Now a top global crypto mining location, Russia considers introducing higher energy tariffs

October 19, 2021

Russia has become one of the world’s top three locations for bitcoin mining activity, following China’s crackdown on crypto earlier this year.  In August 2021, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index,  bitcoin miners in Russia accounted for 13.6% of the total global BTC mining hash rate distribution, bested by only the United States (26.2%) and Kazakhstan (21.9%). Energy consumption has grown …

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Russia and WEF to launch ‘Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution’ in Moscow

October 18, 2021

Last week the Russian government and the World Economic Forum announced Russia is joining the WEF’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (CFIR) Network. The agreement was inked in Moscow by WEF President Børge Brende and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko.  CFIR Russia will be hosted by Digital Economy, a Moscow-based non-profit created by national technology leaders to facilitate …

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Moscow metro introduces “world’s first” pay-by-face system

October 15, 2021

The Moscow Metro on Friday rolled out what authorities have touted as the world’s first fare payment system based on facial recognition technology. The cashless, cardless and phone-less system, called ‘Face Pay,’ has been fitted at special turnstiles across the Russian capital’s more than 240 metro stations. “To enter the metro, passengers won’t need a …

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Russian and Ukrainian roots, US exit: Jelastic acquired by Virtuozzo

October 14, 2021

Last week Jelastic, a multi-cloud Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) company established in Silicon Valley with Russian and Ukrainian roots, announced its acquisition by Seattle-based Virtuozzo. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.  Jelastic’s cloud services combine platform and container capacities in a single package for hosting providers, enterprises and developers. Virtuozzo is a leader in virtualization and hyperconverged software: its …

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Yandex acquires Wind’s Israeli e-scooter operations

October 15, 2021

Russian tech giant Yandex is expanding its mobility footprint in Israel with the acquisition of shared e-scooter company Wind’s Israeli operations. The two are not sharing the terms of the deal, but Israeli financial newspaper Globes reported that it is estimated to have cost $40 million to $50 million. Wind is one of the top e-scooter sharing …

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Mail.ru Group rebrands to ‘VK’

October 15, 2021

On Tuesday Mail.ru Group, the LSE-listed Russian Internet major, announced its rebranding to ‘VK,’ uniting most of its online activities around the abbreviated name of its social media flagship Vkontakte.  “While market analysts and professionals know us as Mail.ru Group, the connection between our projects was not always obvious to users,” explains the group, and …

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In 2021, Mail.Ru and Sber injected $600 million in their mobility and foodtech JV

October 13, 2021

Last week Mail.ru Group, the LSE-listed Russian Internet major, and Sber (ex-Sberbank), the state-controlled financial and technology giant, announced an injection of 12.2 billion rubles (around $170 million) into their O2O joint venture. The latest capital increase brought the total amount they put in the JV this year to 43 billion rubles (around $600 million at the …

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Russian car-sharing major Delimobil files for listing in New York

October 23, 2021

This past Friday Delimobil Holding S.A., a Luxembourg-registered, Moscow-based car-sharing company, filed for listing on the New York Stock Exchange. BofA Securities, Citigroup Global Markets and VTB Capital will act as joint lead book-running managers while Banco Santander, Renaissance Securities and Sberbank CIB will be joint bookrunners, the company said, cited by Reuters.  A pioneer …

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Mail.ru Group pursues gaming acquisitions across Russia and Belarus

October 14, 2021

Mail.ru Group’s appetite for acquisitions in the gaming space was confirmed again today as My.Games Venture Capital (MGVC), the investment arm of its subsidiary My.Games, announced minority investments in three game studios. These are Tworogue Games and VOX, based in Moscow, and Wideview Games from Minsk, Belarus.  MGVC put on the table $3 million in total for these deals, which include options to …

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Report: Russian venture market hit $1 billion mark in H1 2021

December 31, 2021

Dsight, a Moscow based business intelligence company with a focus on investment, has just released the English version of its Russian venture report covering the first half of 2021.  In contrast with last year’s disappointing numbers, the market showed signs of renewed growth earlier this year, with total deal value exceeding $1 billion for the first semester. This is an …

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Sber aims to make elderly people digitally literate

October 7, 2021

Last week Sber, the state-controlled financial and digital giant, announced the launch of a Digital Skills School, aiming to teach elderly people to use digital services in everyday life. The financial and digital giant defines its initiative as “an educational and awareness-raising project,” touting its “simple language and accessible formats.” Users can learn how to buy medications …

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Two Russian tech moguls exposed by Pandora Papers

January 18, 2023

Earlier this week the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released the ‘Pandora Papers,’ a deep dive into “offshore havens and hidden riches of world leaders and billionaires.”  Millions of leaked documents unveil financial secrets of current and former world leaders, politicians and public officials in 91 countries and territories, alongside “a global lineup of fugitives, con artists …

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