Earlier this month Dating Group, a Russian-founded international dating major, announced the acquisition of French dating app Once for $18 million in cash and stock. Founded in 2015 by Jean Meyer and Clémentine Lalande, Once aims to “brings back the magic to the online dating world.” It claims 9 million users, 5 million chats daily and 50 million …
Dating Group acquires French ‘slow dating’ app Once for $18 million Read More
Kamaz, the Russian truck giant (part of the state-owned Rostec corporation), and Pulsar VC, an established Russian venture firm, announce an international startup scouting partnership focusing on mobility and IoT. The companies said they will “jointly search for new markets in the transport sector and attract investment in start-ups.” They may also consider “creating a …
Russian truck giant Kamaz aims to scout startups across the world Read More
Telegram now serves more than 500 million active users, its Russian co-founder Pavel Durov announced Tuesday. Twenty-five million new users joined the platform in the previous 72 hours alone. “We’ve had surges of downloads before, throughout our seven-year history of protecting user privacy, but this time is different,” Durov emphasized. The surge comes as rival platform WhatsApp changed its …
Amid explosive user growth, Telegram considers raising more than $1 billion in debt Read More
Illustrating the current traction of Russian edtech startups, online programming school Kodland has raised $1.5 million in its first round of financing. The money was brought in by Russian venture capitalist Alexander Nevinsky (a partner at I2BF) and an unnamed “European fund,” as reported by VC.RU. The startup will use the fresh funding to test product …
Russian edtech on the rise: Kodland raises $1.5 million to expand internationally Read More
Encrypted messaging app Telegram will launch pay-for services in 2021, its Russian-born founder Pavel Durov said Wednesday, as the growing company needed “at least a few hundred million dollars per year.” “Telegram will begin to generate revenue, starting next year,” Durov said in a statement. “We will be able to launch countless new features and welcome billions …
Russian online dating leader Mamba is investing some $3 million to develop its business in Germany and Italy, reported Kommersant, citing exchanges with company representatives. The company expects the average monthly revenue per user in these countries to be almost twice as high as in Russia, where it stands around 500 rubles ($6.7 at the …
Russian dating major Mamba invests $3 million to develop in Germany, Italy Read More
IntellectoKids, a Russian-founded edtech startup, has raised a $3 million Series A round, reports VC.RU. The funding was provided by Allrise Capital (Silicon Valley), Vershina Capital (Moscow) and Quonota Investments (Cyprus), as well as Genesis Investments, a major Ukrainian investor which led a previous round just a year ago. Founded in 2016, IntellectoKids offers a media, entertainment and education platform …
IntellectoKids raises $3 million from US, Russian, Cypriot and Ukrainian funds Read More
Russia’s Yandex has started using its self-driving robot to deliver fast food orders, the company announced Wednesday. The small six-wheeled autonomous robot — dubbed Yandex Rover — has started delivering orders from Yandex’s food delivery service, Yandex Eats, to customers in one of Moscow’s central business districts. Just like a human courier, after an order …
Uchi Group, the publisher of Russia’s leading online education platform for school pupils, has agreed an investment of at least 3.75 billion rubles ($50 million at the current exchange rate) from Mail.Ru. The LSE-listed group will receive a 25% stake in exchange for this amount, while the RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, and the Russia-China Investment …
The Russian-born edtech startup Novakid has just completed a $4.25 million Series A round. The deal was led by Hungary-based PortfoLion and LearnStart, a major edtech-focused US fund, with participation from TMT Investments and Xploration Capital. A previous $1.5 million funding round took place less than a year ago, involving South Korean VC BonAngels and Russian VC …
This edtech startup grows by 500% y-o-y and raises millions from international investors Read More
Launched almost a year ago, a Moscow city experiment to use artificial intelligence and computer vision technologies in the local healthcare system has involved more than 20 solution providers offering 38 services. The city authorities intend to involve even more providers, medical organisations and doctors, and develop new AI use cases. The city also aims …
Moscow government experiments AI in local healthcare system Read More
As announced previously, the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation has launched an application called ‘Gosuslugi. Covid Tracker’ to track contacts with coronavirus patients all around Russia. Users diagnosed with COVID-19 must independently report this anonymously through the application. In turn, users with whom this person came in close contact in the last …
Russian government launches Covid contact-tracing app Read More
