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
When he was sent to Moscow in late 2010 to launch Lamoda, 26-year-old Niels Tonsen had no experience of Russia but already numerous years of experience in Internet projects – including working for German incubator Rocket Internet and its projects Groupon International and Zalando. The goal – to build Russia’s online leader in the footwear …
Not only is Mrs Tigipko one of these exquisitely educated and beautiful ladies one can meet in Kiev, she also is an inexhaustible source of ideas and energy when it comes to innovation and venture activity. In a mere three years, she has transformed a Kiev event, IDCEE, into the international face of the East-European startup and venture scene. …
Initially a network of cash collection machines, through which Russians pay for virtually everything from mobile phone bills, to online purchases, to fines, QIWI is now an international, NASDAQ-listed, multichannel payment operator working in close partnership with Visa. QIWI President Boris Kim shared with East-West Digital News his vision of the payment industry, which knows …
Alexey Navalny, a prominent Russian anti-corruption blogger, protest leader, and now a self-styled ‘prisoner of conscience,’ has received support from a group of 38 Russian digital industry entrepreneurs in the race for Moscow’s mayoral office. Navalny, 37, undertakes his campaign as a convict and thus creates political uncertainty, an element absent in recent Russian elections.
Pavel Vrublevsky, the founder and main owner of electronic payment company ChronoPay, was sentenced to 2.5 years in jail for orchestrating a cyber attack on a competitor. This conviction is the result of a two-year legal imbroglio that some feel has been plagued with procedural infringements and bias. The Tushinsky Court of Moscow ruled last week …
ChronoPay founder jailed after controversial trial Read More
VKontakte.ru (VK.com), Russia’s number one social network, has officially offered employment to Edward Snowden, the fugitive American government contractor wanted by the United States for leaking details of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. Just hours after Russia granted Snowden one-year asylum last Thursday and let him leave the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, …
Russia’s first social network VKontakte seeks to hire Snowden Read More
Arkady Volozh, the other founder of Yandex, announced the sad news on the official company blog on July 28. “The changes in the blood were no longer compatible with life. He had to be given a chance to leave with dignity. The doctors turned him off yesterday, his heart stopped,” Volozh wrote. Early reports indicated …
Yandex co-founder Ilya Segalovich dies at 48 in London Read More
Users of Russia’s leading social network Vkontakte.ru (VK.com) published half a million posts about Alexey Navalny in the hour following his conviction today on embezzlement charges. Navalny was mentioned approximately 480,000 times in the hour, with an average 134 posts per second. The social network only registers such a high level of posts on New …
Opposition leader Navalny subject of half a million VKontakte posts in one hour Read More
How difficult is Russia as an investment destination for an international investor? Acclimation, at least, is not a problem, according to Intel Capital’s President Arvind Sodhani who celebrated the fund’s ten years of activity in Russia earlier this month. “I imagine Moscow as a city covered by 10 feet of snow, but every time I …
Fugitive former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden flew from Hong Kong to Moscow this Sunday on Aeroflot flight, two days after the US authorities charged him with espionage. His yet unknown further destination may be Cuba, Ecuador or Venezuela, according to media reports. The US government had asked Hong Kong to send Snowden home. But the Hong …
Even as the market was still responding to the shock of Lamoda.ru’s enormous round of financing, Ozon Holdings’ CEO Maëlle Gavet said during an interview yesterday with The Next Web, in partnership with East-West Digital News, that her company aims to control directly or indirectly 80% of the Russian online retail market within ten years. …
