Former U.S. intelligence officer Edward Snowden, who received temporary asylum in Russia, was hired on November 1 by a major Russian website, Snowden’s lawyer in Russia, Anatoly Kucherena, told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti yesterday. “Starting in November, Edward goes to work. He will work with support and maintenance of one of Russia’s largest sites. …
Snowden starts working for mystery Russian company Read More
Product Test, a project aimed at testing and giving expert evaluations of consumer products, has announced that it received approximately $1 million from Moscow serial angel investor Igor Ryabenkiy and four other business angels. Conceived as a platform to test consumer goods including electronics and household goods, Product Test buys the products it assesses rather …
Online consumer goods testing platform raises $1 million from Moscow business angels Read More
ImpulseVC, web and media venture fund and incubation structure launched last week in Moscow, has injected $450,000 into Retail Rocket. The news was reported by Russian tech blog Firrma, based on an exchange with the startup’s founder Nikolai Khlebinsky. Retail Rocket has developed a technology that forms personalized cross- and up-selling recommendations based on user …
Online shopping recommendation startup Retail Rocket secures $450,000 from ImpulseVC Read More
A survey by Superjob.ru published earlier this month found that the word Russians most associated with advertising was “annoying.” The survey was conducted in September 2013, with 1,000 economically active adult respondents from all regions of the country. Eleven percent of respondents found advertising to be negative, while less than 2% evoked positive associations with advertising …
Online advertising judged by Russians less intrusive than traditional ads Read More
Leading Russian online retailer Ozon is preparing for a new $100 million round of investment. Morgan Stanley has been mandated to conduct this next round of financing, as announced yesterday by Russian business daily Kommersant. “The funds will be used to expand our logistics system and consolidate the e-commerce market in the three areas where …
A new early stage technology support entity called ImpulseVC was launched last week in Moscow to invest in new media and web-based entertainment startups. ImpulseVC includes a venture fund, an accelerator and an incubator. The founders of Sape.ru, a six-year-old online exchange that buys and sells links from a wide variety of websites and is estimated …
New fund and incubator ImpulseVC to invest $65 million in Russian Internet startups Read More
Last week, the Russian edition of Forbes released a list of 10 top Russian venture capitalists whom it identified as being “the most successful.” In the last four years, these investors have earned approximately $3.6 billion from mainly Internet-related projects. The ranking uses the same methodology as American Forbes for The Midas List, the global …
Forbes identifies Russia’s top 10 venture capitalists Read More
Travelata.ru, a Russian online travel agency focusing on package tours, has just released an in-depth presentation on the Russian online travel market. Citing a recent report by the global travel market research company PhoCusWright, Travelata reports that the Russian travel market was worth $53 billion in 2012. Only 14% of travel in Russia is currently …
Russia’s online travel market posts 50% yearly growth Read More
According to research carried out by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), just a quarter of Russians are ready to pay for online content. The survey was designed to measure the public response to Russia’s new anti-piracy legislation, enacted in July 2013. The law does not target users who simply view or download illegitimate content for personal use, but …
Just a quarter of Russians willing to pay for online content Read More
Special attention was paid to the booming Russian innovation and venture scene and its globalization last week at Journey 2013, an event organized by Ernst & Young in Tel Aviv. A “Journey Into Russia” roundtable presented Russia’s high tech scene to several key representatives of the Israeli and global venture capital community in attendance. Professor …
Russian VCs and entrepreneurs discuss high tech globalization in Israel Read More
The second half of the 20th century has seen the Russian rock and popular music industry in a poor technical state, compared to Europe and the United States. During the years of the “iron curtain,” the local music scene was largely isolated, which meant Russian musicians could not get their hands on quality guitars, amplifiers …
Technology demands a revamp of Russia’s music industry Read More
As in the previous years, the 2013 IDCEE conference attracted to Kiev, Ukraine earlier this month an impressive number of investors, startup entrepreneurs and IT professionals from over 45 countries (see videos). The core topics of this year’s conference were online education, e-commerce, and entrepreneurship in Brazil. The event – which took place in a huge …
