Yesterday Ozon Holdings, one of Russia’s most established players on the Russian e-commerce scene, announced that Maëlle Gavet, its French-born CEO since 2011, is moving on from the company. Israeli-born Danny Perekalsky, currently Ozon’s deputy CEO, has been appointed as new CEO. He will assume the new role immediately, with Gavet staying with the company for a …
Led by Alibaba’s B2C subsidiary AliExpress, Chinese online retailers have gained a significant share of the Russian e-commerce market over the past two years. Of the 70 million orders that were shipped by foreign online retailers to Russia last year, more than two-thirds came from China, according to estimates cited in EWDN’s last market research. …
Buran Venture Capital, a Moscow-based, internationally-oriented venture fund, appears to be among the backers of Shazam, which raised $30 million this past January in a funding round that valued it at over $1 billion. While the other investors are still unidentified, the Russian fund revealed yesterday that it contributed $8.5 million in the round.
Ulmart, Russia’s leading e-commerce company, confirmed today its plan to go public next year in a yet-to-be-determined Western stock exchange, the company’s chairman and co-owner Dmitry Kostygin told Russian business daily RBC. Ulmart is thus considering raising $1 billion or more in exchange for 25% of the company’s shares. Advisers for the IPO could be …
Russian e-commerce leader Ulmart reports 50% sales increase in 2014, plans IPO in 2016 Read More
Much speculation appeared today in the media following Google’s decision to move about one hundred of its engineers from its Russia office to other locations. A major US site thus suggested that Google’s move could be related to the “changing climate in Russia [which] may lead more Internet companies to move their operations to other …
Google shuts down engineering office in Russia: Much ado about nothing? Read More
The past few weeks have demonstrated the uncomfortable position Western venture capitalists that have traditionally invested in Russia are finding themselves in as a result of the international tensions. While, in the eyes of some them, the Russia label has become a stigma, other VCs have proclaimed their commitment to continue investing in Russian startups …
Fast growth appeal vs. pressure of sanctions: Western VCs’ new Russia dilemma Read More
Yandex’s strategy to develop its marketplace, Yandex Market, saw new developments in the past few weeks. The company acquired PriceLabs, the developer of a price monitoring and optimization solution, and abruptly ended cooperation with MultiShip, an aggregator of delivery service offers in which Yandex had invested earlier this year. The Russian search giant did not …
Yandex acquires PriceLabs, gets a divorce from MultiShip Read More
Earlier this month Russia Partners, the Moscow-based private equity affiliate of global alternative investment firm Siguler Guff & Company, announced that Rakuten acquired Slice, a portfolio company in its technology fund. The details of the deal have not been revealed. Over the past few years, the Japanese online retail company has invested several billion dollars in …
Russia Partners sells US startup with Ukraine-based IT team to Japan’s Rakuten Read More
Yesterday, Mail.ru Group, the LSE-listed Russian Internet giant, announced it now fully controls Vkontakte (VK.com), the leading Russian language social network with over 250 million registered accounts and 60 million daily users. The group, which already owned 52% of the company, bought the remaining 48% stake from UCP, the Russian investment fund that had become a …
Wikimart, a major Russian B2C marketplace, has agreed a capital increase with a group of Russian investors, including Finprombank chairman Anatoly Goncharov. The news was revealed last week by business daily Kommersant and confirmed to East-West Digital News by Wikimart’s press service. The $40 million capital injection will be used in part to acquire Terminal.ru, a …
In a series on Europe’s “hottest startups,” the UK edition of tech magazine Wired published earlier this month a selection of 10 Russian startups. These included peer-to-peer publishing platform Gitoon, e-commerce intelligence platform Ometria, “rephotography” app publisher Timera, slideshow assistant app Penxy, music-streaming service 10tracks, taxi app publisher Wheely, driving navigational system WayRay, video game …
Wired highlights 10 Russian startups but gets it wrong with rosy business predictions Read More
While Russia is shifting a part of its business focus from Western countries to alternative partners, Asian bank card giants UnionPay and JCB have expanded initiatives to conquer the Russian market. China’s UnionPay, which entered the market in 2007, claims to be accepted by over 100,000 POS terminals and more than 30,000 ATMs in Russia, …
UnionPay and JCB to spearhead Asian payment push in Russia Read More
