Invest-IQ

The Almaz Capital Russia I fund, along with Runa Capital, have invested in Travelmenu.ru. Pegged at USD 1 mln, this round of financing is yet to be closed. There have also been several changes in management of late, the key one being Nina Pogossova doffing the CEO garb for that of non-executive Chairman. Katrin Buckenmaier, the [...]

Beauty products mail order company Glossybox, which was launched, and is majority-owned (57.5 percent), by the Samwer brothers’ Rocket Internet, has attracted a round of funding from Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries in exchange for a 7 percent equity stake. Yet to be launched in Russia, the company numbers Kinnevik (24 percent) and Holtzbrinck Ventures (7 [...]

Rusnano has tied up with US healthcare specialist venture firm Domain Associates to co-invest up to USD 760 million to set up a medical device manufacturing and pharmaceutical facility in Russia, invest in US healthcare technology companies, and manage clinical trials of new drugs relevant for Russia. Rusnano is expected to commit USD 330 million while Domain’s [...]

Russian government-sponsored PE fund, Russian Direct Investment Fund ( RDIF ), has now gone through with its second deal, with the takeover of a potential USD 750 mln stake in Italian power generator Enel OGK-5. The seller, Inter Rao, a Russian power company controlled by the state, is divesting its 26.4 percent share in the [...]

Russia’s top-rated search engine and industry leader Yandex has, through its Yandex.factory, invested in TimeBooker, a B2B online service-booking portal. Called GBooking in English, the founders of TimeBooker met with Yandex personnel at the St. Petersburg WebReady start up event in December 2011; subsequently, Yandex agreed to invest between USD 50,000 and 100,000 in the [...]

Russia-centric Japanese VC firm United Managers Japan’s UMJ Russia Fund is in the lead in a new round of funding for Russian online dating portal teamo.ru. The UMJ portion of the funding has been pegged as high as USD 1 mln, with the total funding for the company to date hitting twice that amount. The [...]

World’s leading bio-pharmaceuticals services company Quintiles and Russian Venture Company (RVC) Biofund have joined hands to set up a clinical development service company in Russia. The two firms have signed a definitive joint-venture agreement to expand healthcare development capabilities and to implement best international health practices in Russia. Quintiles (www.quintiles.com) Quintiles is a global pioneer [...]

nScaled, formerly called LegalCloud, has raised USD 7 mln from multiple investors including Almaz Capital and Doughty Hanson in a series A round of financing. The cloud-based ‘Recovery-as-a-Service’ (RaaS) provider will use the funding to increase its data center presence across the world, as well as for software development and sales initiatives. Peter Loukianoff, one [...]

Telecommunications towers company Russian Towers has attracted a USD 100 mln round of funding from a consortium of PE funds; the participants include MRIF, ADM, UFG PE Fund II and the EBRD. MRIF is lead investor with an infusion of USD 50 mln into the Russian tower operator. The funding will be used to increase [...]

Russian tech startup TimePad has secured new funding Afisha Rambler for expanding business operations. TimePad develops online tools for event management companies that include ticket sales, web registration and attendance management. Launched in 2008, TimePad has already signed up 5000 training and event management companies and charges 9 percent for every ticket sold.

Copenhagen-based tech startup Evertale APS has secured seed funding from VC firm Mangrove Capital. The funding will be used to develop apps for different operating systems and take the present Android-based version beyond the beta stage. Evertale  (evertale.com) Evertale is a smart application that captures the user’s physical movements, calls, images and other details automatically [...]

TransTelecom (TTK), the Russian Railways majority-owned internet service provider, has acquired Electro-Com, a regional ISP trading under “Spark” brand. The acquisition was part of the company’s developmental strategy that envisages expanding retails businesses in central and southern Russia by 2015.  Following the 100 percent stake acquisition of Electro-Com, TTK will emerge as a market leader [...]

California-based cloud computing firm Eccentex has secured USD 7.5 million in Series-A funding from a group of investors led by Russian investment company VTB Capital. Eccentex will use the money to expand the company’s operations in new geographies and continue developing case management capabilities for a broad set of industries. The investment was made by [...]

Prostor Capital, the Russian investment company which manages USD 20 mln, has invested in Dulton Media’s units – yatv.ru and eagle.platform. While the former facilitates content to be streamed live on the internet, the latter offers its clients the option to broadcast video content over the internet and monetize it. Yatv.ru (yatv.ru) Yatv.ru is a Russian [...]

Specialization is becoming a trend in the startup acceleration domain, and joining the bandwagon in the cloud software industry are Runa Capital and Parallels. Both companies were founded by Serguei Beloussov, Russian entrepreneur/investor; while Runa Capital primarily invests in growth-stage companies in the technology sector, Parallels specializes in providing hosting and virtualization software and related [...]

Sberbank, Russia’s largest commercial banking institution, has now completed its acquisition of Volksbank International. The purchase agreement was signed in September 2011, and covers Volksbank’s subsidiaries in eight countries, and excludes the unit in Romania, the final agreed price being fixed at EUR 505 mln. Sberbank’s objective is to be the top retail bank in [...]

The Russian Venture Company PE seed fund has funded NanoDerm, the maker of nanocosmetic anti-aging products, with USD 2.5 mln (75 mln roubles). Zhespar-Bios, which is a co-investor in the round (25 mln roubles), is one of the co-developers of the double-encapsulation method which is used by NanoDerm. NanoDerm Profi ( nanoderm.ru) NanoDerm was founded in [...]

San Francisco headquartered SaaS-based website security firm StopTheHacker has secured USD 1.1 million in Round-A funding from public and private investors, including early stage Russian venture capital firm Runa Capital and former Bluecoat chief executive Brian NeSmith. StopTheHacker (www.stopthehacker.com) StopTheHacker is a highly specialized web security and malware detection start-up founded by security specialists, industry [...]

PE fund Finam, a Russian investor, has just pumped in USD 10 mln into IM+ developer Shape Services. Operating out of Stuttgart in Germany, Shape recently released Beep, a cross-OS push messenger that operates on Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Phone platforms. The new collaboration will result in a special version of the web messenger [...]

State-owned Russian Venture Capital (RVC) is strengthening its position in the U.S. market with a USD 10 mln investment in the U.S.-managed Trident Capital, a USD 400 mln VC fund that operates in the technology domain. RVC has also invested in DCM VI, a fund managed by DCM, which is based out of Menlo Park, [...]