Mail.ru Group, which owns a controlling stake in several key Russian Internet properties, exercised its option to raise its stake in Vkontakte.ru from 32.49% to 39.99%, Russian business daily Vedomosti reported yesterday.
Evernote, a California-headquatered company founded by a Russian-American team in 2007, announced yesterday it has raised a new, $50 million round of funding led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Morgenthaler Ventures.
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 …
Troika Dialog Asset Management announced last Friday the creation of Troika Dialog-Global Internet, a new open ended equity fund that will invest exclusively in Internet related businesses, both in Russia and abroad.
Vizerra, a Moscow based developer of 3D applications for city planning, construction projects, product design, and virtual tourism, announced earlier this week the sale of a blocking stake (26%) in its capital to Solway, a Cyprus-based diversified investment group.
Fast Lane Ventures, a business incubator based in Moscow, announced the launch of Upladder.ru, the first Russian online job search service reserved for professionals with a monthly salary of more than 100,000 rubles, or $3,500.
Refine.io, a startup offering to “create and share fully functional prototypes of mobile apps in about the same time as it takes to develop a wireframe,” received seed funding from Russia’s search engine giant Yandex under the Yandex.Factory program.
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.
Online portal and search engine Rambler announced last week its first investment since its merger with media company Afisha. Rambler acquired Kanobu Network, the leading Russian network gaming site, for $3.5 million, an unnamed source told the Russian business daily Vedomosti.
“Dare to change the world,” Bill Reichert intoned to the crowd of young Russian entrepreneurs who attended the BIT finale. The US venture capitalist came to Moscow a few days before to sign a partnership agreement with Moscow business incubator Digital October. He shared his impressions of the event with East-West Digital News.
LinguaLeo emerged last week as the winner of the annual BIT competition, Russia’s primary innovation and entrepreneurship contest with entrants from all across the country. LinguaLeo is a web service that teaches foreign languages using popular TV serials, books, and contextual dialogues.
National innovation and entrepreneurship contest BIT held its finale last Friday on the premises of Moscow business incubator Digital October. LinguaLeo, a web service that teaches foreign languages through popular TV serials, books and contextual dialogues, walked away with the first prize.
