Each month we’re bringing you some of the most interesting deals from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Often overlooked by big US and Western European investors, the region offers many good deals, at much cheaper valuations compared to the US market.
Ukraine is becoming hot for investors, but is still under invested. The Ukrainian venture capital market totalled $11 million in the first six months of 2015; take a look at this spreadsheet, which was put together by UVCA and UAngel, local venture capital and angel associations (Update – August 2023: The website seems to be out of use, and we therefore deactivated the original link).
Russia’s Target Ventures announced last month the opening of an office in San Francisco
(Update – August 2023: The website seems to be out of use, and we therefore deactivated the original link). The fund’s first US investment went to Prosper, a leading US peer-to-peer lending marketplace, which received $13 million, as reported by Russian tech blog Rusbase (Update – August 2023: The website seems to be out of use, and we therefore deactivated the original link).
Lithuania-based Practica Capital has invested €200K in the new fashion platform Newstory, which was accelerated by Startup.lt (Update – August 2023: The website seems to be out of use, and we therefore deactivated the original link). Newstory is a women’s contemporary fashion and style platform, offering stylish and noticeable looks for every occasion. The company is working with more than 40 brands; interestingly, Italian designers make up 70% of these partnerships.
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich continues to invest in Israel. Israeli Startup Anyclip Media, a content marketing platform for distributing premium branded video, has announced a $21 million funding round with the investor. The leading participants of this round included new investors Ervington Investments, a fund owned by Abramovich, and Limelight Networks (LLNW), a global digital content delivery company. Current shareholders Jerusalem Venture Partners and GTI also participated in the round, along with other investors Bob Pittman and Mickey Schulhof.
Latvia-based Adaplab has attracted its first investment of €50K. Adaplab develops new generation software products for industrial controllers, with self-tuning function in oil, gas and wind farm industries. Key advantages are a self-tuning function that works even under intensive external disturbances, in real time and without personnel assistance. After successful yard tests in oil drilling process (the technology worked 3X faster and 2X more efficient than competing solution), Adaplab has already signed a first partnership agreement with an oil drilling company from the US to develop a first software product for their equipment. They are also in talks with several other companies in the oil and gas industry.
Czech antivirus company Avast has acquired Remotium, a virtual mobile infrastructure startup. Avast offers a range of security and antivirus software for individuals, on Windows and OS X, and acquiring Remotium is their major foray into enterprise mobility management. Silicon Valley-based Remotium was founded in 2012 by former security researchers, and became available last year, seeing its first customers coming from the Japanese manufacturing sector.
The first investment by Macedonian business angels has gone to WeLrn, an online marketplace for teaching and learning real-world skills through short video courses. Their interactive platform is built to encourage social learning and create a highly engaging environment.
Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce and internet company, has acquired a 100% stake in the Estonian-founded fit preference specialist, Fits.me. Rakuten said it expects the tech startup to further strengthen its e-commerce offerings and marketing solutions by providing greater personalisation during the retail experience for shoppers.
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