The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has entered the capital of Scalarr Inc (Delaware, the United States) a company with operations and development center in Ukraine, as part of $7.5 million financing round, the bank has said on its website.
According to the report, the project was approved in September 2020. Today, all the required documents have been signed. The details of the deal are not available.
The EBRD said that Scalarr, a technology company with operations and development in Ukraine, provides the antifraud software solution for mobile application developers. Scalarr’s software, using its proprietary technology such as neural networks, unsupervised and semi-supervised machine learning allows the application developer to detect and prevent fraudulent application installs and avoid marketing expenses spent on purchase of the fraudulent traffic.
Scalarr said on its website that it saved its clients $22 million in ad fraud refunds in 2020.
The project was implemented under the Venture Capital Investment Programme (VCIP) II of the EBRD, which is a dedicated framework facility of EUR 50 million and is a continuation of EBRD’s existing programme, VCIP (EUR 100 million). The bank aims to invest in early and growth stage technology companies via equity and equity-linked instruments (investment size up to EUR 15 million).
In Ukraine, Scalarr Inc established Scalarr Ukraine LLC (Kharkiv) in September 2020. Its beneficiaries in the public register are the head of the company Inna Ushakova with 33.34%, as well as Andriy Ushakov and Yuriy Yashunin with 33.33% each.
Techcrunch publication earlier said that Scalarr’s Series A was led by the EBRD, with participation from TMT Investments, OTB Ventures and Speedinvest. Among other things, the company planned to use the money to expand its presence in Asia and continue developing the product.
Forbes Ukraine included Scalarr in the list of 30 best startups in Ukraine in the April issue of this year, valuing the company at $ 20-40 million, investment in it at $8 million, and the staff of 40 people.
National bank of Ukraine’s official rates as of 16/04/21
Source: National Bank of Ukraine
Official rates of banking metals from national bank as of April 16
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
The European Union (EU) is confident that Ukraine, as a European country, has the right to be a member of the community, but now the issue of reforms is on the agenda.
This is how a European diplomat commented on the prospects for Ukraine’s membership in the EU on Friday in Brussels. He said that what the EU has with Ukraine is the Association Agreement and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, and what the EU is seriously investing in now is to make this agreement a success. It has huge potential for the economy, for the social development of Ukraine, he said.
At the same time, the European diplomat is confident that Ukraine is a European country, and as a European country it has the opportunity of joining the EU.
But this is not what is now on the agenda, he said. Now it is about the implementation of this agreement, it is about reforms, about what precedes accession, he said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky spoke about the importance of intensive development of tourism between Ukraine and Turkey.
“It is very important that we, [Erdogan] and I are talking about special conditions for Ukrainian and Turkish tourists, citizens. We talked about the need to really increase the level of tourism for Ukrainians and Turkish citizens. This is very important. I think especially now we have to support each other,” Zelensky said following a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council on Thursday, April 15.
“Erdogan supports our independence, our sovereignty. You heard that Russia said it would restrict tourists or tourism from the Russian Federation to Turkey. It’s their business. And I think that, on the contrary, we need to increase and show that we support Turkey,” Zelensky said.
Also, according to Zelensky, during a meeting with Erdogan in Turkey on April 10, “a number of important documents were signed between Ukraine and Turkey, but support for Ukrainian sovereignty is much more important.”
“But the most important thing today, when we talk about the geopolitical issue, the issue of peace in Ukraine and the support of our partners, it is important that President Erdogan supports Ukraine, supports our temporarily occupied territories, supports Crimea. It is important that he supports our position: he does not recognize annexation of Crimea,” the head of state said.
The first batch of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in the amount of 117,000 doses has arrived in Ukraine on Friday as part of the global COVAX initiative, according to a COVAX press release.
According to the report, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will be used primarily to vaccinate personnel and residents of nursing homes, employees of the State Emergency Service and border guards