Mobile TeleSystems (MTS, a leading Russian mobile operator) is offering online taxi hailing and medical appointments over video, as Russia’s largest mobile carrier pursues new apps for revenue growth amid stiff wireless price competition. The carrier made an speedy foray into Russia’s taxi business in October after Uber in July agreed to merge its operations into a …
The Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation has approved the Yandex-Uber plan to merge their respective taxi service activity in the country. To ensure fair competition, the antimonopoly authority has requested the companies to “provide users with the most complete and accessible information of the legal person carrying out the transportation, with the preservation of the history …
Russia’s antimonopoly authority clears merger between Uber and local service Yandex.Taxi Read More
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
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 …
Illustrating the growing traction of the online cargo transportation market, Moscow-based logistics services provider KPD-Cargo has acquired a majority stake in online trucking service GroozGo for $2.1 million. Reported earlier this month, the deal move came just two months after a competing Russian project was announced, and almost simultaneously with another funding round for Deliver, which attracted …
GroozGo: 3rd investment in a row in Russian online cargo transportation projects Read More
Airbnb has shuttered its Russian subsidiary in a bid to simplify the company’s operating structure across the globe. The company has decided that it was “easier” to conduct operations through their offices in Berlin, Dublin and London, said company spokesperson Yekaterina Kukureko. “Therefore, there was no reason to keep the Russian subsidiary open.” “We remain committed to …
Last month Mail.ru Group, a leading LSE-listed Russian Internet group, launched a ride sharing service in Russia and neighboring Russian-speaking countries. Dubbed ‘Beepcar,’ the service is available in Russian and English languages. Among other features, an automatic confirmation option is intended for drivers who would welcome any fellow passengers without validating their requests individually. The service has initially been …
Mail.ru Group launches international ride sharing service Read More
It has all the convenience and technical pizzazz of the transportation network Uber, but it helps you arrange funerals, not rides. A project manager working at the Russian Internet giant Yandex is designing an app called ‘Umer‘ (“Died” in Russian) — a service built to help people overcome the logistical difficulties of putting a loved one to rest. Umer …
Russian entrepreneur aims to launch ‘Uber for funerals’ Read More
Starting January 1, foreign companies selling e-content via the Internet in Russia are required to register private offices in Russia, submit information on their sales in the country, and pay a 18% value-added tax. The tax applies to the following types of content or services: selling and giving access to e-books, audio and visual content, images …
Today Gett announced that it has received a $100 million loan facility from Sberbank CIB, the corporate and investment banking branch of Russian national savings Sberbank. This funding comes on top of $540 million previously raised by the company since 2010, according to Sberbank CIB. The last round of financing took place in May 2016, with Volkswagen Group …
On-demand ride service Gett receives $100 million loan from Russia’s Sberbank Read More
Blablacar’s activity in Russia has reached a “phenomenal level,” said its co-founder and CEO Nicolas Bruisson in a recent interview with French business daily Les Echos. “Our concept is popular there, there was a demand but little competition,” Bruisson said. He expects Russia to become his company’s number one market, even before France, in 2017. The French …
Russia set to become Blablacar’s largest market in 2017 Read More
BlaBlaCar, the Paris-based global ridesharing giant, will now take a fee from passengers for every booking in Russia and neighboring countries. Since the company launched in the area in 2014, passengers had enjoyed free access to book their trips. They only had to pay cash to the driver to share riding costs. Blablacar says that its approach is to …
