Finance

Sber said to be in talks with Merlion on major e-commerce acquisition

January 28, 2021

Sber, Russia’s state-controlled financial and tech giant (previously known as Sberbank), is considering the acquisition of Citilink.ru alongside some other assets of the Merlion group. The discussions were reported by business daily Kommersant but not confirmed by the parties.  Selling electronic appliances and a variety of other products, Citilink is among the top Russian e-commerce sites. It was number two …

Sber said to be in talks with Merlion on major e-commerce acquisition Read More

Amid explosive user growth, Telegram considers raising more than $1 billion in debt

January 18, 2021

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

Open banking startup secures $1.6 million from Russian-Belarusian state-backed fund

January 12, 2021

An award-winning fintech startup from Moscow, APIBank, has attracted 120 million rubles in Russia (some $1.6 million at the current exchange rate) from the Russian-Belarusian Investment Fund (RBF Ventures). As reported by CNews.ru, this is the first external capital infusion — in the form of a convertible loan — in this startup launched in 2018. The money will be used “to develop products for payment aggregators and marketplaces, and …

Open banking startup secures $1.6 million from Russian-Belarusian state-backed fund Read More

VEB Ventures invests 1 billion rubles in Zyfra to accelerate Russia’s industrial digitization

January 6, 2021

In late December VEB Ventures (formerly VEB Innovations), a venture fund backed by state development agency VEB.RF (Vnesheconombank), announced an investment of 990 million rubles ($13.4 million at the current exchange rate) in Zyfra. This Russian company develops AI, IIoT-based solutions and robotic mining equipment to digitize the heavy industry. These solutions are intended to provide “objective data analysis” for industrial companies …

VEB Ventures invests 1 billion rubles in Zyfra to accelerate Russia’s industrial digitization Read More

Russian online freight service Deliver secures $7 million to pursue international expansion

January 6, 2021

In the last days of December Deliver announced it secured 500 million rubles (nearly $7 million at the current exchange rate) from VEB Ventures (formerly VEB Innovations), a venture fund backed by state development agency VEB.RF (Vnesheconombank). An internationally successful Russian online freight service, Deliver has set for itself the mission of “solving the inefficiencies of the logistics market by applying modern …

Russian online freight service Deliver secures $7 million to pursue international expansion Read More

Russian edtech on the rise: Kodland raises $1.5 million to expand internationally

January 11, 2022

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

Russian startup attracts $1.2 million to develop AI-powered diagnostics and disease risk assessment tools

December 25, 2020

Botkin.AI (Intellogic), a Russian startup that has developed an AI-powered radiology platform, has completed a 160 million rubles Series B round ($1.2 million at the current exchange rate). The money was injected by two medtech investors: investment holding Tashir Medica and RVC-backed Unicorn Capital Partners.   The funds which took part in the previous round (100 million rubles in June 2019) backed again the …

Russian startup attracts $1.2 million to develop AI-powered diagnostics and disease risk assessment tools Read More

Sber’s international accelerator launches third batch with support from 500 Startups

December 23, 2020

Sber, Russia’s state-controlled financial and tech giant, and its US partner 500 Startups announce the third batch of Sber500, their joint startup acceleration program. The closing date for entries is January 10, 2021.  This batch is touted as a “powerful response to the current challenges and conditions that startups faced in 2020.”  The program will …

Sber’s international accelerator launches third batch with support from 500 Startups Read More

Russian dating major Mamba invests $3 million to develop in Germany, Italy

December 21, 2020

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

Tech sector drives diversification of Russian stock market

December 21, 2020

Today Russia is adding two new names from the online sector to its benchmark stock market index (‘MOEX index’) as technology firms lead a diversification drive on the stock market, long skewed towards the dominant commodities industries. In a symbolic shift away from commodities, Internet major Mail.ru Group – which is also listed on the London …

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Russian Softline to acquire German Softline

December 23, 2020

This deal might look modest in amount, but it is a very rare case of a Russian acquisition in Germany in the field of IT. Softline, a Moscow-headquartered international solution and service provider, is taking control of the almost eponymous German IT company Softline AG.  The Russian group has agreed to acquire 63.38% of the German company, which is listed …

Russian Softline to acquire German Softline Read More

IntellectoKids raises $3 million from US, Russian, Cypriot and Ukrainian funds

December 15, 2020

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

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