International dating giant Dating.com Group has launched a $50 million corporate venture fund, the group’s co-founder Dmitry Volkov announced last week at an industry event in New York City. The new vehicle will invest “up to $5 million” in online dating companies from the seed to Series B stages. The Dating.com fund has already made an …
Dating.com Group launches $50 million corporate VC fund Read More
[Updated Jan. 21] Rostelecom, the national telecom operator, is in the process of acquiring 31% of FRII Invest, the investment vehicle of the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF, or FRII in Russian). This is Russia’s biggest fund for early-stage startups, launched in 2013 as an instrument to support the emergence of a strong startup industry in Russia. Rostelecom’s is …
State-controlled corporation backs Russia’s leading startup investment fund Read More
Crunchbase and East-West Digital News are teaming up to cover key tech and venture trends in Eastern Europe. Since January 2019, EWDN chief editor Adrien Henni has offered a regular column to highlight the most notable industry facts and trends as well as promising tech innovations from this region. This full-year 2019 review lists the most important investment and …
In mid-December Severstal Ventures, an investment vehicle created last year by the Russian steel and mining giant Severstal, announced an investment in US company Modumetal. The corporate fund has got a minority stake along with existing shareholders Vulcan Ventures, BP Ventures, Founders Fund, Steel Dynamics, ConocoPhillips, Chevron Technology Ventures and others. Based in Seattle, Modumetal claims …
Venture investment volume in Russia reached almost half a billion US dollars ($493.6 million) in the six first months of this year, according to Dsight. This Moscow-based venture analytics and business intelligence agency released last week the English version of its latest industry report. While still modest by international standards (US venture deals accounted for …
Russian venture market grows but remains modest by international standards Read More
Last month Efko, an agroindustrial group founded in 1994 in the Belgorod region, launched a $50 million corporate venture fund, Firrma.ru reported. Dubbed ‘Fuel for Growth,’ the new fund will target early-stage foodtech startups — those that can potentially disrupt the food industry, promote a healthy lifestyle, support the ecology or food security. According to Efko …
Russian agroindustrial group launches international foodtech fund Read More
MTS, one of Russia’s main mobile operators, has launched a corporate venture fund targeting startups across Russia and neighboring countries. The fund expects to invest around 1 billion rubles (approximately $15 million at the current exchange rate) in early-stage startups over the next two years. Last year the corporation launched an in-house accelerator, MTS StartUp Hub, …
MTS launches corporate fund to invest $15 million in startups Read More
Instamart, a Moscow-based startup that organizes food deliveries from offline retail outlets, raised 500 million rubles (approximately $7.6 million at the current exchange rate). As reported by VC.RU, the deal, which took place last month, valued the company at 1.8 billion rubles (around $27.5 million). The money was brought in by Mail.Ru Group, Sberbank top …
Food delivery startup attracts $7.6 million from Mail.Ru Group and top businessmen Read More
On April 11 Kazan, the tech-friendly capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, 800 km east of Moscow, will host an array of startup and ICO entrepreneurs as well as top VCs, cryptocurrency investors, corporations and representatives of government agencies. They will meet at the Russian Venture Forum (RVF), a high-profile annual event which has become …
Mail.Ru Group, the LSE-listed Russian Internet giant, is investing is Skillbox, an e-learning platform for digital and IT specialties. The transaction was revealed yesterday by business daily Vedomosti, based on exchanges with representatives of both companies. The group has acquired a 3.6% stake for an undisclosed amount as part of a plan to ultimately acquire …
Mail.Ru Group invests in online IT education platform Read More
Get Transfer, a car rental startup with Russian roots operating internationally, has raised $8 million in total since early 2018, with a last capital injection of $3 million this month. The main investors are two international funds with Eastern European managers, Emery Capital and Castel Capital, and Russian airline S7 Group. The latest deal valued Get Transfer at …
Russian-founded startup raised $8 million to develop car rental services across the world Read More
Tech investment volumes in Eastern Europe and Central Asia were modest last year, if compared with the Chinese, US or Western European markets. However, 2018 was marked by giant corporate deals involving international players while a series of smaller venture transactions illustrated the diversity of the regional startup scene. In this review, which encompasses Russia, …
2018 Eastern Europe and Central Asia Tech Investment Overview Read More
