Serge Faguet, a Ukraine-born tech entrepreneur who studied at Stanford and co-founded Russian booking service Ostrovok.ru in the early 2010s, made a public confession last week in a Medium post. In the summer of last year, a Russian customs agent at the Moscow airport found five tabs of acid — in addition to a US-physician-prescribed …
How a Ukrainian tech entrepreneur created a startup from a Russian prison Read More
A Russian medical insurance startup called BestDoctor has raised $4.5 million from major Russian investors. These include AddVenture, a pioneer in the Russian venture business, Target Global, a fund with Russian roots operating from Berlin, and LVL1, the investment company of Russian-Israeli Lev Leviev. This is BestDoctor’s third round of equity funding since inception in …
Earlier this month Emerging Travel Group, an international online travel group with Russian connections, announced it raised $10 million in a Series E funding round. The investors are Russian-Israeli tech investor Lev Leviev – through his investment company LVL1 Group – and Igor and Dmitri Bukhman. The company hopes the investment will help it accelerate the …
Emerging Travel Group secures $10 million from Lev Leviev, Igor and Dmitri Bukhman Read More
As a result of the international tensions, Western venture capitalists that traditionally looked at Russia have found themselves in an uncomfortable position over the past year. The Russia label has become a stigma in the eyes of a large part of them, making international funding and development more difficult for local startups. In an exchange with …
HotelTonight, a mobile booking application that helps travelers reserve hotel rooms at the last moment, is coming to Russia, the US company announced via Twitter earlier this month. “We invest in markets where people are ready for spontaneous travel and adapt well to new technologies,” said HotelTonight CEO Jared Simon. “Russia was ideal. Russians don’t plan one …
Last-minute booking app HotelTonight enters Russian market Read More
The past few weeks have demonstrated the uncomfortable position Western venture capitalists that have traditionally invested in Russia are finding themselves in as a result of the international tensions. While, in the eyes of some them, the Russia label has become a stigma, other VCs have proclaimed their commitment to continue investing in Russian startups …
Fast growth appeal vs. pressure of sanctions: Western VCs’ new Russia dilemma Read More
Russia could create a national online hotel booking platform, RIA Novosti and CNews.ru reported last week, citing Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky. “There are plans to create [such a] system. Now we are looking very actively for business partners who can create a Russian analog to Tripadvisor or Booking.com,” Medinsky said at a Public Chamber session in …
Early last year, Russian travel booking site Ostrovok.ru raised $28 million in a Series B round led by General Catalyst Partners, to much fanfare. By the end of the year, however, both General Catalyst and another investor, Accel Partners, had quietly divested their holdings, as Dow Jones VentureWire reported this morning. General Catalyst Managing Director and Co-Founder Joel Cutler confirmed that …
Moscow-based Ostrovok.ru, which runs a online accommodation booking service that has become very popular among Russian speakers worldwide, has struck a partnership with US-based community-driven lodging marketplace company Airbnb. The agreement will make it possible for users of Ostrovok.ru, which just picked up a $12 million round on top of the $25 million secured earlier to support its international expansion ambitions, …
On Thursday Russia’s hot online travel market saw its third major venture funding operation in one month as OnlineTours, a reseller of package tours, closed a $7 million Series B round. The funds were brought in by a VC consortium that includes international funds e.ventures, Global Founders Capital and Holtzbrinck Ventures as well as Russia’s …
Russian tech portal CNews.ru reported last week that Livetex, a St. Petersburg developer of online communication tools, has secured $4 million from Russian fund Vaizra Capital at an undisclosed valuation. The company will use the funds to strengthen infrastructure, expand its product line, and take the first steps towards entering foreign markets. Livetex claims that its instruments, which include …
Online communication tool developer Livetex obtains $4 million from Vaizra Capital Read More
Ostrovok.ru, a major Russian hotel booking service, announced last week that it has raised $12 million in a round led by Vaizra Capital, a fund which belongs to Vkontakte co-founders Vyacheslav Mirilashvili and Lev Leviev. A number of the startup’s existing investors also took part in the round. The transaction, the details of which have …
$38 million not enough for a startup – Ostrovok closes 5th round of funding in 3 years Read More
