Global self-service wholesaler Metro Cash & Carry will open an online store in Russia in the last quarter of this year, according to the Russian subsidiary’s general manager, Peter Boon. Tests of the online platform will start in August, Boon told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti. The company will continue to develop its offline …
Metro Cash & Carry to launch online store in Q4 2012 Read More
AFK Sistema, a Russian LSE-listed holding, announced last week that it has invested in Stream.ru, a paid video content portal formerly known as Omlet.ru. Stream.ru was launched in 2009 by MTS, a Sistema subsidiary and a leading Russian mobile operator. With a reported investment of 496 million rubles ($15 million), Sistema now owns 55% of …
AFK Sistema lays out $15 million to buttress Omlet.ru as content startup rebrands Read More
Scartel, the leading Russian WiMAX and LTE operator operating under the Yota brand, stopped operations in Bielorussia yesterday, just six months after it launch in this country of almost 10 million inhabitants. Scartel had deployed 38 LTE base stations deployed in Minsk, the capital, and Grodno, a major city.
MirVracha.ru, a major Internet portal for physicians and medical students, has completed its first round of financing, totaling $1.4 million. The round was led by Japanese fund UMJ Russia, which received a majority stake, with the participation of M3 Inc., a Japanese company offering innovative web solutions for medical professionals and the life sciences industry, …
Physicians’ portal MirVracha secures $1.4 million from Japanese investors Read More
Fast Lane Ventures, the Moscow-based serial Internet startup developer, yesterday announced a radical move to address its growing HR needs: the opening of Fast Lane Academia, a regional office in Ivanovo – a city 250 kilometers northeast of Moscow – which will hire and train young specialists to support its portfolio companies. Fifty Ivanovo graduates …
Fast Lane Ventures to hire and train staff from Ivanovo Read More
Skolkovo, the state-sponsored innovation hub now nearing completion near Moscow, is considering opening a rep office in China, reports Seda Pumpyanskaya, Skolkovo’s Vice-president for International Relations and Communications and a participant in the most recent round of talks between the parties. According to the Skolkovo envoy, the potential partners have made “substantial headway in charting …
Skolkovo cements ties with China on Putin’s fast track Read More
Yesterday, Paris-based Olma Invest SAS announced it has invested €1 million in Dimeres, a group of e-commerce and e-marketing companies operating in the field of fashion, in exchange for a 25% stake. Founded in 2011 by French entrepreneurs Maximilien Jacquet and Frédéric Bonelli, Dimeres has adapted successful shopping models from Western markets. Among the Dimeres …
A major player on the Russian e-commerce scene suddenly emerged in late May: a cash-back e-commerce platform called Clickandpay.ru that claims to have raised $60 million to finance just the first stages of its development. After a few months operating in test mode, the site has already enrolled more than 50 e-shops, including such market …
First Russian cash-back marketplace launches; claims to have raised $60 million Read More
Runa Capital announced today that it has increased its holdings from $75 million to $135 million through a private offering with its existing partners. This additional capital will enable the fund to increase its maximum investment size to the $10 million level, compared to $5 million previously. The fund is also broadening its focus beyond …
Moscow-based venture fund Runa Capital increases size, broadens focus Read More
A consortium of investors led by Da Vinci Capital Partners, Insight Capital, Alpha Associates and Runa Capital has invested $45 million for a minority stake in B2B-Center.ru, the leading online procurement platform in Russia. This cash-out deal valued the company at an approximate $160 million, company founder Alexander Boyko told Russian business daily Vedomosti last …
Russian and Western funds acquire minority stakes in online procurement service B2B-Center Read More
Two important international tech events took place on May 28 and 29 in Moscow, nearly simultaneously and almost in the same location, a former chocolate factory in center town. The first was the legendary DLD Conference, making its Moscow debut, and the second event was an international startup and investor conference named “42.” The events …
From ‘Kalinka’ to high tech startups, two conferences showed Russia’s changing face Read More
Gala Records, Russia’s first private music record label, has withdrawn six legal claims it earlier advanced against Mail.ru Group for alleged rights infringement and instead inked a license agreement with the leading Russian Internet company, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported on Monday, citing direct exchanges with the two companies’ spokespersons. Under the terms of …
