While the Russian economic system de facto continues to rely mainly on energy resources and export, discussions about the country’s development strategy focus on alternative, innovation-driven models, in line with President Medvedev’s declared commitment to the country’s modernization.
Troika Dialog Asset Management announced last Friday the creation of Troika Dialog-Global Internet, a new open ended equity fund that will invest exclusively in Internet related businesses, both in Russia and abroad.
A poll released by SuperJob.ru, a leading Russian language employment search provider in Russia and the CIS, indicated that just 28% of Russian Internet users are registered with a professional social network.
Vizerra, a Moscow based developer of 3D applications for city planning, construction projects, product design, and virtual tourism, announced earlier this week the sale of a blocking stake (26%) in its capital to Solway, a Cyprus-based diversified investment group.
Fast Lane Ventures, a business incubator based in Moscow, announced the launch of Upladder.ru, the first Russian online job search service reserved for professionals with a monthly salary of more than 100,000 rubles, or $3,500.
Soyuz LTE, the consortium of Russian telecom operators formed to investigate the conditions for the deployment of LTE and LTE Advanced infrastructure in Russia, submitted its report with conclusions to the State Commission on Radio Frequencies (SCRF) on July 1 as planned. The consortium was requested by the Russian Ministry of Communications and Mass Media …
Refine.io, a startup offering to “create and share fully functional prototypes of mobile apps in about the same time as it takes to develop a wireframe,” received seed funding from Russia’s search engine giant Yandex under the Yandex.Factory program.
KupiKupon.ru, one of Russia’s numerous local deal sites, is in discussions with investors to raise between $10 to $15 million, reported Unova, a Russian site dedicated to high tech and venture news. To date, KupiKupon has received $6 million in previous rounds rounds of financing.
Online portal and search engine Rambler announced last week its first investment since its merger with media company Afisha. Rambler acquired Kanobu Network, the leading Russian network gaming site, for $3.5 million, an unnamed source told the Russian business daily Vedomosti.
LinguaLeo emerged last week as the winner of the annual BIT competition, Russia’s primary innovation and entrepreneurship contest with entrants from all across the country. LinguaLeo is a web service that teaches foreign languages using popular TV serials, books, and contextual dialogues.
National innovation and entrepreneurship contest BIT held its finale last Friday on the premises of Moscow business incubator Digital October. LinguaLeo, a web service that teaches foreign languages through popular TV serials, books and contextual dialogues, walked away with the first prize.
Russian Phone Company (RPC), the retail wing of major mobile operator MTS, announced last week that it had filed a number of lawsuits against the world’s four major mobile handset makers. According to the lawsuits, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG are accused of systematically violating deadlines in contractual obligations for non-functional handsets. The four …
