Eastern Europe: November Tech News Roundup

All the tech news you shouldn’t miss from November in Eastern Europe

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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 (show all) 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.

Eastern European funds, investors and entrepreneurs seem to be trying to squeeze as many stories as possible into 2014 — or at least so it seems from reading all the news coming from that side of Europe.

As usual, we’ve put together a neat roundup of what’s been going on in the CEE region in November so that you won’t miss anything important.

If you think that something is missing, or would like to draw our attention to an important story, feel free to ping the author on Twitter (@shlema) or by e-mail at [email protected].

Startups, investors and accelerators

Russia’s DST Global may be about to invest around $1.5 billion in Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi
Russian Internet company Rambler&Co has announced two new startup accelerators that it’s going to open together with FRII and RVC
Serbian game Awakening of Heroes has won the Casual Connect Indie Prize Competition
Prague-based tech startup accelerator StartupYard has announced a call for applications to its next accelerator round and tripled its seed investment to €30,000
The father of Java James Gosling has joined the team of Ukraine-born startup Jelastic
Budapest-based startup enbrite.ly has won the main prize of €500,000 at the Slush 100 competition
Oxygen Accelerator and Fiedler Capital have teamed up to bring CEE startups to the UK
Estonian startup Rise has launched an Indiegogo campaign for its smart window shades solution
Ukraine-born startup Petcube has started shipping its crowdfunded pet camera in time for Christmas

Funding deals and M&A

Russian logistics IT startup Gruzopoisk has received a $150,00 investment from a private investor
Ukrainian e-marketing agency Netpeak has acquired a Bulgarian company and got 10% stake in Russia’s Q-Page
Russia’s Imperious Group has injected $250,000 in Ukrainian startup Multitest that helps Internet users choose their ISP
Russian logistics startup iCanDeliver has raised $3 million in funding
Russian SEO management company SeoPult has acquired social network authentication service uLogin
Ukrainian startup JetMe has raised $400,00 in funding and launched in California to allow users to book private jet flights
Russian internet juggernaut Mail.ru has acquired OpenStreetMap-powered Maps.me
Ukrainian automated mail reminder startup MyRobot has raised $60,000 for global expansion
Russian fund Target Ventures has led a 20-million-euro round in international cruise booking portal Dreamlines
Hungarian Prezi has raised $57 million in fresh funding as it hit 50 million users and 160 million created presentations
Russian fund Maxfield Capital has invested $1.7 million in Patients Know Best, a British company that has designed a cloud platform for managing patient details
Russian venture fund LETA Capital has invested $1.5 million in auto technology company Bright Box
Dashboard Systems, a Russian company which develops software for ‘collective decision-making bodies’ such as management teams and company boards, has received an investment of $2.19 million
Latvian micro-finance service startup Creamfinance has attracted €5 million in funding from Russian fund Flint Capital
Russia’s Run Capital has injected $6 million in Russian-Californian mobile marketing startup AppInTop
Estonia’s Jobbatical, a job site for work sabbaticals and career breaks, has raised a €260,000 seed round (check the “Good reads” for a piece of skeptical analysis)
Ukrainian startup Ecois.me has raised $100,000 from Deutsche Telekom for energy-saving solutions
Bulgarian LAUNCHub has invested €200,000 in Bitcoin startup BitLending Club

In other news

Russian KupiVIP’s e-commerce properties have been announced to merge under one single brand and portal
Microsoft has suspended plans to provide tablets to Russian schools under a deal expected to benefit a textbook publisher headed by Kremlin ally Arkady Rotenberg
Microsoft has decided to shut down Skype R&D office in Moscow satellite city of Zelenograd
PayPal is preparing an important step to adapt to Russia’s local conditions by accepting account replenishment by cash
Russia and India are considering setting up joint production of modules for Russia’s GLONASS satellite navigation system
Russia’s Mail.ru Group has revealed its plan to sell 100% of shares in jobs and recruitment site HeadHunter.ru to a consortium of investors led by direct investment fund Elbrus Capital for $208 million
St. Petersburg libraries creating an ‘alternative Wikipedia’ about Russia
Russian payment operator QIWI has announced the acquisition of the e-currency business of Mail.ru Group
Owners of Polish social networking site NK.pl are getting prepared to sell the website
A memorial to Steve Jobs has been dismantled in the Russian city of St. Petersburg after Tim Cook came out as gay
US soft maker Adobe Systems has started liquidating its representative office in Russia and was delisted from the tax register
Russian Yota Devices has announced an event on December 3 where it will unveil its dual-screen smartphone YotaPhone 2
Chinese financial powerhouse Ping An and Russia’s largest lender Sberbank are in advanced discussions to back Israeli online trading company eToro
Yandex has released a new version of its browser, a bold UI experiment that takes the best from Chrome and Opera