KupiVIP.ru, Russia’s leading online shopping club, announced today the completion of a $55 million Series C funding deal – a record transaction for a Russian ecommerce business. Three new investors participated in the operation: Balderton Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Russia Partners.
Russia ranks 77th of the 138 countries listed in the latest Networked Readiness Index compiled by the World Economic Forum, up three positions from 80th in the index’s 2009 edition. The index is a component of the Global Information Technology Report published annually by the Forum.
Tele2 Russia emerged as the main winner in four regional tenders for GSM 1800 licenses in the Russian Far East. It has received from telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor the right to operate in the Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Koryak, and Chukotka regions and will now operate in 41 Russian regions out of 83.
The consortium appointed several months ago by Russian authorities to investigate the conditions of LTE deployment was finally formed this past Monday, reports Russian business daily Vedomosti.
Babyboom.ru, a Russian children’s goods website, has raised $900,000 from investors including Index Ventures and Team Europe Ventures as well as from business angels Chamath Palihapitiya, VP of Facebook, Fabrice Grinda, the founder of OLX, Jose Marin, the founder of IG Expansion and James Gutierrez, the founder of Progreso Financiero.
Sweden’s Swepos became the first foreign company to use Russia’s GLONASS positioning technology, due to Swepos’ conviction that it is better than GPS at northern latitudes, reported Reuters.
Federal Security Service (FSB) senior official Alexander Andreyechkin complained last Friday during a government meeting that “the uncontrollable use of Gmail, Hotmail, and Skype [in particular] could lead to a major threat to Russia’s security.” FSB is “more and more concerned about these services using foreign-made cryptographic means” that Russia’s security services cannot access, he added.
First Satellite Company, Russia’s leading distributor and retailer of digital TV equipment, announced last week that it has been acquired by Dutch fund Enterprise Emerging Markets Fund B.V.
Tele2 board member Mia Brunell Livfors met with Russian Communications and Mass Media Minister Igor Shchegolev during a Russo-Swedish meeting on bilateral commercial relations held in Stockholm in late March, reported Vedomosti, a Russian business daily.
Pirate Pay, a startup from Perm, and Ajatix, another one from Volgograd, have both received grant funding from the Microsoft Seed Finance Fund. The fund aims to provide direct financial support to startups in the areas of software and SaaS services. The fund was created in November 2010 in partnership with Skolkovo, the state sponsored …
Cisco has announced its first product to be manufactured in Russia: an innovative hardware VPN module that will be produced via a multi-level high-tech supply chain using Cisco’s Russian partners. This production launch is presented as the result of the long-term commitment Cisco made last June to help sustainably develop technological innovation in Russia.
Euroset Holding NV, parent company of Euroset Group, has promised to pay dividends in 2012 that range from 45% to 75% of the consolidated net income of the preceding fiscal year, as stated in the preliminary prospectus for the IPO of Euroset Holding.
