Last week Yandex, the NASDAQ-listed Russian search giant and Google’s archrival on the Russian market, celebrated its 20th anniversary. Why is it so popular among Russians? Yandex is more than a company; it’s a matter of national pride. Russians like to wear clothing by major international and American brands, but when it comes to online services, they go local. In …
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) had notified Telegram CEO Pavel Durov that his firm was in violation of the law for not sharing with the authorities the encryption keys it uses to protect its users’ communications. Adopted in 2016, this legislation (dubbed ‘Yarovaya law’ or ‘Big Brother law’) requires messenger apps and other “organizers of information distribution” …
Telegram CEO refuses to comply with FSB demand to access encryption keys Read More
Cryptocurrencies aficionados have a variety of options to buy, store and sell their digital assets – but such operations become complicated when dealing with several currencies. There is now an app to address this issue. It has just been launched by Indacoin, a UK-based company backed by Russian business angels Stanislav Kosorukov, Sergey Merkukov and Alexey …
This app lets you buy more than 200 cryptocurrencies with a bank card Read More
In a bid to help tourists have a more authentic travel experienc, programmers from ITMO University in St. Petersburg have created a computer algorithm that allows travelers to find museums, cafes, streets and other interesting spots based on Instagram posts by local inhabitants. To test the algorithm, scientists analyzed photos taken on Instagram in St. …
Russian new algorithm helps tourists find those secret places that locals love Read More
On September 18, an article appeared on Medium written by a man named Anton Rozenberg, who identified himself as the former technical director at the Russian social network Vkontakte and a former director of special operations at the instant messenger Telegram. In the text, Rozenberg described his falling out with the Durov brothers, who created both Vkontakte …
A lawsuit in St. Petersburg raises questions about Telegram’s operations in Russia Read More
Today Yandex.Translate launched a hybrid machine translation system that combines neural and statistical approaches to machine translation to deliver our users an even higher quality translation that utilizes the complementary strengths of both translation models. The new system first translates users’ queries using both a statistical and a neural machine translation model. Next, CatBoost, our gradient …
Ride-hailing app inDriver has raised a $5 million Series A round from Leta Capital, TechCrunch reports. This startup from Yakutsk, Siberia has an unusual business model: passengers enter the price they are willing to pay, while drivers accept the orders only upon agreement of the fare. “inDriver does not influence price formation and does not take a commission …
Siberian ride-hailing app with alternative business model secures $5 million Read More
In January this year, Russia’s state-run television channel Rossia-24 aired a special report featuring an anonymous political blogger. His face was concealed behind a black mask and his voice artificially altered. Appearing on a wall-to-wall screen in front of a guest panel, the blogger explained he wasn’t interested in reaching a mass audience. He was publishing for …
How Telegram channeled Russia’s political intrigue Read More
Grishin Robotics, an international venture fund with Russian roots, is investing massively in bikesharing platforms. Over the past four months the fund has completed no less than three deals in this segment: In May, it led an $8 million Series A funding round for Spin, a pioneer in this field in the US market. Exponent, CRCM, as well as Quora …
The Russian food delivery startup Elementaree.ru has secured $2 million from several investors, including venture capitalists Ilya Ogai (UFG Private Equity) and Boris Zhilin (Avenir) and Veeam Software Senior VP Anton Antich. The news was reported last week by Vedomosti, which cited exchanges with the startup and with these investors. The startup’s founder Olga Zinovyeva …
Elementaree raises $2 million: Russia’s food delivery market heats up Read More
Earlier this week Yandex, the Russian search giant, released a new search algorithm inspired by neural networks to better understand users’ intent and handle long-tail queries. The new algorithm is named after Korolyov, the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer in the 1950s and 1960s. ‘Korolyov’ significantly improves upon its predecessor, ‘Palekh,’ the neural network-inspired algorithm …
Illustrating the growing interest of Russian corporations in online education, Severgroup, a group of companies controlled by steel magnate Alexey Mordashov, has just acquired a 40% stake in Netology Group. The shares were sold by previous Netology investors, the Russian funds Buran Venture Capital and InVenture Partners, which fully exited the company. The financial terms of the deal have not …
Russian billionaire invests more than $20 million in online education platform Read More
