International

Russian AR app FaceApp sparks international controversy over privacy concerns

July 22, 2019 July 24, 2019

FaceApp, a mobile application that can realistically transform the photo of a person’s face using artificial intelligence, has come under harsh attacks in international media under claims that users’ personal data could be misused. Launched in St Petersburg in 2017 by Wireless Lab (which is now a resident of Russia’s largest tech park Skolkovo), FaceApp has …

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Two acquisitions this week: Mail.ru Group gets “high spirits” in gaming and niche leader in adtech

July 20, 2019 July 20, 2019

This week Mail.ru Group, the LSE-listed Russian Internet giant, announced almost simultaneously two acquisitions: that of acquired Belarusian game studio Swag Masha through its gaming branch My.Games and that of Russian content & ad recommendation service Relap.io. Acquiring “an idea and high spirits” Founded in May 2018 and based in Minsk, Swag Masha is a small game …

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How to nominate a startup to leading international contest

July 17, 2019 July 24, 2019

Nomination is now open for the largest regional startup competition, EuroAsian Startup Awards (EASA). Until 21 July, anyone can nominate the startups of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine through an online platform in 19 categories. National winners will be announced at the national finals in September, and they will …

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Runa Capital raises $70 million to invest in ‘deep-tech’ startups

July 16, 2019 August 1, 2019

Runa Capital, a Palo Alto-headquartered venture investment firm with Russian roots, has closed $70 million for its third fund targeting early-stage “deep tech” startups. The firm started to market this fund a year and a half ago, seeking to raise some $135 million essentially from its existing LPs. Launched in 2011, Runa Capital’s first fund …

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Emerging Travel Group secures $10 million from Lev Leviev, Igor and Dmitri Bukhman

July 12, 2019 July 30, 2019

Earlier this month Emerging Travel Group, an international online travel group with Russian connections, announced it raised $10 million in a Series E funding round. The investors are Russian-Israeli tech investor Lev Leviev – through his investment company LVL1 Group – and Igor and Dmitri Bukhman. The company hopes the investment will help it accelerate the …

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Eastern Europe & Central Asia in June 2019: $400 million for Russian e-commerce, Russian money in the USA, UK, and India

July 10, 2019 July 13, 2019

Crunchbase and East-West Digital News are teaming up to cover key tech and venture trends from Russia and neighboring countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Since January 2019, EWDN chief editor Adrien Henni has offered a monthly column to highlight the most notable industry facts and trends as well as promising tech innovations from these countries. The June review highlights the …

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Russian censor cites Google for including banned content in search results

July 5, 2019 July 6, 2019

Roskomnadzor, the Russian Internet and telecom regulator, has submitted an administrative protocol citing Google for censoring its search results in Russia insufficiently. The news agency Interfax cited Roskomnadzor as saying that its most recent test of the search engine in May indicated that “more than a third of the links included in the unified registry …

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Russian e-commerce is entering accelerated development cycle, says new EWDN report

June 30, 2019 July 30, 2019

Addressing the lack of internationally-available information on Russian e-commerce, East-West Digital News has just released an in-depth study on this market. Among EWDN’s partners in this initiative are Data Insight, Russia’s leading data provider in this field, the E-Commerce Russia Association (NAMO), Ecommerce Foundation, an international expertise center based in the Netherlands as well as such …

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Reuters: Western intelligence hacked Yandex to spy on accounts

June 28, 2019 June 29, 2019

Hackers working for Western intelligence agencies broke into Russian internet search company Yandex in late 2018, deploying a rare type of malware in an attempt to spy on user accounts, four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The malware, called Regin, is known to be used by the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance of …

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Marketplace project ‘Sputnik’ aims to bring cheap Asian goods to Russian regions

June 27, 2019 July 13, 2019

A new marketplace could emerge soon on the Russian cross-border e-commerce scene, offering Russian online consumers goods from China and Southeast Asia. Dubbed ‘Sputnik,’ the project is backed by Evgeniy Sobolev and Vladimir Stupnikov, co-owners of the iMars communications group, who own 66.7% and 33.3% shares of the company respectively, Kommersant business daily reported. The founders did not …

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Sberbank invests in PayZakat, a payment system that helps Muslims collect alms

June 26, 2019 November 12, 2020

Sberbank, the state-controlled financial giant in Russia, is going to acquire 25% stake in PayZakat, the bank stated without disclosing the financial details of the deal. This Moscow-based startup has developed a payment platform to help Muslim users collect obligatory and voluntary alms. With the help of PayZakat’s bots in social networks, Muslim users can calculate their …

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Almaz Capital and Runa Capital exit from US cloud ERP Acumatica

June 20, 2019 June 20, 2019

Almaz Capital and Runa Capital, two international VCs with roots in Eastern Europe, exited from Acumatica. This US-based provider of cloud-based ERP software systems has been fully acquired by a leading PE firm EQT. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Almaz was the first investor in the company as early as 2009; Runa joined …

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