TMT Investments, an LSE-listed fund with Russian backers, is participating in a $5 million round of additional funding for its portfolio company Depositphotos. The round is led by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which is investing via its Venture Capital Investment Programme. Agreed last month, the transaction will be completed until the end of the year. …
TRData, a London-headquartered startup with a development team based in Ukraine and the majority of customers in Russia, makes for an interesting European tech story. The company, which has recently gone through 500 Startups’ London ‘Distro Dojo’ growth hacking program, is building something akin to a “Bloomberg for emerging markets”. It offers traders access to real-time …
TRData wants to be ‘Bloomberg for emerging markets’ Read More
YouTube has released a list of the music videos that were most popular in Russia in 2015. At over 41 million views, a song by Ukrainian band “Vremya i Steklo“is number one, far ahead of all its competitors. Following Vremya i Steklo in the ranking were the following videos: Polina Gagarina’s Eurovision song “A Million Voices“ (number 2 …
Ukrainian band tops ranking of most popular YouTube music video in Russia Read More
For the first time, Alexander Zharov, the head of Roskomnadzor (Russia’s state media watchdog), floated the prospect of blocking mobile apps sold through Apple’s AppStore and Google Play. Speaking to a group about copyright law earlier today, Zharov proposed the formation of a working group to review the possibility of blocking mobile applications. Boris Edidin, …
Russian censors consider blocking mobile apps on iOS and Android Read More
Next year, a network of kick scooter rental stations will open in Moscow, St Petersburg and Kazan, then in Berlin, Brussels and Paris. The service, designed by Russian startup Samocat.net, will be available through an app, and rental points will be linked into a single network through a cloud platform. Samocat’s founder, Vasily Bykov, has …
An appeals court has approved a settlement agreement between photoblogger Ilya Varlamov and the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, which was convicted of publishing 18 of Varlamov’s photographs without his permission. In accordance with the settlement, the newspaper must advertise Varlamov’s work on its website and the websites of its affiliates. Komsomolskaya Pravda has agreed to send 2 million visitors …
Yandex announced yesterday the launch of ‘Meteum,’ a new machine learning-based technology for “hyper-local and super-accurate weather forecasting.” “This new technology collects a massive volume of data about past forecasts made by external providers like WRF or Foreca, and compares them with the historical weather conditions to figure out the difference between what was forecasted and what happened …
Yandex launches “hyper-local weather forecasting” and “automated information agency” Read More
In July 2015, a local court in Chyorny Yar issued a countrywide ban on a Wikipedia article about charas hashish, leading to a small crisis in August, where the world’s largest encyclopedia nearly became inaccessible to more than 140 million Russians. In a special report for Novaya Gazeta, photographer Evgeny Feldman went to Chyorny Yar to capture life in …
Chyorny Yar, the village that nearly banned Wikipedia for 140 million Russians Read More
Over the past few weeks Ivi.ru, a major Russian online video streaming platform, has made its web, Smart TV and mobile services available in 11 countries of the former Soviet Union, including Ukraine, said its general manager Oleg Tumanov to Russian business daily Vedomosti. The move is following agreements with content right owners. In these countries, …
Russian online video streaming platform Ivi.ru launches in neighboring countries Read More
Lituanian startup Trafi has launched its public transport app in four Russian cities — Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Rostov-upon-Don in southern Russia and Chelyabinsk in the Urals. The mobile app is designed to help users plan and optimize journeys, while cities may avoid congestion and make commuting faster. “Our combination of scientific algorithms, real time processing of traffic situations and crowd-sourced reports allows …
Lituanian startup Trafi spends $1 million to enter Russian market Read More
Freedom House, a US-based NGO monitoring the progress or restriction of human freedoms as it perceives them around the globe, has published its most recent Freedom on the Net 2015 report, the sixth in its series. This edition assesses Internet and digital media in 65 countries in 2014. In its findings, the NGO assigns Russia the “not free” …
Internet no longer free in Russia, says US watchdog Read More
Russian supermodel and philanthropist, Natalia Vodianova, is now also a startup co-founder and creator of a micro-charity app aimed at the millennials — people aged 15-35 who cannot imagine life without their smartphones. The app hopes to “add meaning” to their online existence. The app, christened ‘Elbi,’ makes possible micro donations of £1 or $1 to charitable …
New app by Natalia Vodianova: ‘Love’ is better than ‘Like’ Read More
