To view the web version of this newsletter, Click Here
Array
(
[Error] => fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource
[File] => /home/apache/bndb06_2.23.14/classes/NewsletterProduct.class.php
[Line] => 296
)
|
|
To view the web version of this newsletter, Click Here |
|
|
| Issue 91 Tuesday, 15th January 2008 |
www.libraryhouse.net
|
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||
This Week:
Regulars:
VentureCast Universe
» Got a rumour? Not a subscriber — Subscribe to this newsletter at no cost. Click Here to Subscribe! |
Dear Subscriber,
The increasingly global outlook of major VCs coupled with competition for the best deals has led many firms to invest outside of their traditional geographies. Currently there is a huge focus, both in the finance community and the media, on the emerging economies of China and India.
However, Eastern European countries are attracting a growing share of European venture capital. Much of Eastern Europe is economically underdeveloped and therefore ripe for growth. The potentially huge returns available in countries such as Russia, Poland and Estonia have meant that some of the companies operating in these countries have begun to catch the attention of more adventurous VCs.
Eastern European software engineers, particularly those from Russia and Poland, are globally renowned for their coding skills. Worldwide programming contests regularly produce winners from these two countries. In November 2007, Russian student Pyotr Mitrichev was crowned the world’s best programmer after winning the TopCoder Collegiate Challenge for the second time. Therefore it is no surprise to see a large number of Information Technology start-ups forming in these countries.
Grono.net, a Polish social-networking website, raised a first round of venture funding from Intel Capital in Q3 2007. Grono.net is an example of a site that began exploiting a geographic niche - catering to the Polish-speaking world - but has since expanded its site to a further five languages, including English.
An Eastern European venture-backed company generating buzz in the blogosphere is Quintura, a Russian search engine, which allows users to navigate by clicking on text-based search tags. Like many European companies seeking capital and increased market penetration, Quintura has based its headquarters in the US while its R&D capabilities remain in Russia. The company received a ‘significant’ second round of funding in Q2 2007 from Mangrove Capital Partners. The company has ambitious growth plans, vividly demonstrated at Library House’s Essential Web 2007 event when Quintura’s chief executive, Yakov Sadchikov, stated that the company aims to overtake Google as the world’s leading search engine.
Estonia is also widely known for its aptitude in software development, providing many of the software engineers behind KaZaa and Skype. However, Estonia is also seeing an increase in its biotech sector, mirroring the development of successful biotech clusters in neighbouring Scandinavia. The government of Estonia is attempting to encourage innovation and growth in both IT and biotech by maintaining favourable tax breaks for corporations and pushing for national implementation of next generation infrastructure, using its close ties with the infrastructure powerhouses based in Scandinavia like Nokia and Ericsson. In fact, recent infrastructure developments mean the country has leapfrogged ahead of more ‘developed’ countries in some areas. Over 80 per cent of Estonians file their taxes online each year and in 2007 over 30,000 citizens used a web-based system to cast their vote in their parliamentary election, making Estonia the first country to allow such online voting.
The Estonian capital, Tallinn, plans to become a globally important biotech cluster and a number of biotech companies there are already attracting attention from VCs. Celecure is one such company. The company is developing anti-cancer drugs and raised a €1.6m funding round from Ambient Sound Investments, an Estonian investment firm established by four founding engineers from Skype. Ambient Sound Investments picked up a 26 per cent stake in the company for its investment. Celcure is the R&D unit of Celecure Group, an Estonian biotech holding company that also includes Inbio Ltd and Cancer Clinic Ltd.
2008 will undoubtedly see further investment into the developing economies of Eastern Europe. What remains to be seen is whether local firms in the region can expand globally, and whether the region’s expertise in software development can be matched in other areas like biotech.
Movea, the France-based developer of motion-sensing technology, has raised €7.3m from I-Source Gestion and GIMV, who led the round, alongside CEA Valorisation and Thomson through its Thomson Multimedia subsidiary. Movea develops gyroscope free-motion sensors to simplify human-digital interactions for the consumer and healthcare markets.
SoonR, the Denmark-based mobile computing company, has raised $9.5m (€6.5m) in its second round of investment, led by Cisco Systems together with Clearstone and Intel Capital. The company will use the capital to expand its mobile platform and advance its new partner-driven distribution strategy. SoonR has developed software that allows users to access PC systems remotely through mobile devices.
Pudding Media, the US- and Israel-based communications specialist, has raised $8m (€5.4m) from Opus Capital and BRM Capital to be used for expansion of the company’s product suite. Pudding Media provides an in-call ad targeting platform and is aiming to monetise all forms of voice communication.
More companies' intelligence at www.libraryhouse.net
Nomad Payments, the UK-based financial services software company, has been acquired by Metavante for $58m (€39.5m). The acquisition of Nomad, which offers software for prepaid and debit card processing, allows Metavante to establish a presence in
Lymphatix, the Finland-based drug development company, has been acquired by Ark Therapeutics for €2.25m in shares. Lymphatix is developing products to modulate the growth and function of blood and lymphatic vessels.
More companies' intelligence at www.libraryhouse.net
Symsoft, the Sweden-based software supplier, has appointed Bjorn Berndtsson as chief executive. Mr Berndtsson has previously held roles at SmartTrust, Allgon Mobile Communications and Ericsson. Symsoft offers a delivery platform for mobile telecommunications companies, for facilities such as charging, messaging and IP services.
NOXXON Pharma, the Germany-based biopharmaceutical company, has appointed Dr Frank Morich as chief executive this week, taking on the role from Dr Sven Klussman who remains with the company as chief scientific officer. Dr Morich was chief executive at Innogenetics and had previously held roles as Bayer and AM Pharma. NOXXON is currently developing a therapeutic drug for the treatment of obesity in partnership with Pfizer.
Doxa, the Sweden-based developer of bioactive ceramics, has appointed Christer Wallin as chief executive. Mr Wallin has previously held chief executive positions at SciBase and Biolight International. Doxa is developing and commercialising a biomaterial used to repair bones using chemically bonded ceramics.
More companies' intelligence at www.libraryhouse.net
Auctioning4u, the UK-based eBay service provider, has informed Library House that it sold its name and commercial assets in December 2007 and has rebranded as [[ClockWorx]]. Mr Christian Braun, the company’s chief executive, has said that ClockWorx is developing a software suite to enable the creation of online marketplaces for specialist niche markets. A funding round of £3m-5m is ongoing and will be used for software development.
UK-based Acal Energy, which develops fuel cells, this week told Library House that it is in the process of raising £4m-5m. Ms Amanda Lyne, the co-founder and commercial director, has said that a significant portion of the capital would be raised from existing investors but that the company will also open the round to new interested parties. This investment will be used to double the number of staff from 10 to 20 and to make a prototype of the company’s polyelectrolyte membrane-based laboratory demonstration system.
Online Advertising Solutions, the Germany-based online advertising provider, has told Library House that it will open its first investment round in February 2008. The company will be seeking €500k-800k to be used for international expansion and product development; the round will likely close by the end of March 2008. The company’s Captain Ad service allows publishers and content creators to monetise content through embedded code; it is currently only available in German but will begin expanding into international markets in February 2008.
More companies' intelligence at www.libraryhouse.net
There are now 38210 companies in VenturePedia, 10898 investors, and 54046 contacts.
| Venture Investment News |
| M&A Deals |
| Company Appointment News |
| Company Customers/Partnerships News |
| Products/Technology News |
| General News |
To arrange a demonstration of VenturePedia, please contact our business development team.
Library House VentureCast newsletter is a free service from Library House. It is one of several products we have for investors, business development professionals, M&A Advisors, bankers and headhunters who follow or monitor private companies. If you have received this from a friend or colleague and would like to subscribe yourself, simply go to http://www.libraryhouse.net/products/venturecast.
If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, please unsubscribe here.
