Russia's Sputnik Group and ONEXIM have joined together to provide series A funding to Witology, a technology startup developing new ways of using social networking to solve problems. The two investors will provide USD 5 million which will allow Witology to continue research and development, carry the project through beta testing, and eventually launch their platform. As a result of the deal, Sputnik will control 8.94% while ONEXIM's share will be 41%. The remaining 50.06% will remain with Witology founders Alexander Oslon and Sergey Karelov.

Following a successful five-year investment, BaltCap's Baltic SME Fund has completed a successful exit from Estonian education platform eKool. BaltCap acquired eKool from the Vaata Maailma Foundation in November 2005. The educational company's new owner is Kriit OÜ, a group of several private investors from Estonia. During the period of BaltCap's ownership, eKool has made great strides in developing its platform and seeing it integrated into large portions of the Estonian educational system.

In a move that strengthens its position in the Russian-speaking Internet market, Yandex has acquired Web analytics startup WebVisor at a cost of ca. $0.5 million. Yandex made the deal with the startup's owner, Visor Ltd., after WebVisor attended the Yandex.Start program. The program was initiated by Yandex last year as a means of giving promising technology startups the opportunity to join them.

Russia's newest venture capital firm, Runa Capital, has announced its first investment in a Moscow-based start-up active in the social networking arena. The investment will be USD 2 million in venture capital for OnAir3G, developers of a cutting-edge networking platform. The founder of OnAir3G , Andrey Vasilevsky, was one of the original founders of SmartCom, which Russia's Yandex recently purchased.