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 [...]

Litcapital has agreed to invest up to LTL 10 mln (USD 3.78 mln) into Baltic Bicycle Trade UAB. The company is owned by the German cult bicycle manufacturer Pantherwerke AG, as yet carrying out exclusively wholesale and retail trade activities. To meet the increasing demand for electric bicycles in Western Europe Pantherwerke decided to move its manufacturing unit from [...]

A consortium of investors comprising Baring Vostok, the Russian Direct Investment Fund and UFG Private Equity will support media mogul Paul Heth through an investment in Karo Film, a leading chain of Russian cinemas. The consortium will take on a controlling stake in the group, and will also invest USD 100 mln over the next [...]

Popular Russian online ticketing service Travelata.ru has received a financial boost from Czech investment company Invia. The latter is backed by Polish VC fund MCI Management, and is already a leader in the online travel bookings market in the CEE region. Though Travelata competes globally with giants like Expedia, Orbitz and Priceline, the Russian market [...]

BaltCap has sought permission from anti-monopoly authorities in Lithuania for a 45.3 per cent acquisition of stake in one of the top four coffee retailers in the nation – Keturi Kambariai. The Lithuanian Competition Council (LCC) received BaltCap’s application to invest a total of USD 3.74 mln (LTL 10 mln) in the retail chain Coffee [...]

European fund managers Trilantic Capital Partners have sold their stake in Turkish restaurant chain Istanbul Doors to the Dogus Group, a domestic conglomerate and one of the largest in the country. The restaurant group was formed in 1993 and Trilantic came on board in 2008. In the four years since the purchase, the group has [...]

OneTwoTrip, featured recently in our investment news section, has made news again with  a USD 16 mln round of financing, this time from VC company Atomico, launched by members of Skype’s founding team. OneTwoTrip was founded by Peter Kutis, who also founded AnywayAnyday.com, now a direct competitor for his new company. The last round of [...]

Phenomen Ventures has recently invested close to USD 9 mln in Russian online ticketing service onetwotrip.com in exchange for a minority stake in the rapidly growing portal. The startup company is being unofficially valued at around USD 70 mln. Over USD 30 mln  worth of tickets are sold through the site, as of June, and [...]

Early-stage VC fund 212 Capital Partners has led another successful round of investing in Turkish temporary stay search portal Hemenkiralik. This second round of investment was joined by Teruhide Sato of Netprice, Japan and Fahri Diner of Sigma Partners, but only on an individual basis. Hemenkiralik provides its users a very useful service by helping [...]

Russia’s high-tech VC fund Aurora Venture Capital has made its latest investment, this time for a 25 percent stake in social travel site XLander.ru. The estimated investment amount is between USD 1.2 and 1.8 mln, and will help expand the new portfolio company’s reach beyond its current user base of 300,000. The investment has been made [...]

Similar to German business incubator SpringStar developing AirBnB’s international market, Fast Lane Ventures now has its own portfolio company – TravelRent

Early-stage VC fund 212 Capital Partners, under advisement of 212 Ltd., will be making its fifth successful investment this year with CloudArena, an SaaS company offering a socialized environment for the hotel management industry. This is also their second investment in the hospitality industry in Turkey, after their recent funding of hemenkiralik.com. CloudArena (www.cloudarena.com) CloudArena is [...]

VC firm TA Venture has jointly invested  along with other angel investors in a USD1.2 mln round of financing for InBed.me, a budget travel and booking website for students and other cost-conscious travelers. The funding will be used to target specific geographical pockets and increase business growth there. InBed.me (www.inbed.me) InBed.me is a social platform that allows [...]

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 [...]

212 Capital Partners I, the VC fund under advisement of 212 Ltd., has already made its fourth investment this year. The early-stage fund’s target this time is Hemenkiralik.com, an online portal where people can list their rental properties for short-term requirements, in Turkey. The investment follows three other internet and technology-based target companies that received [...]

Russian bank VTB Group has invested USD 10 mln in oktogo.ru, a Russian hotel booking website, through its investment wing, VTB Capital. The investment puts one-third of the company’s USD 30 mln value in the hands of the Russian bank. Founded by CEO Marina Kolesnik in 2010, oktogo.ru’s hotel booking sales are expected to hit [...]

Moscow-based online hotel booking firm Ostrovok.ru has successfully raised capital from three investors last month to expand its IT developer team. The investors include Erik Blachfold of Expedia, Greg Brockway of Hotwire and Tripit, and Altimeter Capital’s Brad Gerstner. Ostrovok (ostrovok.ru) Founded in 2010, Ostrovok had earlier secured $13.6 million in July 2011 from a [...]

Verny Capital, which represents the owner of The Ritz-Carlton, Vienna, has made known its plans to open the luxury hotel brand for the first time in Austria. Two palaces dating from the 19th Century have been identified as the site for the hotel, which will be located on the famous Schubertring. The hotel will be [...]

BaltCap has picked up a majority stake in Lithuania’s leading health and fitness club chain Impuls LTU through the Lithuania SME Fund. The USD 2 million investment would be used for potential add-on acquisitions in the future as the health club eyes organic growth in the under-penetrated domestic market. The Impuls deal is the second [...]