Yandex, the NASDAQ-listed Russian Internet giant, is acquiring K50. According to businesss daily Kommersant, this is a full acquisition and an exit for the company’s shareholders, which include the venture fund AddVenture Capital and the management. As a result of the deal, K50 will be able to scale up its business while Yandex advertisers will use …
My.Games Venture Capital (MGVC), an investment firm affiliated to LSE-listed Mail.ru Group, has just acquired a majority stake in Russian game publisher Deus Craft, reports Rusbase. MGVC intends to put up to $49.1 million to acquire 51.16% of the company, including an immediate payment of $14.1 million and potential additional payments totalling $35 million, depending on the …
Mail.Ru buying spree: My.Games invests in 3 game studios in 3 weeks Read More
Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF, China’s Tencent and Prosus (part of the Naspers Group), alongside other major strategic investors, have participated in Mail.Ru’s $600 million offering of global depository receipts (GDRs) and convertible bonds. The LSE-listed company will use the proceeds from the offering to develop, in particular, two joint ventures: O2O, which Mail.Ru launched …
Naspers, Tencent and RDIF buy Mail.Ru’s GDRs and bonds Read More
Yandex and Sberbank’s fight to gain control of Russia’s finance and technology industries is being billed as the corporate showdown of the decade. “Sberbank versus Yandex: The battle of the super platforms has begun,” declared Russian business daily Vedomosti last week. Novaya Gazeta went further, dubbing it a “war of the ecosystems.” The clash — which has …
Sber vs. Yandex: The battle of Russia’s super platforms begins Read More
Ozon, Russia’s leading multi-category e-commerce company, aims to go public later this year or in early 2021, the company announced Friday, and has started the registration procedure for an initial public offering (IPO) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company did not provide any details on the potential placement but, according to …
Russian digital majors Ozon and ivi.ru plot US IPOs Read More
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, has teamed up with its Emirati peer Mubadala to invest “more than 1 billion rubles” (approximately $13 million at the current exchange rate) in Russian face recognition startup NtechLab. Touting itself as “the global leader in computer vision systems based on artificial intelligence and neural networks,” NtechLab provides solutions …
A series of news in the past few days came to underline the intensifying relationship between Russia and Gulf countries in the fields of technologies and investment. Mubadala eyes Russian technologies Thus last week Sberbank, the state-controlled Russian financial and tech giant (now known as Sber), announced a “strategic agreement” with Mubadala Investment Company (Mubadala), an Abu Dhabi-based sovereign …
Russia and Gulf countries intensify cooperation in high tech Read More
As the global digital music market pursues solid growth, last week saw three deals involving companies from Russia or with Russian founders. Sberbank acquires Zvooq Just a day before touting its transformation into a tech “universe,” Sber announced the acquisition of Zvooq, one of the most established Russian music platforms. No details about the transaction were disclosed. Founded in 2010 by UK …
From Moscow to Berlin, digital music startups attract top investors Read More
It was a big week for the Russian tech market. The NASDAQ-listed Internet giant Yandex took a big leap into the financial sector with the announcement of plans to purchase digital bank Tinkoff for $5.5 billion. Days later, the country’s largest bank, state-controlled Sberbank, launched a major rebranding in which CEO German Gref gave a Steve …
Russia’s Internet and telecom regulator Roskomnadzor has added Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, to the list of blacklisted websites in the country. The exchange was blacklisted on June 2, 2020, but Binance became aware of this only on September 24th, after receiving communication from Roskomnadzor. Binance said on its Russian Telegram channel it was …
According to an announcement by Mail.ru Group on the London Stock Exchange, the Internet company plans to raise $600 million: $200 million in global depositary receipts (GDRs) to raise capital and $400 million in convertible bonds. Mail.ru Group will use this money to develop and support the business and finance future transactions, especially in areas that have …
Mail.ru Group plans to raise $600 million on London Stock Exchange Read More
Sberbank, Russia’s state-controlled financial behemoth, is showcasing what it calls the biggest transformation in its history, as it unveils a suite of new technology products in an aggressive drive to get deeper into the tech sector. In a flashy presentation Thursday morning — echoing Apple’s famous annual product launches which attract millions of viewers and …
Sberbank unveils sweeping transformation into tech company Read More
