Dutch online marketing expert Bas Godska came to Russia in 2008, when the Russian e-marketing and e-commerce markets were still embryonic. He helped a range of international and Russian players – from Ozon, to Lamoda, to KupiVIP, to Enter.ru – reach major positions on the market and optimize their budget. Lesser known, but prolific, has …
Dmitry Filatov, co-founder of dating service Topface, has launched a new venture fund targeting “Internet companies with problems”. The fund, named Restart Capital, aims to buy into companies facing financial difficulties and turn them around through restructuring and an effective marketing strategy. Restart Capital will principally target social networks, mobile services (but not those that rely …
New Russian fund aims to restart struggling startups Read More
Earlier this month Babadu.ru, a children’s goods online retailer, secured a $2.9 million investment from the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (FRII in Russian). A $200 million seed stage investment fund launched last year, FRII usually invests smaller amounts at earlier stages. However, the fund has been eyeing the online children’s goods market for a long time – one …
Children’s goods online retailer Babadu.ru raises $2.9 million from IIDF Read More
Ingate, a major digital marketing agency with offices in Moscow and Tula, has launched a new venture fund with $15 million to put into new projects. Ingate Venture will invest in projects at the startup phase, with turnover of at least one million rubles (approximately $27,000) per month. It will focus on Internet marketing, social media and web …
Digital marketing agency Ingate launches venture fund Read More
Wikimart, a major Russian B2C marketplace, has agreed a capital increase with a group of Russian investors, including Finprombank chairman Anatoly Goncharov. The news was revealed last week by business daily Kommersant and confirmed to East-West Digital News by Wikimart’s press service. The $40 million capital injection will be used in part to acquire Terminal.ru, a …
Rusnano, the Russian state-owned corporation dedicated to nanotechnologies, has proposed the creation of a joint Russian-Chinese fund for investing in this sector, head of the corporation Anatoly Chubais stated. According to Chubais, the proposal was made at a recent session of the first Russian-Chinese commission on investment cooperation between Russia and China. “The idea is …
Russia and China consider creating joint nanotech fund Read More
Last week, Russian web- and video-conferencing software company Webinar.ru announced the completion of a $7.3 million Series A round of funding led by Intel Capital and the EBRD. The deal also involved Flint Capital, a Moscow-based venture fund operating internationally, and VTB Capital, the venture arm of state-owned bank VTB, which invested in the startup …
Netology, a major Russian online education platform offering courses in the fields of Internet business, web development and e-commerce, has merged with Foxford (previously 100EGE.ru), a provider of online courses for secondary school students, under the “Netology Group” brand. The merged companies have received a $1.1million capital injection from InVenture Partners, a Russian fund that …
Russian venture fund Ru-Net has participated in the $33 million funding round of FreeCharge, a leading Indian mobile recharge platform, reported local tech publication Trak.in. Belgium-based Sofina and existing investor Sequoia Capital also took part in the deal. The new round of funding will be used for marketing and building an advertising platform that will …
Runa Capital, a global venture capital firm operating from Russia and California, has sold its minority stake in cloud backup solution provider BackupAgent to Acronis, an international provider of data backup software and disaster recovery solutions. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. “Becoming part of Acronis supports BackupAgent’s vision of becoming the …
Acronis acquires Runa Capital’s stake in Dutch cloud backup solution provider BackupAgent Read More
Action Media Group, a large Russian B2B-publishing house, has invested $200,000 in SaaS service Arnica.pro. This is already the third round of investment for the company. Arnica.pro is aimed at smaller beauty salons, who can use the software for client registration, staff work schedules, CRM, transactions, accounts and integration with external services. The company was founded …
Action Media Group invests $200,000 in SaaS service Arnica.pro Read More
In a confirmation of the country’s commitment to developing new technologies, the Russian government announced that a fraction of the total assets of the country’s pension savings funds will be invested in the shares of venture capital funds, as well as in securities and the financial instruments of high-tech companies. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has …
Russian pension funds to invest $1 billion in venture funds and innovative companies Read More
