Adrien Henni

Rambler triggers criminal case against Nginx over IP rights, then steps back

December 16, 2019 December 18, 2019

Last week in Moscow an unexpected criminal case tarnished one of Russia’s best tech success stories – that of Nginx, the world’s most popular web server, which was sold to a US industry giant 15 years after being created by an obscure Russian system administrator. On Thursday, December 12, law enforcement raided the company’s Moscow office. Armed …

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BlaBlaCar completes acquisition of bus ticketing platform Busfor

December 13, 2019 November 12, 2020

BlaBlaCar, the carpooling giant born in France, is expanding to a new market segment with the acquisition of international bus ticketing platform Busfor. The deal, announced in September, has just been completed after obtaining the required antitrust permits in Ukraine, reports Kyiv Post. The terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, but it might …

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AliExpress attracted 5 million Russian online shoppers on ‘Global Shopping Day’

November 13, 2019 November 14, 2019

AliExpress Russia has announced record results for its Global Shopping Day, also known as Singles’ Day, on Nov. 11 and 12. The sales event attracted 5 million Russian consumers, RBC reported, citing company statements. These online shopping aficionados made more than 30 million purchases amounting to some 17.2 billion rubles ($270 million at the current …

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Andrey Andreev sells Badoo, Bumble to Blackstone at $3 billion valuation

November 11, 2019 January 21, 2020

Andrey Andreev, the Russian-born online dating tycoon, has sold his business MagicLab to Blackstone, one of the world’s leading investment firms. The deal valued the company “at approximately $3 billion,” the firm stated, without providing any more details. MagicLab touts itself as the company that “invented how people meet in the modern, mobile age,” “connecting and transformed …

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Yandex.Taxi considers IPO; self-driving business unit to spin off

November 5, 2019 November 12, 2020

Yandex.Taxi, the taxi-hailing company which merged activities in Russia and some neighboring countries with Uber last year, is considering going public through a dual-listing in Russia and the USA. The company is in talks to hire Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to manage the potential IPO. “An IPO is something we are considering as we have said previously, and we work …

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Alibaba and Mail.Ru complete JV deal to dominate Russian e-commerce

October 9, 2019 October 9, 2019

As Russian e-commerce is entering a new growth and concentration cycle, Alibaba, Mail.Ru Group, Russian telco MegaFon and sovereign fund Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) today announced the completion of their e-commerce joint venture deal. The JV will leverage on the existing businesses of AliExpress Russia, the B2C marketplace owned by Alibaba which controls the bulk of e-commerce …

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French carpooling giant BlaBlaCar to acquire bus ticketing platform Busfor

September 25, 2019 November 12, 2020

BlaBlaCar, the carpooling giant born in France, aims to expand on a new market segment with the acquisition of international bus ticketing platform Busfor. The news was reported today by business daily Kommersant, which cites exchanges with BlaBlaCar’s CEO Nicolas Bruisson and Busfor co-founder Ilya Yekushevsky. The deal, which is still subject to regulatory approval, …

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Ivi.ru receives $40 million from top Russian and foreign investors

September 16, 2019 September 16, 2019

A group of top Russian and foreign investors have injected $40 million into ivi.ru, Russia’s largest online video platform in terms of revenue. The transaction, which was announced in June, has just been completed, RBC reported last week, citing exchanges with the company and one of the investors involved. “This investment will give an impetus to …

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Russia’s Dostavista raises $15 million to conquer the “limitless” global crowdsourced delivery market

August 22, 2019 August 22, 2019

Earlier this month Dostavista, an international crowdsourced delivery service with Russian roots, announced the completion of a $15 million Series B funding round. The deal was led by Vostok New Ventures, a Swedish investment firm which is actively involved in the Russian VC market, with participation from existing investors Flashpoint and AddVenture. Founded in 2012, Dostavista already raised …

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Global air ticket booking systems required to comply with Russian personal data localization law by 2021

August 16, 2019 August 16, 2019

Starting from October 31, 2021, the personal data of Russian citizens who book domestic flight tickets will have to be stored on servers located physically on Russian soil. This new requirement stems from a decree signed in late July by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in application of a 2014 law on personal data storage in …

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A new blow to investors’ confidence: Russian draft bill targets foreign ownership of Internet resources

July 30, 2019 September 2, 2019

This past Friday Russian lawmaker Anton Gorelkin submitted to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, a bill targeting “significant [online] information resources” with the capacity of “collecting information on [Russian] users.” Should their foreign ownership exceed 20%, such “information resources” will not be allowed to conduct advertising activities in Russia – an implicit way …

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Sberbank’s alliance with Mail.ru Group puts its partnership with Yandex under question

July 26, 2019 November 12, 2020

In a move that could have far-reaching strategic implications, Mail.ru Group and Sberbank – two giants of the Russian Internet listed on Western exchanges – yesterday announced a joint venture project to develop ride-hailing and food delivery activities. This is the first-ever cooperation of that type between these two companies, the Mail.ru Group press service …

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