A new player has emerged on the nascent Russian online alternative accommodation market. Apartator.ru launched its test version in April and its first paid functions in late June. It has just been selected as one of the 10 finalists of the European Demo Night startup contest to be held next week in San Francisco.
Ostrovok.ru, an online hotel booking service launched a year ago in Russia, announced yesterday it has raised as much as $13.6 million from leading international investors. Among them are General Catalyst Partners, AccelPartners, Founders Fund and Atomico Ventures as well as prominent business angels including Qunar founder Fritz Demopoulos, Yandex board member Esther Dyson, Zyngo founder Mark …
KupiKupon.ru, one of Russia’s numerous local deal sites, is in discussions with investors to raise between $10 to $15 million, reported Unova, a Russian site dedicated to high tech and venture news. To date, KupiKupon has received $6 million in previous rounds rounds of financing.
Russian Phone Company (RPC), the retail wing of major mobile operator MTS, announced last week that it had filed a number of lawsuits against the world’s four major mobile handset makers. According to the lawsuits, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG are accused of systematically violating deadlines in contractual obligations for non-functional handsets. The four …
New Federal legislation on payment systems was adopted by the Russian Duma on June 14 and signed into law by President Medvedev on June 27. The new law establishes the legal and organizational foundation for the country’s payment system and regulates the procedure for rendering payment services. The law recognizes four types of players who …
Russian search system Yandex announced last week its intention to allocate funding for Social Market, a startup from Moscow developing a social commerce application, within the Yandex.Factory program.
Leading Russian search company and Internet group Yandex announced last Friday that some of the products offered on its online marketplace can now be viewed in 3D. The new viewing platform is intended to enhance the comparative shopping experience. According to the Yandex blog, “users who hesitate between buying an iPhone or HTC’s Desire HD …
Sitronics and state owned nanotechnology company Rusnano will launch a pilot project to integrate radio frequency identification tags (RFID) in the retail outlets of Russia’s largest food retailer, X5 Retail Group. The three way agreement was signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum held in Russia’s Northern capital last weekend.
Newly registered in the Netherlands, Svyaznoy NV has emerged as the owner of a 99.99% stake in the Svyaznoy Group of Companies CJSC, reported Russian business daily Vedomosti. Svyaznoy NV only controls the retail business of Svyaznoy, currently Russia’s second leading mobile phone retailer after Euroset. Other Svyaznoy assets, including a bank and a retail …
The Russian post discovered and shut down a “scheme of illegal importation via the postal service” in late May. Several major online retailers were discovered to be using postal designated ‘M-bags’ to ship clothes and shoes, the postal operator reported. According to the Universal Postal Convention, M-bags, an economical international shipping format, can only be used …
Asos and Tommy Hilfiger distributors caught in alleged shipping fraud Read More
Russia’s leading online shoe retailer Sapato.ru announced today that it has raised $12 million in a third round of financing. Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment fund, led the investment round along with earlier investors in the project – Direct Group, a Western investment company operating in Moscow through its incubator FastLane, eVenture Capital Partners, the …
Sintez-rus, a traditional and online retailer of Sony electronics products in Russia, has opened its first online retail outpost for Sony-branded products on Russia’s largest social network, Vkontakte.ru. The news was announced yesterday by e-commerce solutions provider Magazinga, which provided the software platform for the new outlet. Magazinga, launched last April, is a joint venture …
Sony products to be sold on Russia’s largest social network Read More
