In April, Bloomberg added Igor and Dmitry Bukhman to its list of US dollar billionaires. The brothers, born in the northwest Russian city of Vologda, founded a video game company out of their hometown in 2004. Now, Playrix, which employs more than 1,000 employees and entertains about 30 million users every day with popular games like Homescapes and Township. The Bukhmans …
Russia’s biggest illegal online casino, Azino777, operates out of Ukraine and has managed some of its money flows through a Ukrainian branch of Russia’s bank Sberbank, Russian business media outlet The Bell reported on Feb. 4, referring to decisions by a Ukrainian court. The Bell journalists found a mistake in a document of Kyiv Holosiivskyi District …
Court mistake reveals Russia’s largest underground online casino works from Ukraine Read More
Russians spent some $1.66 billion on games in 2018, according to Newzoo. Ranking 11th in the research firm’s global ranking, Russia is ahead of Brazil and Mexico ($1.45 billion and $1.58 billion, respectively), but behind Italy and Spain ($2.17 billion and $2.20 billion). In the former Soviet Union, Kazakhstan generated $207 million (44th place), ahead of Ukraine …
Report: Russians spent $1.66 billion on games in 2018 Read More
ESforce, a major eSports company acquired in early 2018 by Mail.ru Group, has sold SK Gaming, one of its key assets, to Daimler and football club FC Köln (FC Cologne). The terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but Russian business publication RBC wrote, based on company information, that its object was a 67% stake …
LSE-listed Mail.Ru Group has invested in four Russian gaming companies via Mail.Ru Games Ventures (MRGV), the dedicated investment division it launched last year. As reported by the Russian media, these companies are Moscow-based Game Garden (Farmdale, Fairy Kingdom), Mobirate (Parking Mania, Dead Ahead, Rovercraft) from Ulyanovsk, Siberia, Red Brix Wall (Battle Arena: Heroes Adventure) and Zillion Whales (Mushroom Wars), both based in St. Petersburg. Each of …
Mail.Ru Group invests in four Russian gaming companies Read More
Stalker Fund, a VC firm with Austrian roots, has invested €3 million in Another World, which develops virtual reality location-based entertainment (VR LBE) offers. The deal was closed in August, but was made public only recently. Founded by a Russian team, the startup has its headquarters registered in Cyprus, even though it kept its R&D team in …
Russian-founded VR gaming startup secures €3 million to develop across Europe Read More
Alibaba, Mail.Ru Group, Russian telco MegaFon and sovereign fund Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) today announced a “strategic partnership” that encompasses such a wide area as e-commerce, social media, online entertainment and communications combined. The agreement aims to leverage on the existing businesses of AliExpress Russia, the B2C marketplace owned by Alibaba which controls a …
The Moscow-based investment firm FunCubator has invested 35 million rubles ($550,000) in PlatformaVR, a Russian VR-oriented game publisher. The deal was closed in April and publicly announced earlier this month. The funding will be used to create new content as well as for PlatformaVR’s international expansion. The startup has “one of the strongest teams in …
Moscow-based “funtech incubator” invested in 20 companies in one year Read More
Confirming the appeal of eSports projects, Russian startup Learn 2 Play announced earlier this week that it raised nearly $1.1 million from a pool of venture funds and business angels. These investors, who have received a minority stake, include VC funds Buran and ru-Net, Anton Inshutin (InVentures Partners), Jarom Severson (Chess.com), Erik Allebest (Chess.com) and Lev …
eSports startup Learn 2 Play agrees up to $3 million investment plan with VCs and angels Read More
Last week Mail.Ru Group, the LSE-listed Russian Internet giant, announced that it acquired a majority stake —51% — in Russian mobile games developer Bit.Games. The amount of the deal has not been disclosed. Mail.Ru Group said it will provide the team with access to all of its resources, including development, analytics and marketing, “to fuel …
Mail.Ru Group takes control of mobile game developer Bit.Games Read More
Update Sept. 27 – Having failed to reach its fundraising target, the BestMeta project is likely to be stopped, industry insiders told East-West Digital News. Still little known outside the gaming industry, eSports – these video gaming competitions usually involving professional players – is among the fastest-growing types of digital entertainment. In 2017, this activity generated …
Blockchain startup aims to free eSports from the control of major streaming platforms Read More
Just two months after the Russian cybersports market witnessed two major acquisitions and a $30 million ICO, Gosu.ai, a Russian-founded startup from this industry announced via Twitter that it attracted $1.9 million in funding. The round was led by Runa Capital, a VC fund with Russian roots, with participation from its existing investor Sistema VC, the venture arm …
Russian-Lithuanian startup Gosu.ai raises $1.9 million from Russian and French investors Read More
