Spanish bank BBVA has acquired Simple, giving Russian fintech fund Life.SREDA its first exit. BBVA paid $117 million for the American innovative banking app, giving Life.SREDA a 180% return on the investment it made in June 2013. Simple, which was founded in summer 2012, helps clients to control their spending and to meet saving targets. …
The Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), one of the country’s leading graduate science universities, has launched its own $30 million seed fund. The fund, called Phystech Ventures, is focused on incubating and growing MIPT-related tech companies in the fintech, edutech, digital health, 3D-printing, efficient energy use and oil & gas technology sectors.
Since its launch in Sweden in 2008, Spotify has asserted itself as one of the most popular music streaming service of its kind globally. The company serves more than 25 million users and paid subscribers in almost 30 markets, from Western and Eastern Europe to the USA, Mexico, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. Spotify is not yet available to …
Launched in 2011, Apps4all has attracted a sizable portion of the mobile app developer community in Russia and neighboring countries. The startup helps large IT companies and device manufacturers interact with developers and provides a variety of media, event, training, research, and advertising activities. Just weeks ago the young company, which is backed by a Russian candy magnate, entered …
Russian mobile app community startup Apps4all enters UK market Read More
German startup Kreditech, a German startup aiming to become “the Amazon for consumer-finance”, has entered the Russian market. It offers micro loans to consumers and also provides a credit rating service for enterprise customers. The startup’s founders Sebastian Diemer, Alexander Graubner-Müller and Felix Haas believe that their algorithm, which processes over 8,000 data points in …
German consumer-finance startup Kreditech arrives in Russia Read More
The French search engine for car-sharing BlaBlaCar has taken over the Ukrainian site Podorozhniki, in order to enter the Russian and Ukrainian market. The cost of the deal has not been disclosed, as was the case with the expansion in Italy and Spain, but the Podorozhniki site is no longer available and all of its …
French car-sharing service BlaBlaCar expands to Ukraine and Russia Read More
In keeping with long standing Russian tradition, the government has produced a hugely ambitious 5-year plan aimed at doubling IT exports and growing the sector three times faster than the country’s overall GDP. The plan, published in the form of a ‘road-map’ for 2014-2018, was signed by Dmitry Medvedev at the end of 2013, and …
Government five-year plan aims at doubling IT exports Read More
Russian entrepreneurs with global ambitions tend to dream of conquering Europe or the USA. However, Denis Nemtsev decided to try something more “outside of the box”. He travelled to Thailand to set up HipFlat, a real estate search startup which has just secured $335,000 from international angel investors. The funding round, which was oversubscribed and …
Russian entrepreneur raises $335,000 to launch real estate search engine in Thailand Read More
Competition in the saturated Russian online travel sector is fierce, and one of the main players last week took the dramatic step of a complete rebranding as it seeks to differentiate itself from its rivals. Skolkovo resident Oktogo, which was supposed to be read OK-to-go (a fact lost on many), has adopted the name Travel.ru, …
Oktogo.ru raises $5 million and switches to Travel.ru Read More
Just over a month ago the Moscow Stock Exchange signed an agreement of cooperation with NASDAQ OMX. Now the American Stock Exchange will advise Russian technology companies and international organisations that do business in Russia, including how to prepare for their IPO. Given the excitement of many Russian companies surrounding this announcement, the results could …
Western investors “all looking at Russia,” claims NASDAQ boss Read More
VKontakte.ru, Russia’s leading social network also known as VK.com, has recently won two cases brought against them for infringing the copyright of certain songs featured on their website. Experts are struggling to agree on whether or not the social network will be invulnerable to such claims in the future. Nikitin Digital Media Content lost a lawsuit …
The Communications’ Ministry has announced that more than $60 million of federal money will be given to four Russian regions to fund the development of their technoparks up to the end of 2014. Moscow is to receive $10 million, while Sverdlovsk Oblast, which has Yekaterinburg as its capital, will get $22 million. Penza Oblast, in …
Four regions secure $60 million technopark funding up to 2014 Read More
