“We are considering an initial public offering to possibly take place in 2012 or 2013,” said Vkontakte.ru founder Pavel Durov in an exchange with Russian online publication Gazeta.ru (English version), following informal statements made on Tuesday at a tech conference in Munich. Although no discussions are being held currently with Mail.ru Group, Yandex or Google, a …
Russia’s second largest mobile device retailer Svyaznoy is considering selling between 20 and 30% of its shares in a private equity deal, Russian business daily Kommersant reported. Maxim Nogotkov, the company’s main shareholder, confirmed that Deutsche Bank and Raiffeisenbank received a mandate to find an investor, but declined to disclose the value of their proposed …
Ostrovok.ru, an online hotel booking service launched in 2010 in Russia, has raised an undisclosed amount from Erik Blachfold, CEO of Expedia, Hotwire and Tripit founder Gregg Brockway and Altimeter Capital’s Brad Gerstner. This Series B round of financing comes six months after Ostrovok raised $13.6 million from General Catalyst Partners, AccelPartners, Founders Fund and Atomico Ventures as well …
Hotel booking service Ostrovok.ru attracts new investment from US businessmen Read More
The Russian Antimonopoly Service allowed Rostelecom, the national telecom operator, to acquire 100% of the shares of Enter, a provider of fixed broadband Internet access in Siberia owned by the Dutch company Consumer Enter B. V. Established in 2005, Enter serves 22,000 customers in Barnaul, Novokuznetsk and Tyumen, three major Siberian cities.
Skolkovo, the innovation hub under construction near Moscow, has set a goal of partnering with 50 additional Russia and foreign venture funds this year, said Skolkovo Investment Director Alexander Lupachev in an exchange last Friday with news agency RIA Novosti.
The Russian Anti Monopoly Service allowed MTS, a leading Russian operator, to acquire 100% of the shares of SkyNet, Russian business daily Vedomosti reported yesterday. The target of the acquisition provides Internet access as well as fixed line telephony services in St. Petersburg. MTS competes with other players such as mobile operator Megafon and telecom operator Rostelecom, …
MTS to acquire St. Petersburg Internet and telecom operator Read More
The Rambler-Afisha group invested “hundreds of thousand dollars” in Ichiba.ru, Rambler founder Anton Terekhov told the RIA Novosti news agency last week. Launched in April of last year, Ichiba.ru is an e-commerce marketplace allowing any merchant to present and sell its products online easily. Ichiba claims its catalog includes 3.5 million items from over 400 …
Rambler invests in e-commerce, demonstrates fast traffic growth Read More
Fourteen residents of the business incubator of Ingria, a major technopark in St. Peterburg, attracted a total of 378 million rubles, or approximately $12 million, in investments during 2011. The sum amounted to 3.7 times as much as the previous year’s total.
Fast Lane Ventures, a Moscow based early stage venture capital firm, recently announced it has invested in RentHome.ru, a service that operates and looks nearly identical to HomeAway.com, down to the same colors, layout, and background. Through RentHome.ru, property owners can list their properties for short term rentals, allowing people to make a little more …
Virtually all Russian IT and telecom companies saw their capitalization shrink on stock markets in 2011, with telematics company Russian Navigation Technologies (RNT) and Russian microelectronic device maker Sitronics losing more than 40%. AFK Sistema, a diversified conglomerate, lost as much as 33.8%. Major mobile operators VimpelCom and MTS did barely any better with a loss …
Russian tech companies lost 23% on stock markets in 2011 Read More
In a confidential email sent in October to his management team revealed yesterday by TechCrunch, Oliver Samwer, the co-founder of German incubator Rocket Internet, had crude words for the management of Lamoda.ru, the online shoe retailer he launched in Russia earlier this year. “Our team fucked up in Russia,” wrote Samwer, complaining that Lamoda.ru failed …
Biglion, a major player among Russian daily deal sites, has attracted significant funds from Tiger Global Management, a prominent investment firm operating in the public and private equity markets across the globe, Russian business daily Vedomosti revealed yesterday. Biglion co-founder Oleg Savtsov has confirmed the deal but did not disclose any details on the amount …
Daily deal site Biglion attracts new investment from Tiger Global Management Read More
