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So, it’s my favorite time of the day, writing a blog post. Yet, I have missed quite a few days in a row. The preparation for the TechCrunch post “Everything You Need To Know About The Startup Ecosystem In Russia And Eastern Europe” took forever AFTER all of the research was completed, yet there was other work and the reaction to the post. Thanks everyone!

Now back to blogging.

So, let’s see. The news.

Deal flow

First Ukrainian exit has been confirmed. Google’s Motorola Mobility has acquired  the augmented reality image recognition startup Viewdle, the price, TechCrunch speculates, might be between $35 and $40 million. Apparently, the founders’ share is fairly small by now, but when they will free themselves from the present commitments to get busy with the new projects, Ukrainian startup ecosystem may benefit in one way or another.

Russian Bright Capital backed online photography courses Fotoschkola.net  for international expansion, according to EWDN. The details of the deal are not disclosed, but in a fashionable style, anonymous sources considers the funding to be of the $3,5-$4 million. Fotoshkola claims to have 200,000 registered users.

Runa Capital backed Domosite.ru, the startup which offers neighbours and utilities companies an online information platform, which enables inhabitants of individual houses and local communities post news, photos and find organizations in the area. The startup raised $1,2 million according to EWDN.

Aurora Venture Capital has funded Russian online furniture retailer Apartama.ru (whilst Mangrove Capital Partners has recently backed homeme.ru not so long ago). It appears that Apartama implements earlier model of mydeco.com, the UK startup, which enables its visitors plan their rooms online, while offering them products from third party retailers. The funding received is nearly $1 million dollars. The site claims to have 40,000 monthly visitors.

Addventure invested $4 million into Delivery Club, the Delivery Hero’s competitor in Russia (an now, it appears in Eastern Europe) in a second round of funding, according to Steve O’Hear of TechCrunch.

Polish hardGAMMA has invested 150,000 Euros in ecommerce analytics service Manubia.

Finally, Croatian WhoAPI has received funding from and joins Dave McClure’s 500Startups according to EastIst, as a result of the Geeks on the Plane (GOAP) stop-over in Zagreb, I suppose.

Launches and news releases

Croatian startup Codeanywhere, which has participated in the Pioneers Festival, has reached 100,000 users. The Canadian Croatian founder and CEO Ivan Burasin has told me about the milestone last week but  alas I was not quick enough to get the news out. What is exciting about it is that Cloud-based coding is a common concept, so thumbs up for this bootstrapped growth.

Slovak aggregated paywall for media Piano Media has announced that Slovak media partners are putting more content behind the paywall. It seems to be working.

Ukrainian Jelastic won the Duke’s Choice Award, which is according to their blog post is like an Oscar of Java world.

Russian Yandex launched a new browser, and an alternative Android app store, according to The Next Web.

News reviews

Having attended the demo day of the Eastern European StartupHighway and HugeThing, Ben Rooney of Wall Street Journal Tech Europe published an interview under the headline “Cental Europe Ecosystem Poised For Growth”. No doubts about that.

Ustream (Hungarian origins) revealed its redesign. All videos on the front page now appear to be recorded not live streamed. Yes, organizing scheduling of the live-streamed programs is somewhat a challenge. More on TechCrunch.

Dave McClure and GOAP visit to Moscow was reviewed by Venture Village.

Events

The conference organized by the government-funded venture investors The Russian Innovation Week Conference is taking place on the 25t-26th of October in Mountain View California. It is presented by the Russian Innovation Center, comprised of RVC (Russian Venture Company), Rusnano and Skolkovo foundation. The list includes the who is who in Russian government VC world, Ru-net’s Leonid Boguslavsky, Kite Ventures’ Edward Shenderovich, Russian business angel Pavel Cherkashin and Dave McClure (amongst others).

How to Web, the startup conference that takes in Bucharest, Romania next month, has teamed up with the Startup Weekend and Girls in Tech under the umbrella of TechFeast between the 5^th and 11^th of November 2012. Additionally the conference organizers have put together a mini-accelerator program Startup Spotlight for the duration of the conference, which includes pitching and mentoring sessions, as well as $20,000 in cash prizes, in what is possibly one of the best deals for participating at a startup conference around. Application deadline is October 13^th.  More on The Next Web.

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