In the past few months, Russian Internet major VK (previously Mail.ru Group) demonstrated a strong appetite for online education — both in Russia and abroad. In August the group, partnering with Alexander Galitsky, integrated its properties Skillbox and GeekBrains into a holding called Skillbox Limited. In October, VK completed the move by merging SkillFactory, …
VK acquires edtech businesses in Russia and Brazil Read More
The impressive list of Russian entrepreneurs involved in multi billion dollar tech companies — from Pavel Durov (VK, Telegram), to Andrew Filev (Wrike), to Nikolay Storonsky (Revolut), to Ratmir Timashev (Veeam Software), and many more — is not coming to an end. 31-year-old Arseniy Vershinin, who was born in Ulan Ude, a small town in Siberia, is also one of them. A …
This techie from a small Siberian town co-owns a $6 billion German HR tech startup Read More
Last week Sber, the state-controlled financial and digital giant, announced the launch of a Digital Skills School, aiming to teach elderly people to use digital services in everyday life. The financial and digital giant defines its initiative as “an educational and awareness-raising project,” touting its “simple language and accessible formats.” Users can learn how to buy medications …
Sber aims to make elderly people digitally literate Read More
Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries on Tuesday defended its decision to pay employees of pickup points based on their speed, a policy that triggered discontent among workers. The company owned by Russia’s richest woman Tatyana Bakalchuk is one of the largest online marketplaces in the country and has enjoyed success across the former U.S.S.R. In a …
Employees of Russian e-commerce leader Wildberries denounce pay shake-up Read More
Baring Vostok, the Russian PE/VC giant, Winter Capital, a Moscow-based international fund backed, in particular, by billionaire Vladimir Potanin, and Goldman Sachs have invested $50 million in GetCourse. This Russian edtech startup allows its customers — more than 20,000 schools, trainers, coaches and bloggers — to create, deliver, promote and sell their own educational content. The service, which …
Children and teenagers from some 80 countries are taking part in the Artificial Intelligence International Junior Contest (AIIJC). Russia, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Bangladesh account for the largest cohorts of participants, but the Philippines, Canada, Ecuador and a variety of other countries are also involved. This first-of-its-kind competition is organized jointly by Sber, Russia’s state-controlled financial and …
Russian digital majors invite children from across the world to AI contest Read More
Students from Russia regularly win international informatics olympiads. Many Russian programmers work for IT companies all over the world, creating popular software, online games and mobile apps. Examples of the world’s most popular Russian-made programs are uncomplicated video game Tetris, designed by Soviet programmer Alexey Pajitnov, with more than 500 million downloads in 2020; Pavel Durov’s messaging service Telegram, used …
Why Russian programmers are among the best in the world Read More
The board of the Artificial Intelligence Alliance met in late March in Moscow, providing updates about this organization created by large Russian companies 2019. An investment platform will be launched to “consolidate the AI project and idea pipeline” and provide participating companies with access to the corporate accelerators of the members. Dubbed ‘AI-Hub,’ this platform will also “allow …
Russia’s AI Alliance launches training programs, contests and an investment platform Read More
On April 8, the online fair ‘Your Next Move: Spotlight on the Baltics‘ will highlight the region’s fast-growing tech ecosystem and its opportunities for international talents, including from Russian-speaking countries. This online event aims to position Latvia, in particular, as a first-choice destination to build a professional carrier or do business within a number of companies, from …
New remote opportunities in the Baltics for tech talents worldwide (online fair, April 8) Read More
Last week Yandex, the Russian NASDAQ-listed digital tech giant, launched an online course on data labeling, presenting the initiative as a world’s first. This five-week course aims to teach “efficient and scalable data labeling for ML and various business processes” based on a crowdsourcing approach. Students are explained how to “split complex challenges into small tasks and distribute them among a …
Yandex launches world’s first crowdsourced data-labeling course on Coursera Read More
The Russian steel and mining giant Severstal plans to invest no less than 9.1 billion rubles ($122 million at the current exchange rate) “in IT and digital projects” this year. This year will see “a significant change [in] the company’s IT process model and organizational structure,” following the creation of “four new client teams responsible …
Last week, a sizable deal in the field of neurosciences was announced in Russia. Maxim Basov, an executive from the agro industry, has invested in Wikium, an award-winning startup offering brain productivity exercises for office staff and students. Basov took control of the company, acquiring a 66% stake, Rusbase reported. The amount of the deal was not disclosed, but Rusbase noted …
