Russia’s search giant Yandex has teamed up with Moscow’s Higher School of Economics (HSE) in order to launch a new computer science faculty at the university. From September 2014 students will be able to enrol in ‘Applied Mathematics and IT’ and ‘Software Engineering’ courses at the faculty, which will offer 180 free places. According to the faculty’s …
Yandex opens new faculty at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics Read More
Russia has broken into the top-50 of the World Economic Forum’s Networked Readiness Index for the first time, rising from 54th to 50th place. It maintained its position as the leading BRICS country in the index, ahead of China (62nd), Brazil (69th), South Africa (70th) and India (83rd). However, Russia was only ranked 6th among former CIS …
The Russian government is to get its own search engine. Rostelecom, the national telecom operator, is planning to launch the new service, called Sputnik, within a matter of weeks, the Russian business daily reported last week. Sputnik first came to the public’s attention in October of last year, when it became clear that Rostelecom was actively trying …
Move over Yandex – State owned telecom to launch its own search engine Read More
Ratmir Tymashev, a partner in venture fund ABRT, has been investing in partnership with Luxembourg-based fund Mangrove Capital Partners since 2007. In this article, published initially by Hopes & Fears, a Russian online publication dedicated to startups and entrepreneurship, he draws on this experience to explain how foreign funds approach the Russian IT sector.
Dreamroomer, which won the Startup Battle at TechCrunch Moscow in December 2013, has raised investment from San Francisco fund 415x Inc. The project has created a service that aims to turn the property rental market on its head by helping landlords to find tenants, instead of vice versa. Property owners add their apartment to DreamRoomer’s …
TechCrunch Moscow winner Dreamroomer attracts US investor Read More
Microsoft has stepped up its support of the Moscow IT-industry. This week the American IT-giant has opened a new $15 million technology center, and also announced that it is to invest $1 million in research at Moscow State University over the next three years. This is the third tech center established by Microsoft in Russia. …
Microsoft opens $15 million technology center in Moscow Read More
Russian online business magazine Hopes & Fears has published its annual list of Russia’s top venture funds. The ratings are calculated from a startuper’s point of view – and so take into account the experience of each fund’s managers, the type of investment they typically make and the number of successful projects in their portfolio. This …
Russian online business magazine ranks Russia’s top funds Read More
While Apple’s products have become a must-have in the Russian political elite, the Russian government no longer uses iPads, according to Communications Minister Nikolay Nikiforov. Instead, ministers are required to use Samsung tablets in cabinet meetings and government committees. Nikiforov, who earlier in the week suggested that the USA’s commitment to eavesdropping on foreign governments …
German media company BURDA is one of the biggest publishers in Russia, producing titles including fashion magazine Burda, women’s mag Liza and its children’s version Liza Girl, tech journals Chip and Computer Bild and men’s mag Playboy. Worldwide the firm has been making strategic investments in digital media projects for more than a decade, and …
In 2013 the share of events tickets bought online increased almost threefold to 12.4%, according to e-ticketing service TicketForEvent. The figure, which include tickets for entertainment, sporting and business-related events in Russia, is based on open data provided by ticket-vendors and event organisers, as well as TicketForEvent’s own statistics. TicketForEvent expects this growth to continue, …
Adobe has announced that it will no longer pursue criminal proceedings against illegal distributors of their software in Russia. This marks a significant change in strategy from the American company, which had previously actively fought against online-piracy. In 2012 Adobe was involved in 27% of the criminal proceedings related to copyright infringement, and in 2013 …
Adobe cuts its Russia staff by half and scales down piracy fight Read More
The Russian mobile apps market is a rapidly growing sector. The market was ‘born’ in 2009, a year after the sector took off in more developed economies. By the end of the year the fledgling sector was worth just $3 million. However, three years of triple digit annual growth saw the sector’s value skyrocket to …
The Russian app market – lots of demand, not much revenue Read More
