to comply with US sanctions over Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
- Major Russian online retailers Ozon and Ulmart seek to shake up the country’s e-book market.
- Russia will shut down 11 American GPS stations on June 1 at least temporarily, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin announced.
- Kirill Makharinsky, the co-founder of Ostrovok, the ‘Hotels.com for Russia’ which has raised $38.60 million, has departed the company.
- Russian sellers will be able to legally trade on eBay starting from September 2014.
- Subscription music service Rdio has added 9 new countries across Europe and Asia, including Croatia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
- Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has strengthened his grip on Mail.ru Group by amending its shareholder agreement.
- Intel plans to set up its research division at Skolkovo ‘either in 2015 or 2016,’ despite international sanctions on Russia.
- Russian mobile game publisher Game Insight has moved its headquarters to Vilnius, Lithuania.
- IT outsourcing company Luxoft has announced a plan to move about 500 software developers from Russia and Ukraine after Western clients cited risks stemming from political tensions.
- Estonia’s government has launched an e-citizenship program so that anyone can apply to be an Estonian citizen without showing up in the country.
- Ukrainian gamedev company 4A Games (creators of Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light) has announced a plan to move its headquarters from Kyiv to Malta.
Good reads of the month
- Celebrating the .RU – A look back over two decades of the Russian Internet
- 8 CEE startups to find your perfect match
- $900M in, $2.3B out — The Russian venture industry in 2013
- What’s up in Bosnia?
- Sputnik: state-sponsored search to keep Russians safe
- R.O.W. With Butch: Despite a dark past, Sarajevo’s tech scene emerges
- The 10 newest Estonian startups to watch
- From Russia with concern: Cisco’s audits raised red flags about resellers
- Ukrainian crisis hasn’t stopped these five startups
- Indian IT companies look to eastern Europe for talent, captives
- Far from politics, Russian money still fuels US startups
- Ozon CEO Maëlle Gavet on why she just raised $150 million, and what’s next for the “Amazon of Russia”
Image credit: Shutterstock
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