Russian online advertising management solutions start-up Garpun has bagged a USD 3.5 mln first round of funding from iTech Capital in exchange for what may be a minority stake in the company. The investor’s funds will go towards speeding up Garpun’s product development and supporting an RTB marketing channel, among other online marketing channel additions. [...]

Russia and CIS-centric investor Elbrus Capital has acquired a significant minority stake of 23 per cent in Russian procurement portal B2B-Center. The procurement platform will use the funds to expand its operations and fortify its current market position. B2B-Center already has prior funding from an investor consortium led by DaVinci Partners and Insight Venture Partners; [...]

Polish investment firm Enterprise Investors have made two highly successful exits recently – Magellan and Kruk. In the first case, the company reaped a 10x returns on its share sale in Magellan, a speciality finance company founded in 1999. EI has sold its 33.79 per-cent stake in the company – half its former stake, or 2,211,250 shares [...]

UK-based, Russian-backed TMT Investments has made an investment of USD350,000 in Graphicly, a self-service digital distribution resource site for indie publishers and publishing companies. Former investors in the company include TechStars, Mercury Fund, Dundee Venture Capital and others. The investment has been made despite a loss exceeding USD1.6 mln in 2012. Graphicly (www.graphicly.com) Graphicly is [...]

As part of a funding round worth USD20 mln initiated by Turkey-focused oil and natural gas company Aladdin Middle East (AME), 4D Global Energy Advisors have invested USD17 mln through its Fund III. The remainder of the funding was provided by the founders of AME, who continue to be majority stakeholders in the company. The funding [...]

Sendmebox.ru is the newest ecommerce site launched in Russia for providing cross-border shopping opportunities for local residents. The company was launched by a team of experts in the ecommerce domain, and has already raised USD300,000 from the Moscow Seed Fund (USD200k) and Andrei Golovin, angel investor (USD100k). Sendmebox was valued at USD800k (pre-money) prior to [...]

VTB Capital has acquired a minority stake – pegged at 25 per-cent plus one share – in Tricolor TV, Russia’s biggest satellite television operator. The investment amount is deduced to be in the range of between USD125 and USD175 mln, valuing the operator as as much as USD700 mln. The valuation is considerably lower than [...]

CapMan Russia made a first close worth EUR97 mln on its newly established CapMan Fund II late March. Nearly 3 per cent of that investment has been made in-house – by the investment team at CapMan Russia and by CapMan Plc – while the remaining has come from 10 other LPs – both new and [...]

TexDrive, Russia’s most successful private accelerator in the high-tech domain, has launched its new VC fund, called Genezis Capital. Chairing the board will be one of the nation’s premier venture capitalists, Maxim Shekhovtsov. Shekhovtsov has over 60 deals to his credit, and was formerly the Head of Venture Funds in Russia for the German Allianz [...]

Polish investment house Enterprise Investors – through their EVF I fund – has agreed to invest an amount of EUR7 mln in Elemental Holding, currently the nation’s biggest recycler of electro and non-ferrous waste materials. In exchange, EI will receive a 10.2 per cent stake in the company. Apart from helping meet certain CapEx requirements, [...]

Ukrainian online shopping club Hilt.com.ua has bagged equity funding worth USD500,000 from Xevin Investments. The funds will be used to cover marketing expenditure and increase the working capital of the target company. Hilt’s performance has been nothing short of impressive: with sales showing month-on-month increase averaging 50 per cent, the mid-2013 monthly sales figure is [...]

In an agreement between South African company Naspers and Russia’s largest free internet classifieds company Avito.ru, the latter will merge with its two main competitors – Slando.ru and OLX.ru, both of which are owned by Naspers. In exchange for an 18.6 per cent stake of the company, Naspers will invest in Avito.ru to the tune [...]

Qiwi, Russia’s leading payment service provider is considering IPO on NASDAQ in mid 2013 that may value the company at USD 1bln. The company named JP Morgan and Credit Suisse as joint bookrunners, filed to raise USD 100 million last week, and plans to offer up to 30% of its share. Pricing terms remained undisclosed for [...]

The MCI Group, which is riding high on its 2012 achievements of PLN41.6 mln in consolidated net profits, is in the process of finalizing a 20 per cent acquisition of Indeks Bilgisayar Sistemleri Mühendislik Sanayi ve Ticaret, the largest distributor of IT products and services in Turkey. This will be MCI’s first investment in the [...]

After Oktogo.ru, an other major player of the Russian online travel industry raised funds in March. Ostrovok, the online hotel booking agency received USD 25mln from Frontier Ventures, Accel Partners and private investors like Yuri Milner, and ex-Expedia Erik Blachfold.  Blachfold invested in the company January 2012 as well in a series B round which totaled USD [...]

Russian accommodations booking website Oktogo has raised a massive USD11 mln round of financing from its present investors, which include VTB, MangroveandVentech in addition to Victor Sazhin, a well-recognized name in online marketing. The funding will go towards the Herculean task of converting local market regions from offline travel booking to an online service, and [...]

Enterprise Investors (EI), a Polish and CEE-focused investment firm has acquired a minority stake in Nu-Med – a radiotherapy centre based in Elblag in Northern Poland. The acquisition was made through its PEF VII, and may see the company consolidating its medical acquisitions in Poland to create a network of specialized health care centres across [...]

UK-based TMT Investments has acquired a 20 per cent stake (1 mln shares) in Adinch for an amount of USD1 mln. The target startup company deals in the space of mobile ad management and operates out of Delaware in the United States. Both companies were founded by Russian entrepreneurs: TMT by founders of RBC, and [...]

In a major agreement, website builder uCoz will take over all of Yandex’s Narod websites, which number over 2 mln. The transaction is based on Yandex seeing a need for the complex tools and processes that uCoz can offer; the deal will make the latter the biggest website hosting and building company in Russia, with [...]

Intel and Greycroft Partners have jointly invested USD10 mln in Fortumo, an Estonian mobile payment solutions provider seeking growth investment. The target company was formerly owned in majority by parent company MobiSolutions, which will continue to remain a shareholder. As part of its major operations ramp-up, Fortumo has entered into independent  agreements with China Mobile [...]