Venture / Private equity

Almaz Capital leads $6.5 million for in-game item trading platform DMarket

June 18, 2020

DMarket, a Ukraine-born startup that uses blockchain to build “a user-owned gaming economy,” has just attracted $6.5 million in equity funding. The round was led by Almaz Capital with participation from video game company Xsolla. No details of the deal were disclosed.  Now headquartered in California, DMarket has developed a platform that “enables transparent and secure buying, selling, and …

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Backed by top European investors, Russian agritech startup aims to conquer US and EU markets

June 8, 2020

Elevator Ventures, Raiffeisen Bank International’s corporate fund, and Speedinvest, a major Berlin-based VC fund, are backing Russian agritech startup Agro.Club in a $1.5 million seed funding round. Founded in 2018, Agro.Club defines itself as “a mobile platform connecting growers, their suppliers and crop purchasers into a single network.” It says it is building “an efficient …

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RVC head under house arrest: Russian investment world rocked by yet another criminal case

June 8, 2020

Late last week the head of Russian Venture Company (RVC), Alexander Povalko, was arrested then placed by a Moscow court under house arrest for 45 days. The FSB (Federal Security Service) and police officers ransacked his home.  It is the latest high-profile legal case to have rocked the Russian investment world — and market players have been …

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Reuters: Sberbank prepares to buy large stake in Ozon

June 6, 2020

Sberbank, the state-controlled financial and digital giant, is in talks to buy a large stake in e-commerce major Ozon, Reuters reported yesterday, citing “four sources close to the matter.” A banker told the news agency that “an agreement was nearly ready.” The bank would acquire around 30% of the company after the issuance of additional shares. …

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Russian online video platform ivi.ru secures giant venture loan from Alfa Bank

June 3, 2020

Russian online video major ivi.ru has attracted debt financing for the first time. As reported by business daily Vedomosti,  the company received a six-year venture loan from Alfa Bank, amounting to 3.7 billion rubles (some $54 million at the current exchange rate, a considerable sum by local standards).  In addition to the share collateral, the bank has been granted an …

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Sberbank invests in e-signature service Legium.io

June 3, 2020

Sberbank, the state-controlled finance and technology giant, has invested 10 million rubles (around $150,000) in e-signature service Legium.io. As reported last week by Kommersant, Sberbank has received a 8.06% stake in the startup.  Legium.io was one of the startups which went through a joint acceleration program by Sberbank and 500 Startups last year. 

Russian-born social commerce major raises $42 million in Silicon Valley

May 21, 2020

Ecwid, a leading provider of social commerce solutions for small businesses, has just secured $42 million from Morgan Stanley and PeakSpan Capital. Using 54 languages to serve 1.5 million businesses across the world, Ecwid has made a long way since it was born in Ulyanovsk, 720 km east from Moscow, 10 years ago. Now headquartered …

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Mail.ru Group and Sberbank assert themselves on food delivery market

November 12, 2020

Mail.ru Group and Sberbank have invested in food delivery service Localkitchen.ru (“Kukhnya na rayone”) through their joint venture O2O. Citing Russia’s company register, business Vedomosti reported yesterday that O2O committed a loan of up to 290 million rubles (nearly $3.9 million at the current exchange rate) convertible into a 30% share. The news came just …

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Survey: 3 VC investors in 4 in Eastern Europe did not cancel or renegociate their deals amid the pandemic

May 11, 2020

Last month ProVenture, a Telegam channel dedicated to venture and startup activity, surveyed venture investors from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Fifty two investors, 29 private VC fund managers, 5 private PE fund managers and 8 business angels took part in this online poll. ProVenture founder and Da Vinci Capital investment director Denis Efremov shared the main results of the survey with East-West Digital News. Almost all respondents did feel an …

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Runa Capital’s $157 million new fund will chase machine learning and quantum computing projects

May 12, 2020

Runa Capital, a Palo Alto-headquartered VC firm with Russian roots, has closed its $157 million third fund – above the initially considered $135 million target. “The fundraising started last year and went super fast, we were oversubscribed already months ago,” the firm’s managing partner Dmitry Chikhachev told East-West Digital news. Launched in 2011, Runa Capital’s first …

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20 sovereign funds and international institutions prepare joint response to Covid-19 pandemic

November 12, 2020

More than 20 international investment institutions and sovereign wealth funds, including Russia’s RDIF, are discussing potential coordinated efforts to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. In late April a video conferencegathered these organizations representing Brazil, China, France, India, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Oman, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore,  South Korea, Thailand, the UAE and the USA. As stated by …

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Is Telegram’s blockchain project heading to legal, technical and financial failure?

May 12, 2020

[Updated May 7] Last week Telegram, the messaging app founded by Russian tech guru Pavel Durov, postponed yet another time the release of its blockchain platform TON and cryptocurrency Gram. The hypothetical launch is now scheduled for April 2021 with a clawback clause for investors. Through a controversial ICO in early 2018, Telegram raised some …

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