AAA February 2012 – Page 6

Game over for selected Vostu staff

Brazil-based social game developer Vostu is making an undisclosed amount of employees redundant, the company confirmed on Wednesday. Vostu declined to state the number of workers it was laying off, or the reasoning behind the move. However the announcement comes just over six months after the company settled a lawsuit brought by rival Zynga over… Continue reading Game over for selected Vostu staff

Ozon books Sapato as its latest buy

Russia-based ecommerce company Ozon expanded its range of online products on Wednesday by acquiring online shoe retailer Sapato for an undisclosed amount. Exiting investors include Intel’s corporate venturing unit, Intel Capital. Intel Capital led Sapato’s $12m series C round in June last year, which also saw participation from Russia-based market expansion services business the Direct… Continue reading Ozon books Sapato as its latest buy

CyberAgent gets into the Grooves

Japan-based social recruitment startup Grooves received ¥40m ($500,000) in seed funding from internet company CyberAgent’s corporate venturing fund, CyberAgent Ventures Japan, on 30th November. Grooves is best known for its social job posting initiative, instituted through its Garbs subsidiary. Grooves is also currently preparing a series A round, according to Asian tech website e27. The… Continue reading CyberAgent gets into the Grooves

TerraEchos secures seed funding

Real-time security software developer TerraEchos closed a $1.55m seed round on 7th February led by venture capital (VC) firm Flywheel Ventures, with participation from engineering service and research provider S&K Technologies and geospatial analysis company GCS Research. US-based TerraEchos will use the cash to hire additional staff for its software development team, and to expand… Continue reading TerraEchos secures seed funding

Unilever exits Cyden

Unilever Ventures, the corporate venturing unit representing consumer goods conglomerate Unilever, is selling its stake in UK-based health and beauty company CyDen to existing investor Richard Koch, according to UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph. Koch, founder of online gambling exchange Betfair, was one of the investors in CyDen’s £15m ($23.5m) series D round in April… Continue reading Unilever exits Cyden

Videocon subscribes to Nivio’s model

Nivio, a Switzerland-based company providing a Microsoft program-focused subscription service, secured $21m in series A financing last Thursday from India-based conglomerate Videocon and private equity firm AEC Partners. Nivio operates a cloud-based service that grants monthly subscribers access to a range of desktop software for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS – and the entire desktop… Continue reading Videocon subscribes to Nivio’s model