Vaizra Investments, the fund belonging to VKontakte founders Lev Leviev and Vyacheslav Mirilashvili, has invested in startups Moovit and Boxed. Moovit is an Israeli app which helps users to plan journeys on public transport, and Boxed is a US app for wholesale buyers. Moovit monitors levels of traffic and the schedules of different forms of public transport in …
Whenever you spot someone on the Moscow metro taking a photo with their mobile phone, chances are you have just witnessed a combination of two things that are widely popular in the Russian capital. Transporting an unparalleled 9 million weekday commuters on its 12 lines, Moscow’s metro boasts a number of stations that wouldn’t look out of place as side wings of the Palace of Versailles.
GeoCV, a startup which is developing a mobile app for creating 3D-models of interiors using mobile sensors, has received $100k investment from Starta Capital and the Moscow Seed Fund. Starta Capital provided a third of the funding, with the rest coming from the Moscow Seed Fund. GeoCV will also receive a further $50k from Starta Capital in the …
3D mobile app startup developer GeoCV closes seed funding round Read More
Last week Croice, whose mobile app allows you to create photo stories with a background audio, announced its first round of financing with $500,000 brought in by venture fund Imperious Group. Launched earlier this year by Russian entrepreneur Vadim Zhernov, the St. Petersburg-based startup presents its app as “a new media format.” The photo stories, named …
Croice secures $500,000 from Imperious Group to develop “new format of photo stories” Read More
– “Hey there, I’m just calling to wake you up,” I said a little awkwardly. – “Thanks. Where are you from?” replied a female voice with a thick Irish accent. – “The UK. You’re from Ireland, right?” – “How could you tell?” she said wryly. – “The flag at the top of the screen.” It took 9 months to be …
Wakie, the social alarm clock that lets you wake up strangers, finally arrives on iOS Read More
Last week Life.SREDA, the venture arm of Russian finance group Life, announced its investment in mobile bank Rocketbank. The amount of the transaction has not been disclosed, but an unnamed source close to the deal told Russian tech blog Firrma.ru that the fund’s stake in Rocketbank does not exceed 10%. Life, which is made up of seven commercial banks across Russia, …
In the opinion of GeoCV CEO Anton Yakubenko, a graduate of the computer graphics laboratory at Moscow State University, a global 3D revolution is coming. Starting in 2015, smartphones and tablets will have 3D options. GeoCV is creating a mobile application for mobile devices of the future. The idea of the GeoCV mobile app was born when …
Moscow university graduate prepares for “global 3D revolution” Read More
Today LSE-listed Russian Internet group Mail.ru Group announced it has acquired popular mapping app Maps.me. With its Android, iOS and BlackBerry apps, Belarus-based Maps.me allow users to download detailed maps for any location around the world and use them even when offline. The service pulls data provided by OpenStreetMap, the open-source, project dedicated to create a crowdsourced, highly detailed world …
Mail.ru Group acquires OpenStreetMap-powered Maps.me Read More
Leta Capital, the venture arm of Russian IT security solution provider Leta Group, and Titanium Investments, an international venture fund with Russian connections, have invested $1 million in Wakie, the developer of a social alarm clock. The deal, which was closed in August, has just been revealed by Russian tech blog Firrma.ru, which refers to an …
Social alarm clock Wakie secured $1 million from Leta Capital and Titanium Investments Read More
In early August, the App Store updated its Made in Russia section. Russian developers’ applications are often highly regarded. There is a special App Store catalogue listing them. But not all applications in the App Store collection originated in Russia. Formally, some of them were created by Russian companies’ offices abroad. The bulk of the …
UberX, the budget version of US-based taxi-hailing service Uber, has arrived in Moscow. Residents of the Russian capital can now travel in an UberX vehicle for just $0.15 per minute / per km, in addition to an initial $1.20 charge. This is significantly less than the $0.40 per minute charge + $5 initial charge to use …
Translation apps on mobile devices are extremely helpful when people are travelling to countries where they don’t speak local language. However, most of translation apps have been working only over the internet, and their use might be quite paintful when in roaming with no good wi-fi connection abroad. Yandex.Translate, an app launched two years ago, now …
Yandex.Translate on iPhone and iPad translates offline Read More
