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 [...]

Wine in Black  an online seller of premium quality wines has raised several million Euros in a financing round led by Bright Capital of Russia. Existing investors e.ventures (DE), Passion Capital (UK) and Project A (DE) also contributed significantly to the funding.  The raised sum will help Wine in Black to enter the international market, build a [...]

Paradigm Investments and TA Venture have participated in Series A funding for IQcard, a pre-paid card operator in Russia; in this round of financing, they have joined existing investors Direct Group and Fastlane Ventures to invest a combined USD2.5 mln in the startup company. The funds will be used to develop their internal customer resource management [...]

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 [...]

Celebi Aviation Holding has sold a majority stake to Zeus Aviation Services Investments, the subsidiary of Actera Group in The Netherlands. Actera agreed to pay for the shares USD 142m in mixed, Turkish and US currencies. Celebi Group founders  - with their 22.63% stake –  remain entitled to exercise their voting rights, equal to Actera’s and kept their administrative control as [...]

The Russian Direct Investment Fund is believed to be actively seeking German investments in Russian markets in order to leverage their own USD10 bln fund by attracting matching investments from strategic investors outside the country. German investment alone is expected to reach up to 20 per cent of the overall foreign investment target over the [...]

After a six-year cycle, Innova Capital has decided to sell its 70 per cent stake in Polish industrial parts manufacturer Donako. Co-owner Franciszek Zeleznik of Zeleznik Industrie Consulting has also sold his stake in the company. The trade sale was made to Austrian industry player Rudolf Weinberger Holding, and puts the company’s value at under EUR50 mln. [...]

CEE-centric investment firm Abris Capital Partners have met their hard-cap target of EUR450 mln for their Fund II. There were 21 investors for this fund against 18 for Fund I; of the 21, approximately half the LPs were from Europe, with the remaining being spread out over Australia, the Middle East and United States. Notably [...]

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 [...]

Central Fund acquired Office Depot Hungary, the Hungarian unit of the global office supplies provider Office Depot.  The unit will operate under the same trade name in the future and continue to serve OD’s global accounts in Hungary. Financial terms of the transaction haven’t been disclosed. Office Depot’s exit may be a consequence of rationalization; [...]

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 [...]

In a move that further consolidate Elbrus Capital‘s Russian market position, the equity firm recently purchased OSG Records Management from Aurora Russia. The target company was acquired through a secondary buyout that puts its value at between USD25 and 50 mln. The deal is expected to be closed as soon as March 2013, with Aurora [...]

Dubai-based Abraaj Capital – and the largest PE firm in the Middle East – is considering the sale of its equity in Turkish health insurance unit Acibadem Sigorta. The JV is jointly held (50:50) by Abraaj and the founder of Acibadem Group - Mehmet Ali Aydinlar. Abraaj has already sold its stake in Acibadem Saglik – [...]

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 [...]

Baxter Ventures, set up by global healthcare provider Baxter International, is investing EUR 2 mln in a EUR 4 mln round of financing (series A) in Zytoprotec. The Viennese biotechnology company is developing an innovative cytoprotective compound for peritoneal dialysis (PD).  Zytoprotec has previously attracted investments of up to EUR 6.7 mln from various institutional and [...]

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 [...]

Czech Republic financial advisory services company Fincentrum has been bought in majority by Capital Dynamics and Arx Equity Partners. The sale is estimated at CZK 750 mln, which takes the company’s value to CZK 1.2 bln (USD 60mln). Other investors include Lubor Žalman, former CEO of Raiffeisenbank, and two of the company’s managers - Petr Stuchlík and Martin Nejedlý. [...]

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 [...]