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Investment
October 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 11
$9bn, with online ticket sales accounting for just 2%-5% in 2018. Busfor believes online sales will grow to some 30% by 2022, and aims to control a third of this volume.
Since its inception in Ukraine in 2010, Busfor has received financial support from Intel Capital,
InVenture Partners and FinSight in 2014, from Ukraine’s Chernovetskyi Investment Group (CIG) in 2015, then from Baring Vostok and Elbrus Capital in 2016. In November 2017 InVenture Partners sold its share to Baring Vostok and Elbrus Capital. The last capital injections took place in 2018 as noted above.
Mubadala mulls setting up venture capital funds in Armenia
Mubadala Investment Company is considering setting up venture capital funds in Armenia, a representative of the UAE-based international investment company said during the WCIT 2019 tech event in Yerevan.
The Armenian government has been seeking to develop the IT sector, which Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said has “huge potential”.
“We have good impressions from the technological sphere of Armenia and we are interested in cooperation, particularly in the establishment of venture funds,” Khomein Al Shimmari, the head
of the Aviation and Engineering Services Division
at Mubadala Investment, said at a meeting with Pashinian, a government statement said.
At the meeting Pashinian commented that following last year’s velvet revolution, “serious steps” have been taken to eliminate systemic corruption, which will help make the investment atmosphere attractive.
“Our strategy is developing the technological sphere in Armenia, where there is huge potential. The IT sector dynamically develops in our country. We have established a Ministry of High-Tech Industry and we are interested in the possible cooperation with your company,” the prime minister said.
Croatia’s €30mn Feelsgood Fund launches with EIF backing
Croatia’s first social impact fund, the Feelsgood Fund, was launched in Zagreb on October 3.
The €30mn fund is a venture capital fund that will finance Croatian start-ups with environmental and social impact, said the European Investment Fund (EIF), which contributed €15mn to the new fund.
The EIF’s investment was almost entirely covered by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), which is the central part of the Investment Plan for Europe, or Juncker Plan.
According to a statement from the EIF, the Feelsgood Fund is the the first Croatian venture capital fund managed by a fully Croatian team, which signals “the maturing and development
of the local financial market”. Two of the three existing venture capital funds operating in Croatia were set up with EIF support.
It will invest into Croatian and Slovenian early- to growth-stage startups in the areas of financial inclusion, agriculture and farming, circular economy, education and healthcare.