IT Europa, a leading provider of strategic business intelligence, news and analysis on the European IT marketplace, features DataArt’s new initiative, DataArt Labs, aimed at engaging top students from two leading Kharkiv Universities in the company’s projects. The article quotes Mikhail Zavileysky, DataArt COO as saying, “Our key goal is to introduce innovative technologies and to implement the latest IT market trends in university programs, so that we can reap the benefits of the best IT talent working for DataArt.”
More action in Russia. DataArt, the Russian outsourcing company with its headquarters in New York City, is raising $6 million from private equity folks to fund expansion. Rather than opening new development centers, its expanding into new verticals, including media and publishing, telecommunications services, and online travel. DataArt got its start by providing high-end custom programming for the financial services industry in the US. It has programming centers in St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Kherson, and Kharkov. I love writing those Eastern European city names.
VC Pipeline Still Flowing to Local Tech Firms By Amanda Fung
May 28, 2008
Crain’s New York Following DataArt’s announcement on raising private equity investment, Crain’s New York Business features the company as one of the champions in New York technology space as it managed to secure the funds despite the markets’ volatility. “DataArt, which develops custom software for companies particularly in the financial services industries, said it raised $4 million in private equity funding—the first time the company has taken outside money since it was founded in 1997,” writes the paper. “DataArt will use the investment to expand sales and marketing efforts to companies in the online travel and telecom fields. Its clients include Standard & Poor’s and BNP Paribas. The 400-employee company acts as a tech consultant to corporations and does all of its tech research and development out of centers in Russia and the Ukraine.”
Software firms with CEE operations pull in investment capital
May 27, 2008
EE Times Europe reports from Berlin that “two software-related firms with core operations in Eastern Europe have raised funding from investors, underscoring the opportunity in the software industry throughout the region… DataArt, a New York-based software outsourcing provider with development centers in Russia and the Ukraine, secured a $4M in private equity investment and hopes to close an additional $2 million.”
With $4 million in its pocket from a February venture capital investment, outsourced financial software startup DataArt Inc. is aiming to close on an additional $2 million in June to boost development of its product in Russia and the Ukraine.
London-based Tower Gate Capital led the deal, joined by New York-based Third Millennium Russia Fund and an unnamed Russian hedge fund. The investment round is the first outside capital the 11-year-old company has taken in, and is expected to accelerate revenue growth with additional business development for high-end financial applications development by a team of 450 programmers, as well as support recruitment of additional developers.
DataArt founder and CEO Eugene Goland said the company was formed in 1997 as an applications developer focusing on Internet startups; it assembled a core team of developers in Russia and the Ukraine, working with university computer science departments. But he said the company lost most of its clients in 2002 and reduced staff from about 300 to 30. The company, headquartered in New York and St. Petersburg, Russia, reorganized as an IT software outsourcer and gradually rebuilt its business to $12.5 million in revenue last year.