A pool of individual investors has put 431 million rubles (around $5.6 million at the current exchange rate) in Beri Zaryad, a Moscow-based smartphone charging service. As reported by Forbes, the investors include Alexander Kabatov, Valery Ivanov, Bogdan Leonov and Alla Merman. The funding has been split as follows: 102 million rubles in capital injection …
Russian investors put millions in smartphone service startups Read More
A new Russian tech billionaire emerged last week on the NASDAQ with the SPAC-enabled listing of Arrival, a company touted as a game-changer in the electric car industry. Born 42 years ago in the Soviet republic of Georgia, Denis Sverlov founded in first company — an ERP integrator called IT Vision — in 2000, immediately after graduating the …
This former Russian deputy minister is now worth $10 billion after NASDAQ IPO Read More
The board of the Artificial Intelligence Alliance met in late March in Moscow, providing updates about this organization created by large Russian companies 2019. An investment platform will be launched to “consolidate the AI project and idea pipeline” and provide participating companies with access to the corporate accelerators of the members. Dubbed ‘AI-Hub,’ this platform will also “allow …
Russia’s AI Alliance launches training programs, contests and an investment platform Read More
While Russian authorities have in recent months ramped up pressure on foreign social media and video hosting platforms, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today he hopes Russia will not be forced to block them. “No one wants a full ban and it would be silly to advocate for one, but it’s necessary to force these …
The rumors aired in late 2020 about dissensions between Mail.ru Group (an LSE-listed Russian Internet major) and Sber (the state-controlled financial and technology giant previously known as Sberbank) could be confirmed soon. The Financial Times learned that the two groups are considering splitting jointly-owned assets, including meal delivery service Delivery Club and ride-hailing service Citimobil. These companies are part of a joint …
Sber and Mail.ru Group “on the brink of divorce” (FT) Read More
Ford is set to become the first automaker to launch mass production of electric vehicles in Russia, the Kommersant newspaper has reported. The U.S. car giant, through a joint venture with Russian firm Sollers, will start making electric versions of its Ford Transit vans at a plant in Russia’s republic of Tatarstan from 2022, a company …
Ford to become first mass producer of electric vehicles in Russia Read More
In early December 2020, an anonymous user set up a TikTok channel, called “First Person”, dedicated to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The channel posts deep fake videos of an actor impersonating Putin. “When you go to a videoconference and don’t have to change out of your sweatpants,” says the caption on the very first video …
Earlier this week Playrix, a global Russian-founded gaming giant, announced the acquisition of Ukrainian game studio Boolat Games. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Launched 20 years ago, Boolat Games creates multi-platform free-to-play and adventure games. Different genres are available, from casual to hardcore: RPG, time-management, hidden objects, strategy, etc. The studio’s portfolio features dozens …
Russian gaming giant Playrix acquires Ukrainian Boolat Games Read More
Last week Yandex, the Russian NASDAQ-listed digital tech giant, launched an online course on data labeling, presenting the initiative as a world’s first. This five-week course aims to teach “efficient and scalable data labeling for ML and various business processes” based on a crowdsourcing approach. Students are explained how to “split complex challenges into small tasks and distribute them among a …
Yandex launches world’s first crowdsourced data-labeling course on Coursera Read More
AliExpress Russia, a leading cross-border and domestic e-commerce platform in Russia, has invested in a major regional e-commerce company, KazanExpress, acquiring a 30% stake. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed but, in an exchange with Kommersant, KazanExpress co-owner Linar Khusnullin refered to an amount of “several billions of rubles” (dozens of millions of …
AliExpress Russia invests in regional marketplace KazanExpress Read More
Earlier this month in Germany, a Russian-founded startup launched a “4-in-1 finance platform” for SMBs — a solution that automates admin and accounting processes. The startup, dubbed Monite, also announced the completion of a €1.1 million pre-seed funding round, which involved no less than 10 investors. Among them are Berlin-based signals Venture Capital, Zurich-based Tomahawk VC, Turkish fund InVentures …
Two startup entrepreneurs from Russia aim to “revolutionize SME finance” in Germany Read More
The Russian government plans to create a “digital residency” system for foreign IT companies. According to this initiative, Russia will adopt legislation by the end of 2021 that will oblige foreign companies with a client base of more than 100,000–500,000 Russian users to register legal entities in the country and pay taxes. Foreign nationals will …
Russia plans to require foreign IT companies to open local offices and pay taxes Read More
