The Moscow Seed Fund, the City of Moscow’s venture arm, has poured 8 million rubles (about $240,000) into a startup named Probki Iz Okna (Russian for “traffic jams from the window”). The company has created a large network of webcams installed and controlled by users to monitor the road traffic situation in real time in the capital and in 80 other Russian cities.
This funding round was initiated by Alexey Prudnikov, an angel investor who was identified by the Moscow Seed Fund as someone they wanted to work with as the result of a competition last year.
Prudnikov himself has invested 4 million rubles ($120,000) in the startup, said Moscow Seed Fund’s representative Maria Ariskina in an exchange with East-West Digital News.
The fund’s investment is actually a three-year, low-interest investment loan, which can be converted into shares, Ariskina said.
ProbkiIzOkna is planning to use the money to further develop and promote the traffic-monitoring project. There are currently 327 webcams installed along Moscow roads only, and the company expects this number to reach 2,000 by the year’s end, with other cities included. Users who wish to contribute to the monitoring simply take a photo of the streets they can view from their window and apply to receive a free webcam and a $10 monthly compensation, which in most cases covers about a half the monthly cost of a home Internet connection.
The Moscow Seed Fund’s portfolio already includes a diverse range of startups. Its latest investments went to ITMan, Hiconversion, and SocialMart.
