Venture / Private equity

Private-public partnership launches $69 million smart city program in Russia’s Far East

September 14, 2021

Digital Primorye, a smart city solution provider launched by the Far East High Technology Fund (FEHTF) and VessoLink Group,  is working on some 30 projects to develop digital services and high tech systems in such sectors as transport, public utilities, education, health care, and more..  These projects are taking shape in Primorye, a Far Eastern Russian region that …

Private-public partnership launches $69 million smart city program in Russia’s Far East Read More

Russian agroindustrial major GrainRus invests in international foodtech fund

April 29, 2021

GrainRus, a Russian importer and producer of raw materials for the brewing and dairy industry, has become a limited partner (LP) of a Hong Kong and US-based foodtech fund.  Lever VC was launched in 2018 to invest in the alternative protein space. Its team includes early investors in Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Memphis Meats and other …

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Eastern Europe quarterly review: Major deals secured abroad; local startups escape political turmoil

April 28, 2021

Crunchbase and East-West Digital News are teaming up to cover key tech and venture trends from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The last column by EWDN Chief Editor Adrien Henni highlights the most notable industry facts and trends in the first quarter of 2021. Almost no major local deals took place in this period, but Eastern …

Eastern Europe quarterly review: Major deals secured abroad; local startups escape political turmoil Read More

Backed by Baring Vostok, Russian-founded startup targets London’s highly competitive delivery market

May 26, 2021

Russian-speaking tech entrepreneurs and investors are more than ever active abroad — which has been illustrated again in the UK by a grocery delivery and dark store startup called Jiffy. Founded in November 2020, this company aims to deliver fresh products, meals and household essentials “in just 15 minutes” in several districts of the British capital. With products sourced from local …

Backed by Baring Vostok, Russian-founded startup targets London’s highly competitive delivery market Read More

Russian e-scooter startup raises $16 million to become regional leader

July 19, 2021

An e-scooter startup called Urent has raised 1.2 billion rubles (nearly $16 million at the current exchange rate) in equity funding and loans. The investor pool includes Citimobil, a Russian ride-sharing company, Sber, the state-controlled digital and finance giant, and Sistema SmartTech, a new venture vehicle of the Sistema conglomerate. The latter contributed 200 million rubles …

Russian e-scooter startup raises $16 million to become regional leader Read More

New $50 million fund to invest in gaming across Eastern Europe

October 8, 2021

A new fund is emerging on the tiny Russian venture scene. With $50 million in capital, ‘The Games Fund’ is the brainchild of Maria Kochmola and Ilya Eremeev, two former executives from My Games Venture Capital (MGVC), Forbes Russia reports.  Former Riot Games CTO Sergey Titov, alongside ex-top managers from GEM Capital, are also part of the …

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Russian unmanned retail startup raises millions every few months, targets EU, UK and US markets

April 12, 2021

In late March Moscow startup Briskly raised $3 million from Maxim Poletaev and Gauss Ventures alongside two unnamed new investors. Poletaev, a former Sber executive, and Gauss, a Cayman-based fund with Russian connections, backed Briskly from the very beginning, with a $370,000 injection in 2019.  The deal came just five months after a previous $2 million round — and is preceding a new …

Russian unmanned retail startup raises millions every few months, targets EU, UK and US markets Read More

State-backed $100 million fund will support domestic startups and help foreign ones come to Russia

April 9, 2021

Sber, the state-controlled financial and digital giant, and RVC (Russian Venture Company, now affiliated to the sovereign wealth fund RDIF) yesterday announced plans to launch a joint $100 million fund for early-stage tech startups.  This is a substantial amount for Russia, where annual domestic venture investment volumes are in the hundreds of millions of US dollars. The fund will …

State-backed $100 million fund will support domestic startups and help foreign ones come to Russia Read More

Russian investors put millions in smartphone service startups

April 2, 2021

A pool of individual investors has put 431 million rubles (around $5.6 million at the current exchange rate) in Beri Zaryad, a Moscow-based smartphone charging service. As reported by Forbes, the investors include Alexander Kabatov, Valery Ivanov, Bogdan Leonov and Alla Merman. The funding has been split as follows: 102 million rubles in capital injection …

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2020 report: Russian VC market fell to $702 million, foreign investment reached new lows

December 31, 2021

Dsight, a Moscow based business intelligence company with a focus on investment, has just released the English version of its yearly Russian venture report. The trends are disappointing, with a 20% contraction of total investment volume — from $869 million in 2019 to $702.8 million in 2020. Dsight attributes this fall to the “unpredictability of the …

2020 report: Russian VC market fell to $702 million, foreign investment reached new lows Read More

Russian Venture Forum: “A new decade of radical transformations” (offline+online, Kazan, April 7-8)

March 23, 2021

On April 7-8, more than 200 Russian and foreign speakers as well as thousands of attendees are expected to take part in the 15th edition of the Russian Venture Forum (RVF). One of the country’s leading industry events, this forum is held each year in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan. This edition …

Russian Venture Forum: “A new decade of radical transformations” (offline+online, Kazan, April 7-8) Read More

Report: South Korean startups revitalized with $3.6 billion injected in 2020

April 9, 2021

Startup Recipe, a leading South Korean startup media and a partner of East-West Digital News, has just released its 2020 Startup Investment Report. The report contains key facts, numbers and trends on this country’s startup investment and ecosystem, as well as information from the concerned startups and investment companies. The South Korean startup ecosystem was …

Report: South Korean startups revitalized with $3.6 billion injected in 2020 Read More

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