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; [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

In what can only be considered a boom to e-baby commerce, three independent investments have been made in companies that sell babies’ and children’s products in Europe. First, Russian VC ru-Net has invested USD 6 mln for a 25 per cent equity stake in Esky, a Russian portal that serves the young children’s market. Another [...]

As the investment period of JEREMIE I is slowly approaching its deadline with nearly half of the available funds still waiting to be invested; exciting, new investments arise. Like that of StressIndex: the Hungarian company specialized in stress management received nearly USD 500,000 from the JEREMIE funded Euroventures. The interesting thing about this is that, “hot issues” like workforce productivity and nonmedical [...]

It’s a hattrick for IMI.VC Russia as they invest a third time in Game Insight, a domestic mobile gaming network that caters to over 140 million people. This time around, they have invested USD25 mln, which puts the target company’s value at around USD550 mln – previous investments in the gaming company were made in [...]

Lithuanian VC fund Practica Capital has provided a seed funding of EUR 180,000 to 3D graphics marketplace CGTrader. CGTrader’s offering is similar to that of GrabCAD, an Estonian designer community for 3D artists, but differs in that it provides a marketplace for designers to sell their work to the public. With a user base of [...]

SoftBank invested USD4 mln as part of Series B funding for Celtra, a Slovenian developer of unique rich media mobile advertising tools. This follows an earlier Round A in which Celtra garnered USD5 mln from Fairhaven and GrandBanks, and an original investment from RSG in 2009. Part of the funding will be used to double [...]

Russian VC player Runa Capital invested USD 8 mln into uBank, a provider of mobile payment solutions in Russia. Primarily targeting utilities payment, the Android version has already been downloaded by more than 250,000 users from Google Play. In addition, it also comes pre-installed on the Fly and Samsung smartphones. An iOS version is already under development [...]

Gruzobzor, a Russian startup which provides online booking and transaction management for the shipping industry, has garnered USD 1 mln in funding from Runa Capital and other investors, including the founders themselves. The funds will go towards developing the service offering and the market. Gruzobzor (gruzobzor.ru) Gruzobzor founded in 2011, provides a platform for truck owners [...]

Sperco Ukraine, the Spanish-Ukrainian pharmaceutical company looks to improve its manufacturing and commercial practices due to a capital infusion secured by Dragon Capital‘s European Virgin Fund (EVF). EVF teamed up with Sperco’s Spanish parent company, Ucrafarma in a shared management joint venture, under the legal enitity of Lux Pharma Participations Sa, Luxemburg. The holding company [...]

Prostor Capital, the Russian VC fund, will join hands with the Moscow Seed Fund to support automobile startup Car-Fin with USD 400,000 worth of financing. Car-Fin provides a platform for comparison shopping for those who intend to purchase vehicles. Car-Fin has been a part of the accelerator program – GTI Labs – that is already [...]