Catch Up With Tech News From Eastern Europe: September

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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.

The fall has started in the Eastern European tech world with a huge wave of news stories and insightful reads, which we’ve done our best to thoroughly process and gather in one convenient round-up. Make sure you haven’t missed any significant deals, announcements and feature stories in the region.

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

Startups, funds and accelerators

Kyiv startup yoCard has entered Russian market, gearing up towards international expansion
Ukrainian investment fund Fison has announced the winners of its startup contest
Ukrainian angel investors’ network UAngel has appointed new executive director, but still struggles to get officially registered
New Russian venture fund Restart Capital will target “internet companies with problems”
Russia and China may create a joint nanotech fund
Russian firm Ingate has launched a new venture fund, Ingate Venture, with $15 million to put into new projects
Belorussian businessman Vitaliy Arbuzov has launched a new venture fund with $20 million to invest in startups from North America and South East Asia
Latvian-Norwegian Green incubator has been launched in Riga
Ukrainian entrepreneur Oleksii Vitchenko has launched a new investment company Digital Future, which will be looking to invest from $25,000 per project for a 10 to 15 percent stake
Ukraine-made iBlazr flashes for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch are now on sale in Apple Store
Latvian Infogr.am has launched a feature specifically for teams, letting those who work in close unison collaborate and access shared resources from their own accounts
The Moscow Seed Fund has announced its latest competition to recruit investors for joint seed and pre-seed stage investment in their projects
Bulgarian startup accelerator Launchub has announced its new batch of six teams
Danish out-staffing software development company Ciklum has announced a startup-in-residence program in Ukraine
Ukrainian entrepreneur Dmytro Kostyk is bringing his Interactive Restaurant Technology to the US market

Funding deals and M&A

Russia’s Yandex has purchased mobile development studio Any Void
Russia’s Acronis has bought Dutch cloud backup software firm BackupAgent
Ru-Net has teamed up with Sequoia and Sofina to invest in Indian mobile recharge platform FreeCharge
The Foundation for Internet Development Initiatives (FRII) has invested $2.9 million in online children’s store Babadu
Russia’s Netology has merged with online education center Foxford and received $1.1 million in funding
From Russia with video conferencing software: Webinar.ru has scored $7.3 million from Intel and others
Ukrainian robotics startup Robo has received a $200,000 investment from American venture fund SOS Ventures and a group of angels
Russian TMT Investments has invested in news aggregator Anews and mobile advertising network Adinch. The companies received $1 million and $600k respectively
Major Russian B2B publishing house Action Media Group has invested $200,000 in SaaS service Arnica.pro
Ukrainian startup Clickganic has received a $300,000 investment for 35 percent of the company
TMT Investments has announced an investment deal with social network analysis platform Twtrland
Wikimart.ru has raised $40 million from domestic investors after failing to attract foreign VCs
Slovakia’s Piano Media has bought US counterpart Press+ to create world’s largest digital paywall tech company
US startup Slice with Ukrainian R&D team has been acquired by Japanese online retailer Rakuten
Yandex has announced the acquisition of adtech platform ADFOX
Moscow government has bought itself a social network
Estonian startup GrabCad has been bought by Stratasys for some $100 million
The Moscow Seed Fund and nanotech center Technospark have invested $156,000 in tech company NSL, which is developing a medical laser drill
Runa Capital has led a $2.2 million round in US school admission startup
Almaz Capital has led a $4 million funding round in US e-commerce solution provider
China’s Xinwei and Ukraine’s Datagroup have stroke an investment agreement for $400 million
Russian investor Igor Ryabenkiy and fund SMRK have participated in a $500,000 funding round in AmazingHiring
Russian social alarm service Wakie has secured $2 million in funding from LETA Capital
Ukrainian groceries delivery service Zakaz.ua has raised $2.5 million from Kyiv ex-mayor’s investment group

In other news

A castle built from Bitcoins rises in Estonia
UTGem conference has given Silicon Valley a taste of Ukraine’s IT world
Yandex will place contextual ads Yandex.Direct on VKontakte
Russia’s most popular social network VKontakte has launched its own IT news platform
Messaging app Telegram created by VK founder Pavel Durov has received background media downloads, tweaked UI on Android
US computer firm Dell has announced the opening of Big Data Open Lab in Moscow
Russian online retailer Lamoda has merged with four other online fashion retailers to form Global Fashion Group
Google Vice President has met with head of Russian Internet watchdog Roskomnadzor
Yandex.Translate has launched a free version for iPhone and iPad with offline translation feature
UberX, the budget version of US-based taxi-hailing service Uber, has arrived in Moscow
Alibaba’s AliExpress has become the most visited e-commerce website in Russia
Databases containing login details of 1.26 million Yandex Mail users and 4.66 million Mail.ru users have been published on two online forums
Moscow-wide public WiFi could be in place by 2018
The Russian Communications Ministry has proposed a 10 percent tax on license sales to be invested in domestic software developers
Intel has teamed up with Russian technoparks and decided to continue Skolkovo partnership
Mobile banking botnet creator has been arrested for the first time in Russia
Ukrainian tech investors have created an association to promote local firms and lobby for the industry
Yandex has introduced personal recommendations to its music streaming service Yandex.Music
Vietnamese mobile operator Viettel may invest $1 billion in 3G network in Ukraine
China’s Beidou and Russia’s Glonass are in talks to harmonize standards
The Russian Ministry of Culture is planning to create a national hotel bookings service to compete with Booking.com
Microsoft has teamed up with Russian state fund FRII to support industrial startups
Personal data law could force international companies to suspend Russian operations
Adobe has shut down its representative office in Russia
Yandex has launched a home service marketplace
Lamoda’s losses exceeded $50 million in 2013; site exposed to risk due to international tensions
Groupon has decided to wind down its operation in Romania after it failed to find enough traction in the market
U.S. investors General Catalyst and Accel Partners have quietly divested their holdings in Russian travel company Ostrovok.ru
VKontakte has started to crack down on accounts related to the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL)
Russian lawmakers have proposed and then immediately shelved a plan that would limit SkypeOut calls
Ukrainian IT pioneer Oleksandr Olshanskiy has announced candidacy for parliament with holistic vision for army and economy