<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Check out the headlines and make sure you haven't missed anything important from the Eastern European tech scene.\u00A0Judging by the number of links below, the 28 days of February have been absolutely crazy as they brought an unbelievable number of news stories.\r\n\r\nIf you think I have missed something, or would like to draw my attention to an important story, feel free to ping me in Twitter (@shlema) or by e-mail at\u00A0shlema@gmail.com.\r\nInvestments and acquisitions\r\n\r\n\tHungarian SaaS startup Maven7\u00A0has raised \u20AC575,000\u00A0from Primus Capital.\r\n\tRussian government-backed seed fund and accelerator\u00A0Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF) has invested $1.3 million into 34 local startups.\r\n\tRussian startup Cubic Robotics that develops a personal assistant robot has landed $500,000 in funding from private investor Konstantin Senchenko.\r\n\tRussian content recommendation service\u00A0Surfingbird\u00A0has attracted $2.5 million from\u00A0Klever Internet Investment Ltd. in exchange for 25.1% of the company.\r\n\tMail.Ru Group\u00A0has poured $2 million\u00A0into Israeli mobile video platform Magisto.\r\n\tLatvian\u00A0SonarWorks\u00A0has landed \u20AC600,000 in funding\u00A0from\u00A0Imprimatur Capital Technology Venture Fund.\r\n\tRussian technology university MISiS\u00A0has received a $2.7 million grant\u00A0from the country's government to\u00A0start\u00A0developing Russia\u2019s first supercomputer-based capabilities in order to create\u00A0new materials for various industrial sectors.\r\n\tRussian fund IMI.VC has invested an undisclosed amount into Russian\u00A0OMI Robotics that is working on a robotized snowplow.\r\n\tInfogr.am has landed the\u00A0largest investment in Latvia\u00A0of $1.8 million, with a reported 8 million unique visitors monthly.\r\n\tBulgarian distributed storage management startup StorPool has\u00A0attracted funding\u00A0from a strategic investor.\r\n\tRussian group Renova has\u00A0acquired\u00A0Italo-British \u201Csmart insurance\u201D provider\u00A0Octo Telematics for alleged $400 to $500 million.\r\n\tLithuania-founded mobile app distribution company GetJar has been\u00A0acquired\u00A0by China-based Sungy, the developer of Go apps for Android, for estimated $35 million, including $5.3 million in cash.\r\n\tRussian investment company Altair and venture fund IMI.VC have\u00A0poured\u00A0$1.3 million into travel SIM startup Keepgo.\r\n\tRussian Flint capital and IIDF have\u00A0made a joint investment\u00A0into\u00A0Picture Manipulation Inspector (PMI), a startup developing a service to determine if an image has been tampered with.\r\n\tRussian travel meta search engine Aviasales\u00A0has secured $10 million in funding\u00A0from iTech Capital.\r\n\tRussian Mango Telecom\u00A0has landed\u00A0a $10 million round from Intel Capital.\r\n\tRussian investment fund\u00A0Da Vinci Private Equity Fund II\u00A0has acquired a 63% stake\u00A0in major Russian online broker\u00A0ITinvest for alleged $30 to $50 million.\r\n\tRussian education startup YaKlass\u00A0has raised $450,000\u00A0from Almaz Capital, Vesna Investment, and Pavel Kovsharov.\r\n\tSecond-hand clothing marketplace Vinted\u00A0has raised \u20AC20 million\u00A0series B round and became Baltics' highest valued startup.\r\n\tPolish startup UXPin\u00A0has secured $1.6 million\u00A0in funding\u00A0led by Freestyle Capital to further develop its online design tool set.\r\n\tBulgarian outsourcing company Sofica\u00A0has been acquired\u00A0by US-based Teletech.\r\n\tRussian Internet advertising platform\u00A0CityAds has attracted $5 million in funding from\u00A0Klever Internet Investments Ltd (KIIL) in exchange to an undisclosed minority stake in the company.\r\n\tCzech social media-based customer care services startup Brand Embassy\u00A0has raised $1 million\u00A0in funding from\u00A0Rockaway Capital and Spread Capital.\r\n\tRussian tech investor Yuri Milner\u00A0has invested\u00A0in cloud graphics company Otoy.\r\n\tRussian online classifieds company Avito\u00A0has landed about $17 million\u00A0in funding from Swedish investment group Kinnevik.\r\n\tUkrainian startup Kabanchik.com.ua has raised $60,000 in funding from four angel investors.\r\n\r\n\r\nStartups, accelerators, and venture funds news\r\n\r\n\r\n\tRussian fintech fund Life.SREDA has\u00A0made its first exit\u00A0as banking startup Simple was acquired by Spanish bank BBVA.\r\n\tMoscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) has\u00A0launched a $30 million seed fund\u00A0of its own, which will focus on\u00A0fintech, edutech, digital health, 3D-printing, efficient energy use and oil &amp;amp;amp; gas technology sectors.\r\n\tRussian VC fund Runa Capital\u00A0has made an exit\u00A0from its portfolio project\u00A0StopTheHacker\u00A0two years\u00A0after the investment.\r\n\tCEE-focused accelerator program StartupHighway has\u00A0teamed up with Lithuanian VC Practica Capital\u00A0to create a \u20AC200,000 fund to invest\u00A0in accelerated startups.\r\n\tNew Estonian hardware-focused startup accelerator BuildIt\u00A0launches\u00A0its first program.\r\n\tLithuanian 3D-design market platform CGTrader has\u00A0landed\u00A0a funding round from Intel Capital, marking the fund's first deal in the country.\r\n\tThe Russian Venture Company has\u00A0launched\u00A0two new funds of almost $2 million in total.\r\n\tUS language learning startup Duolingo has\u00A0entered\u00A0Russian market.\r\n\tLithuanian startup TrackDuck\u00A0has launched\u00A0a new version of its interactive website\u00A0\u00A0feedback and bug-tracking tool.\r\n\tLithuanian Practica Venture Capital\u00A0has closed a \u20AC15.7 million fund\u00A0to invest in the country's startups.\r\n\tUkrainian-born startup Attendify (formerly KitApps) has\u00A0teamed up with Eventbrite\u00A0to let event planners create\u00A0\u2018mini social networks\u2019 for their events.\r\n\tHungary-founded Kenguru has announced a\u00A0$25,000 electric car\u00A0for wheelchair users.\r\n\tSlovenian hardware startup CarLock\u00A0has joined\u00A0the first Serbian accelerator StartLabs.\r\n\tMailbox app's alternative iMAGINe has become the first Bulgarian startup to join Y Combinator.\r\n\tBulgarian online sales management startup DeskGod has\u00A0relocated to the US, joined\u00A0the Plug and Play accelerator, and signed a partnership agreement with Salesforce.\r\n\tRussian fashion startup\u00A0Looksima\u00A0has introduced a new feature that allows users to\u00A0put together complete \u201Clooks\u201D from clothes and accessories sold by partner online retailers and get a sales commission. Now the company is looking for additional funding of $1 to $3 million to fuel its expansion to the US market.\r\n\r\nIn other news\r\n\r\n\tSecurity-focused messenger Telegram, launched by VK.com CEO Pavel Durov, has seen a huge\u00A0surge in popularity\u00A0as WhatsApp was\u00A0purchased\u00A0by Facebook for $19 billion.\r\n\tRussian Internet behemoth Yandex has\u00A0teamed up with Google\u00A0to make the advertising networks of the two companies accessible to each other's clients.\r\n\tA creepy Steve Jobs monument has been\u00A0opened\u00A0in Serbia's capital Belgrade.\r\n\tYandex has\u00A0teamed up\u00A0with browser developer Maxthon to offer the latter's desktop and mobile browsers to Russian customers with pre-loaded Yandex's services.\r\n\tSpotify has\u00A0opened an office\u00A0in Russia, though the service is not available to Russian users yet.\r\n\tRussia's YotaPhone\u00A0has unveiled\u00A0the second generation of its smartphone with\u00A0a touchscreen e-ink display on the back.\r\n\tThe first Internet pirate to be\u00A0convicted\u00A0in Russia received\u00A0a sentence of two years' probation.\r\n\tYandex has launched\u00A0Yandex.Kit, free Android firmware with Google apps ditched for Yandex's services.\r\n\tYandex\u00A0and\u00A0Mail.Ru Group\u00A0presented their 2013 financial reports.\r\n\tApps4all, Russian mobile app developer community,\u00A0has entered the UK market.\r\n\tUkraine's Viewdle, the startup\u00A0acquired by Google\u00A0through Motorola Mobility\u00A0in 2012 for alleged $30 to $45 million, has been shut down. About 20 Ukrainian developers will relocate to the US, most of them will work in\u00A0Motorola Mobility's software department.\r\n\tThe International Intellectual Property Alliance\u00A0recommends\u00A0keeping Ukraine among the world's most dangerous countries in terms of Internet piracy.\r\n\tBoth\u00A0Russia\u00A0and Ukraine have effectively banned Bitcoin.\r\n\tYandex has\u00A0opened\u00A0an R&amp;amp;amp;D office in Berlin.\r\n\tHungary-founded Prezi\u00A0has become\u00A0the first European company to join the\u00A0White House ConnectED Initiative.\r\n\tMail.Ru Group's international brand\u00A0My.com has released its fourth mobile game.\r\n\tFirst Russian private technology park for hardware startups,\u00A0Navigator Campus, has been opened in Kazan.\r\n\tSoftware developer company EPAM, with R&amp;amp;amp;D offices all around Central and Eastern Europe, has released its\u00A02013 financial report.\r\n\tGoogle has\u00A0opened its Map Maker service\u00A0to users in\u00A0Greece, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia.\r\n\tFashion e-retailer Modnique\u00A0has launched\u00A0its localized versions in Ukraine and Belarus (as well as in Australia and Canada).\r\n\tSlovenian developer\u00A0Outfit7 says its 'Talking Tom and Friends' apps have 230 million monthly active users,\u00A0which makes it bigger than Twitter\u00A0(on mobile, of course).\r\n\tVkontakte shareholder clashes\u00A0has continued\u00A0as UCP threatened to sue\u00A0Mail.ru Group and Ivan Tavrin.\r\n\r\nGood reads\r\n\r\n\tStarting up in Slovakia: 6 must-knows\r\n\tWhat the West needs to know about Russia\u2019s tech scene\r\n\tZooming in: The Slovak startup scene\r\n\tViber and WhatsApp: Born in the USSR\r\n\tWhat connects Lithuania and West Africa?\r\n\tEstBAN infographic details where Estonian Angels are putting their money\r\n\tChecking out the Prague startup scene with Wayra CEE\r\n\tRussian and Global Venture Markets, 2007\u20132013, a survey by Ernst&amp;amp;amp;Young and RVC\r\n\tMap of Russian Internet holdings\u00A0by IIDF (in Russian, but still worth checking out)\r\n\r\nImage credit:\u00A0Shutterstock\r\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/03/03/catch-month-tech-news-eastern-europe-february/>