Emerging Tech News June 17: Glovo’s Startup Lab Comes to Kyiv, Spotlighting Ukrainian Tech

UKRAINE

Glovo Startup Lab Heads to Kyiv to Spotlight Ukrainian Tech

Barcelona-based on-demand platform Glovo will host its annual PowerUp technology conference this week in partnership with the Ukrainian Startup Foundation (USF) in Kyiv. The June 18 event was initiated by Glovo, for whom Ukraine represents a major market with operations in 37 cities. [Source: Silicon Canals]

ESTONIA

Estonian Accelerator Startup Wise Guys Launches Program in Bilbao with €1.5M 

Estonia’s Startup Wise Guys accelerator is injecting up to €100,000 each into 15 promising early-stage companies spanning the sustainability, SaaS and cybersecurity verticals. The three-month program, hosted in Bilbao, Spain, has selected a diverse cohort featuring flat-packed housing startup Livful, carbon tracking platform Zerow, and AI manager AIManager360. [Source: Facebook]

LATVIA

Latvian Venture Firm Launches €500K Health-Tech Accelerator Program

Latvian venture capital firm 4pm Ventures has unveiled a new online accelerator called Future Health Lab to support health-technology startups. The six-month program, which runs until December, has already selected 21 companies for its first cohort, with 12-15 getting free participation. Other startups must pay a €25,000 fee or provide 1% equity to join. After graduating, participants can raise between €50,000 to €500,000 in funding from 4pm’s investment partners while receiving continued mentorship. [Source: BalticVC]

KAZAKHSTAN

Kazakh AI Job Training Startup JobEscape Raises $700K

Kazakh startup JobEscape, an AI-powered platform that simplifies skills training for freelance careers, has raised $700,000 in fresh funding led by Tumar Venture LP’s additional $250,000 investment. The round also saw participation from UAE’s Oraseya Capital, business angels, and Azerbaijan’s Caucasus Ventures fund. With users already spanning the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe, JobEscape plans to use the capital for team expansion, marketing and developing more AI tools on its platform as it targets 5-6 times annual revenue growth. The startup has now raised a total of $450,000 from Tumar, which believes JobEscape has the potential to become a billion-dollar company based on its growth from $10,000 to nearly $1 million in monthly revenues. [Source: DigitalBusiness.kz]

UZBEKISTAN

Uzbekistan’s New R&D Center Wants to Boost Construction Materials Sector

Uzbekistan has taken a major step towards modernizing its building materials industry with the opening of a new R&D Research Center in partnership with Uzpromstroybank. The center, launched under the Uzpromstroymaterials Association, will focus on driving scientific research and innovation in the industrial and construction fields. The idea is to collaborate with universities and research institutes to integrate cutting-edge technologies and scientific breakthroughs into production processes. [Source: Spot.uz]

RUSSIA

Begin Capital Leads $18M Round in Cloud Services Startup Codesphere

Russian investor Alexey Menn’s Begin Capital has led an $18 million investment in Codesphere, a cloud service provider that offers a platform to streamline application development and deployment. The funding round also saw participation from Creandum, LEA Partners, 42CAP and 468.

Founded in 2020 by Elias Schneider, Jonas Zipprik and Roman Frolov, Codesphere has developed a comprehensive cloud platform that simplifies the process of building, testing, running and scaling applications. A key feature is its online code editor that allows developers to work entirely within a browser environment.

Codesphere plans to use the fresh capital to expand its range of cloud services and tools catering to the needs of developers and engineering teams. [rb.ru]

Russia Suspends Electronics Subsidies Amid Scrutiny on Spending

Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade has frozen state support programs aimed at developing the country’s radio electronics sector, as the new leadership reviews the effectiveness of previously allocated funds to companies, according to multiple industry executives. The move comes as newly appointed Minister Anton Alikhanov and Accounts Chamber Chair Boris Kovalchuk take a closer look at the efficiency of spending on information technology initiatives. [Source: Vedomosti]