Venture / Private equity

Russian venture fund Life.Sreda seeks to sell assets amid first signs of severe industry contraction

Russian fintech fund Life.Sreda is seeking buyers for the greater part of its portfolio companies, both Russian and foreign, Russian business daily Vedomosti has learned from unnamed industry insiders. The fund intends to concentrate on the development of its most promising project, mobile acquiring startup LifePay. In an exchange with the newspaper, Life.Sreda representative Anna …

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Russian online education platform Netology secures third funding round in a year

Netology Group, a major Russian online education platform, announced last week that it raised $2.1 million from Buran Venture Capital and InVenture Partners. This round is Netology’s third one in less than one year, following a Series A round with InVenture Partners in April 2014 and a $1.1million capital injection from the same fund in September.

Coursmos attracts $600,000 seed investment

Illustrating the appeal of e-learning projects in the eyes of Russian investors, online micro-course platform Coursmos has received $600,000 in seed investment in a deal led by Altera Capital Group with participation from Imperious Group. Coursmos has now raised a total of $1.2 million in investment since it was launched in March 2014. Coursmos offers 11,000 micro-courses across 20 areas, …

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Moscow Seed Fund concludes first investment cycle

Moscow Seed Fund, the venture arm of the Moscow City authorities, is concluding its first three-year investment cycle. In partnership with Softline Venture Partners, the fund supports venture investors in financing small businesses in the science and technology sector. It backed startups Context Broker and AppStarter at the end of 2012 and early 2013 respectively. Both startups have …

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News aggregator Anews raises $2.7 million for further international expansion

Anews, an international global news-reading service with a built-in behavioral advertising network, has received $2.7 million from TMT Investments, Run Capital, 101 Startup and several individual investors. As reported by Rusbase, TMT Investments and Run Capital each invested $1 million, in exchange for minority stakes in the company. “With its strong team, with a wealth …

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Runa Capital leads $3 million round in US startup LendingRobot

Earlier this week Seattle-based startup LendingRobot completed a $3 million funding round led by Runa Capital, a venture firm operating globally from its offices in Moscow and San Francisco. Club Italia Investimenti II also participated in the round along with individual investors, but the amount of their respective contributions was not disclosed. An automated investment service for online lending, LendingRobot claims to serve more than …

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Siberian high tech company teams up with Singapore’s HaxAsia to launch local “fund-accelerator”

Just one year after Russia saw the launch of its first hardware-oriented accelerator, DI Group, a Tomsk, Siberia-based high tech group, has launched a “venture fund-accelerator” targeting startups in the fields of smartphones, electronics, gadgets and Internet projects. The acceleration program of up to six months encompasses the industrial design and the marketing aspects of each …

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Elbrus Capital acquires minority stake in realty classifieds group Cian

Elbrus Capital, a major private equity business operating in Russia and neighboring countries, has acquired a minority stake in Cian Group, a major player on the Russian online realty classifieds market. The deal included both the sale of existing shares and a subscription for new shares. The amount of the investment and the size of the …

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Vaizra invests in Israeli and US startups

Vaizra Investments, the fund belonging to VKontakte founders Lev Leviev and Vyacheslav Mirilashvili, has invested in startups Moovit and Boxed. Moovit is an Israeli app which helps users to plan journeys on public transport, and Boxed is a US app for wholesale buyers. Moovit monitors levels of traffic and the schedules of different forms of public transport in …

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3D mobile app startup developer GeoCV closes seed-stage round

GeoCV, a startup which is developing a mobile app for creating 3D-models of interiors using mobile sensors, has received $100k investment from Starta Capital and the Moscow Seed Fund. Starta Capital provided a third of the funding, with the rest coming from the Moscow Seed Fund. GeoCV will also receive a further $50k from Starta Capital in the …

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