Earlier this month Rafael Sultanov, founder of the Russian-American startup iBuildApp, used his Facebook page to announce that his startup received $400,000 from “a well known CEO of a listed IT company.” However, he did not name the investor. “This is the third investment we’ve attracted in five months,” Sultanov told East-West Digital News.
Last week money-management service Moven raised $8 million at an undisclosed valuation in a round led by SBT Venture Capital, the venture arm of Russia’s national savings bank Sberbank. Virginia-based Route 66 Ventures, South-African Standard Bank, and London-based Anthemis Group also took part in the round of funding. The New-York based startup had already attracted …
Russia’s Sberbank leads $8 million round in US money management startup Moven Read More
As part of a large set of actions that are designed to lessen Russian reliance on foreign technology and digital services, government agencies in the Irkutsk region (Siberia) were ordered last month by the presidential administration to stop using the services of Google. The ban concerns the use of Google’s web resources for the storage …
Russia wants no more reliance on foreign high tech Read More
Viber, the expanding international instant messenging and voice call app, will soon open a representative office in Russia, Russian business daily Vedomosti learned from the company’s co-founder and CTO Igor Magazinnik. The small office will be in charge of service localization and local partnerships. Former Diageo and Red Bull CMO Evgenyi Roshchupkin has been appointed …
S-Group Capital Management, an affiliate of the fund of funds RVC, has teamed up with Skolkovo’s nuclear technology cluster to inject 40 million rubles (approximately $1.2 million) in Bisant, a Moscow-based high tech antenna manufacturer. A resident company of Skolkovo, the international tech hub under construction on the outskirts of Moscow, Bisant describes its micro antenna devices …
RVC and Skolkovo inject $1.2 million in micro-sized antenna maker Read More
Yandex (NASDAQ: YNDX) is launching a service for search and selection of companies and organisations in Russia’s cities. Called Yandex.City, it helps users choose restaurants, beauty salons and a wide range of other businesses whose services they might need. The service, currently available only in Russian, is accessible on city.yandex.ru, as well as on applications for …
Yandex launches guide to urban businesses and organizations Read More
Telegram, an instant messaging startup launched less than one year ago by Pavel Durov, was honored earlier this week in Berlin at the finale of The Europas, a contest for technology startups that attracted companies from all over the world. Built in St Petersburg, the startup is now based “on a plane,” Pavel Durov says. The app has exploded onto …
Pavel Durov’s Telegram wins “Fastest Rising Startup” award at The Europas Read More
Knopka Zhizni (“Life Button”) has raised 45 million rubles (approximately $1.3 million) from IIDF (FRII in Russian), a $200 million seed and early-stage fund launched last year. The news was reported yesterday by IKS Media. Founded in November 2010 by MBA students of the Skolkovo Management School, the startup has developed a mobile medical alert system for the …
IIDF invests $1.3 million in mobile medical alert system Read More
Mobile app builder iBuildApp has raised $200,000 from Starta Capital and Nikolay Belykh. iBuildApp is an international project that enables clients to build and manage mobile apps. As well as being a resident of Moscow’s Skolkovo IT-Park, the project also has its headquarters in Foster City, California. This investment brings the total invested in the project …
Russian-American startup iBuildApp raises another $200,000 Read More
Last week Rostelecom, the Russian national telecom operator, rolled out the beta version of its long-awaited new portal last week, offering visitors what the developer believes to be an easy-to-use and reliable combination of search, news and ‘life navigation’ capabilities. Available in Russian only, Sputnik.ru is a service and search portal designed to “improve the users’ …
New search engine Sputnik provides Russians with “safer and more useful” Internet Read More
Yesterday, French mobile analytics startup Capptain, which so far had been funded by Moscow-based venture fund Runa Capital, announced it was being acquired by Microsoft. The amount of transaction has not been disclosed, but Runa’s PR Director Liliana Pertenava told East-West Digital News that the fund had made “lots of money” on this investment. While the …
From Russian funding to an American exit: French startup Capptain acquired by Microsoft Read More
Russia will shut down 11 American GPS stations on June 1 at least temporarily, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin announced earlier this week. Rogozin is responsible for Russia’s military-industrial complex, defense policy and military technology partnerships. The move threatens to bring a halt to the entire set of stations deployed in Russia by the United …
Russia to close American GPS stations on its territory Read More
