Adrien Henni

China’s DinoDirect launches huge sourcing platform for Russian e-merchants

May 28, 2013 May 28, 2013

With online cross-border sales from China to Russia growing dramatically over the past two years, DinoDirect, a major Chinese online retailer, has now announced the launch of “Osell,” a B2B offer targeting Russian e-merchants of all sizes – including thousands of individual entrepreneurs operating through small sites and social networks – as a first step toward …

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Western mobile payment startup SumUp teams up with Svyaznoy to compete in Russian market

May 23, 2013 May 23, 2013

Landing in a very young, yet already competitive market, the Berlin-headquartered startup SumUp has just announced its launch in Russia. Like its US model, Square, and its Russian competitors, 2can, iPay, Pay-me and SellbyCell, SumUp empowers merchants to accept debit and credit card payments with their mobile devices. Its portable card reader comes with an …

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From Skolkovo to Kazan, international VCs visit top innovation spots but lose hockey match against local champions

May 2, 2013 May 2, 2013

Held last week in Moscow and Kazan, Tatarstan, the 2013 edition of the Russian Tech Tour offered yet another illustration of the growing appeal of the Russian tech scene to venture capitalists. Not only did more than 70 Western and Russian businessmen visit some of the Russian capital’s hottest tech spots, from Skolkovo to Digital October, they …

From Skolkovo to Kazan, international VCs visit top innovation spots but lose hockey match against local champions Read More

E-commerce platform TetraMall helps manufacturers, distributors go online

April 29, 2013 April 29, 2013

Russia’s manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers can now experiment with online sales without investing in their own IT, payment, fulfillment or even online marketing capacities. A new specially-designed platform called TetraMall was launched last month to offer such clients a complete set of services for starting e-commerce activities “quickly and successfully.” The St. Petersburg-based company claims …

E-commerce platform TetraMall helps manufacturers, distributors go online Read More

New Vkontakte shareholder UCP offers peace to Durov and Mail.ru Group

April 22, 2013 April 22, 2013

In a controversial TV program aired yesterday, Ilya Shcherbovich, the president of the UCP fund which has just acquired a 48% stake in Vkontakte, brought some clarity to his strategy as a major shareholder of Russia’s first social network. Shcherbovich presented himself as a purely financial investor interested in an asset for which he sees bright prospects. …

New Vkontakte shareholder UCP offers peace to Durov and Mail.ru Group Read More

Vkontakte founder Pavel Durov said to be creating an alternative social network in the US

April 22, 2013 April 22, 2013

The Vkontakte drama saw new developments this weekend with TV Rain’s Leonid Parfenov – one of Russia’s most renowned journalists – asserting on his Sunday program that Pavel Durov, the co-founder and CEO of Russia’s leading social network, is currently in Buffalo, NY, “obviously with no intention of returning to Russia.” The journalist linked Durov’s …

Vkontakte founder Pavel Durov said to be creating an alternative social network in the US Read More

Amazon in Russia: Selling e-books or building e-commerce business?

April 19, 2013 April 19, 2013

The Russian edition of Forbes revealed this morning – referring to “several sources on the publishing market” – that Amazon has opened a representative office in Moscow. Arkady Vitrouk, who was previously director of Kindle content for Russia, is reported to head the US giant’s operations in the country. While these moves have not been been confirmed officially, it remains …

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Drama at Vkontakte: UCP claims 48% stake, CEO is involved in police investigation

April 17, 2013 April 17, 2013

United Capital Partners (UCP), a major Russian fund operating in various industries, claims to have acquired a 48% stake in the country’s leading social network Vkontakte.ru, also known as VK.com. The transaction has been put at doubt, however, by the site’s co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov. “According to the company’s charter, existing shareholders have preferential acquisition rights, and we …

Drama at Vkontakte: UCP claims 48% stake, CEO is involved in police investigation Read More

Yandex equals Russia’s first TV channel in advertising revenues

April 17, 2013 September 13, 2016

Illustrating the trend of moving online in the Russian advertising market, search engine giant Yandex saw its advertising revenues equal those of First Channel (“Pervyi Telekanal”), the country’s leading TV channel, for the first time last year. According to First Channel’s annual financial results released earlier this week, the TV channel generated 28.2 billion rubles …

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Rumors dispelled: Richard Branson’s mobile business still alive in Russia – and “expanding aggressively”

April 15, 2013 April 15, 2013

In an exchange with East-West Digital News, a top official of Virgin Connect has denied the rumors circulating in the Russian press that Virgin is shutting down its mobile projects in Russia. Virgin’s founder and chairman Richard Branson was reported to be “definitely upset with Russia” and his local company had supposedly dropped plans to …

Rumors dispelled: Richard Branson’s mobile business still alive in Russia – and “expanding aggressively” Read More

E-learning startup launches internationally with $1 million in funding

April 10, 2013 April 10, 2013

People seeking to increase their business skills and knowledge now have a new way of accessing quality instruction without attending MBA classes at Stanford or INSEAD. Eduson.tv, a new e-learning service launched earlier this week by a team from Russia, provides courses from leading professors and expert guest lecturers – from London Business School Adjunct Professor …

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Sendmebox.ru raises $300,000 to build cross-border marketplace

April 4, 2013 April 4, 2013

A group of e-commerce entrepreneurs from Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia has secured $300,000 in equity investment – including $200,000 from the Moscow Seed Fund and $100,000 from angel investor Andrei Golovin – to launch Sendmebox, a platform to help Russian online customers shopping on foreign sites. A few months before site launch, the deal valued …

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