Crunchbase and East-West Digital News are teaming up to cover key tech and venture trends from Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union. The latest column, by EWDN chief editor Adrien Henni, highlights the most notable industry facts and trends of the past year. These include, in particular: Major moves from the three Russian digital leaders: Mail.ru …
TraceAir, a construction software startup with Russian roots, announces the completion of its Series A $3.5 million round. It was led by London-based XTX Ventures with participation from Liquid 2 Ventures, GEM Capital, GPS Ventures, Andrew Filev (CEO Wrike), Metropolis.VC (which invested in a previous round) as well as US construction industry majors Independent Construction and ENGEO. TraceAir has developed a cloud platform to help construction companies …
Motorica, a Moscow-based high-tech prosthetic startup, has attracted 300 million rubles (some $4 million at the current exchange rate) from two major government funds: the sovereign wealth fund RDIF and the Far-East High Technology Fund. The news was reported yesterday by business publication RBC, which cited exchanges with the Far-East fund’s press service. Touting itself as “the only company in the world to make …
Moscow startup receives $4 million from state funds to develop high-tech prostheses Read More
Last month, according to media reports, Russian DNA testing company Genotek raised $4 million in a funding round led by Yandex. No information was disclosed about the other investors or the terms of the deal, and Genotek did not answer EWDN’s media inquiries. The company, founded in 2010, says it partners with “leadings Russian and European research institutes in the field of genetics and …
An award-winning fintech startup from Moscow, APIBank, has attracted 120 million rubles in Russia (some $1.6 million at the current exchange rate) from the Russian-Belarusian Investment Fund (RBF Ventures). As reported by CNews.ru, this is the first external capital infusion — in the form of a convertible loan — in this startup launched in 2018. The money will be used “to develop products for payment aggregators and marketplaces, and …
Open banking startup secures $1.6 million from Russian-Belarusian state-backed fund Read More
In late December VEB Ventures (formerly VEB Innovations), a venture fund backed by state development agency VEB.RF (Vnesheconombank), announced an investment of 990 million rubles ($13.4 million at the current exchange rate) in Zyfra. This Russian company develops AI, IIoT-based solutions and robotic mining equipment to digitize the heavy industry. These solutions are intended to provide “objective data analysis” for industrial companies …
In the last days of December Deliver announced it secured 500 million rubles (nearly $7 million at the current exchange rate) from VEB Ventures (formerly VEB Innovations), a venture fund backed by state development agency VEB.RF (Vnesheconombank). An internationally successful Russian online freight service, Deliver has set for itself the mission of “solving the inefficiencies of the logistics market by applying modern …
Illustrating the current traction of Russian edtech startups, online programming school Kodland has raised $1.5 million in its first round of financing. The money was brought in by Russian venture capitalist Alexander Nevinsky (a partner at I2BF) and an unnamed “European fund,” as reported by VC.RU. The startup will use the fresh funding to test product …
Russian edtech on the rise: Kodland raises $1.5 million to expand internationally Read More
Botkin.AI (Intellogic), a Russian startup that has developed an AI-powered radiology platform, has completed a 160 million rubles Series B round ($1.2 million at the current exchange rate). The money was injected by two medtech investors: investment holding Tashir Medica and RVC-backed Unicorn Capital Partners. The funds which took part in the previous round (100 million rubles in June 2019) backed again the …
IntellectoKids, a Russian-founded edtech startup, has raised a $3 million Series A round, reports VC.RU. The funding was provided by Allrise Capital (Silicon Valley), Vershina Capital (Moscow) and Quonota Investments (Cyprus), as well as Genesis Investments, a major Ukrainian investor which led a previous round just a year ago. Founded in 2016, IntellectoKids offers a media, entertainment and education platform …
IntellectoKids raises $3 million from US, Russian, Cypriot and Ukrainian funds Read More
Russian businessman and philanthropist Ismail Akhmetov has invested in Hoversurf, a pioneer in autonomous flying vehicles. The amount of the deal was not disclosed, but company valuation was established at $30 million, the Russian media reported. Previous investors in the company include Qiwi co-founder Sergey Solonin, the Starta Ventures fund and several Russian individual investors. …
Hoversurf wants to make Russia a global leader in air mobility Read More
Uchi Group, the publisher of Russia’s leading online education platform for school pupils, has agreed an investment of at least 3.75 billion rubles ($50 million at the current exchange rate) from Mail.Ru. The LSE-listed group will receive a 25% stake in exchange for this amount, while the RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, and the Russia-China Investment …
