J’son & Partners, a management consultancy covering telecom and IT markets in Russia and other countries, has released a report on Russia’s small but rapidly-expanding mobile social networks market. The popularity of mobile social networks is growing in Russia in the same way as elsewhere in the world, the report notes, driven by the increasing …
Mobile social networks attract 12.5 million Russian users Read More
Russia’s MTS and Channel One have joined forces with Disney to create an interactive TV service aimed at children. According to MTS, it is integrated into the series ‘After School’ and combines the capabilities of mobile internet and TV.
1C, Russia’s leading publisher of entreprise software, has acquired a 51% stake in Agent Plus, a developer of corporate mobile solutions, for an undisclosed amount. The two companies will create a joint venture for R&D and commercialization purposes, Russian IT portal CNews.ru reported last week. Agent Plus was established in Astrakhan, Southern Russia, in 2004. …
1C acquires business mobile app developer Agent Plus Read More
NFC technology enabled 4.5 billion rubles, or about $138 million, worth of payments in Russia in the first six months of this year, reported i-Free, a developer and publisher of mobile applications and games, in an exchange with Russian news agency RIA Novosti. Svetlana Kostochka, the head of i-Free’s innovation marketing department, explained she expects …
NFC on the move in Russia; compatible phones and payment systems to fuel traction Read More
Russia’s M2M service market grew a hefty 63% year-to-year by June 2012, from an estimated 1.84 to 3 million SIM card enabled connections, MTS, a leading Russian mobile operator and retailer, has found in a special study. Sharing its results with Russian news agency RIA Novosti, Valeria Kuzmenko, a spokesperson for MTS, said the company, …
M2M market up 63% in one year with 3 million SIM card enabled connections Read More
Knopka Zhizni (“Life Button”), a startup that has developed a mobile medical alert system for the elderly and the disabled, has raised “over 35 million rubles” (over $1 million) from Rintech.ru, a subsidiary of the diversified high tech group IT Co. Founded in November 2010 by MBA students of the Skolkovo Management School, the startup turned heads last …
Mobile medicine startup ‘Life Button’ raises $1 million Read More
Russia’s largest telecoms are launching a new multiscreen service later this year, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported last week. The project is expected to enable users to access their favorite TV channels from a TV set, a desktop PC or a mobile gadget. The leader in this race for broader markets is Rostelecom, which …
Quantenna Communications, a leading player in ultra-reliable Wi-Fi video networking for whole-home entertainment, announced today that it has closed a $79 million funding round led by new lead investor Rusnano, the Russian nanotechnology giant, with participation by a second new investor, Bright Capital, a major Russian fund. All existing major investors, Sequoia Capital, DAG Ventures, …
Rusnano and Bright Capital invest in US next gen Wi-Fi chipset provider Read More
Runa Capital, a Moscow-based fund that began investing outside Russia last fall, is providing $1.5 million in funding to Capptain, a French startup that has developed a SaaS platform for mobile analytics and marketing. Capptain’s valuation has not been disclosed, but Runa is a minority shareholder, Laurent Lathieyre, the startup’s co-founder, told East-West Digital News. …
French mobile analytics startup nabs $1.5 million from Moscow based venture fund Read More
Scartel, the leading Russian WiMAX operator, working under the Yota brand, will switch to an LTE network in Moscow as early as April 15, CEO Denis Sverdlov told journalists last week. Investment in the project will total $60 million. The new network will make mobile Internet access cheaper and faster than WiMAX, Sverdlov emphasized, as …
Scartel, the Russian WiMAX provider operating under the Yota brand, plans to offer voice services in the near future as a logical consequence of its switch to LTE. The company has just obtained a license for such services and another one to operate as an MVNO. Scartel is in discussions with Megafon, a major mobile operator, …
Russian billionaire Yuri Milner recently participated in a $1.4 million round of financing for Flotype, an American startup that offers realtime messaging technologies for cloud and mobile applications. Andreessen Horowitz, Ignition Partners, Salesforce and Y Combinator also took part in the deal, Techcrunch reported today.
