AlterGeo, a Russian startup inspired by the Foursquare concept, announced yesterday it has closed a third round of financing with Intel Capital, prominent Russian venture fund Almaz Capital — sometimes called the Almaz-Cisco fund, and U.S. angel investor Esther Dyson, who is involved in several Russian IT projects.
The amount of the investment was not disclosed, but Russian business daily Vedomosti reports from a source close to the deal that it could be upwards of $10 million, although blogger Yakov Sadchikov believes it was just $5 million.
The company is estimated to be valued at $20 million to $25 million.
This location-based service created in 2008 claims 700,000 registered users, including up to 150,000 active users in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kiev as well as other Russian and Ukrainian cities.
In April 2011, AlterGeo launched a mobile advertising campaign in association with Svyaznoy, a leading Russian mobile retailer. The ads aimed to promote Samsung’s new Galaxy Gio handset to AlterGeo users approaching some of Svyaznoy’s physical retail outlets.
In 2008, AlterGeo received $50,000 at seed stage from AddVenture, a dynamic Russian fund that has just formed its third fund. In 2009, AlterGeo received $1 million from Kite Ventures, another Russian fund focusing on high tech and Internet investment.
Intel Capital also announced yesterday its investment in online shoe retailer Sapato.ru. The fund invested a total of $327 million in 119 deals last year, Reuters reports.
Almaz simultaneously announced an investment in Tallinn, Estonia-based Flirtic. Two weeks ago the fund invested in Russian-Ukrainian startup Travelmenu.ru.
