Could a company from Russia, or with strong connections to Russia, ever be targeted by a SPAC? The question remained open until very recently, given the small numbers of international IPOs from Russia — the latest example in the digital field being Ozon in November last year. Such a player has now emerged, with Nexters …
Update July 9: Yandex announced the cancellation of the deal, for undisclosed reasons, according to media reports. The company is considering “other options to enter the fashion segment.” Yandex.Market is in the process of acquiring KupiVIP, one of the most established e-commerce brands in Russia, founded back in 2008 by German entrepreneur Oskar Hartmann. Also …
Glorious story but modest exit for online fashion pioneer KupiVIP Read More
The Russian food delivery service Samokat — which was acquired last year by Mail.ru Group and Sber — has plans to enter the US market. As reported by The Bell, which cites Samokat’s founder Vyacheslav Bocharov, the move could take place “in the next 12 months.” The service could operate on American soil as a separate …
Audacious Russian entrepreneurs disrupt US food delivery market Read More
A world-renowned company in the game and payment industries, Xsolla could be worth $3 billion, according to research from Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. This company was founded back 15 years ago in the city of Perm, 680 miles east of Moscow. Today it has offices in the USA, Russia and South Korea. In 2020, it …
Last week Elon Musk spoke remotely at a Russian state-sponsored education forum, spending 40 minutes answering questions from students. The tech celebrity said he received a personal invitation from President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov. Among other speakers at the event were Steve Wozniak, on the international side, and a bevy of tech CEOs …
“All transport on earth will be electric,” says Elon Musk to Russian students Read More
Segezha Group, a major Russian producer of fiber-based packaging and forestry products, is a global leader in sack paper (#2), paper sacks (#2) and birch plywood (#5). Unlike most of its industry peers, the group is fully vertically integrated and controls its own forests. Operating across several countries, it holds long-term (typically 49 years) leases …
Until recently, the Russian authorities showed little interest in genetics. The breakthrough came in 2019, when the government allocated 127 billion rubles (around $1.7 billion at the current exchange rate) to a special seven-year federal program. In fact, the Kremlin’s overall spending on projects involving genetics could actually reach 230 billion rubles ($3 billion) in …
A new Russian tech billionaire emerged last week on the NASDAQ with the SPAC-enabled listing of Arrival, a company touted as a game-changer in the electric car industry. Born 42 years ago in the Soviet republic of Georgia, Denis Sverlov founded in first company — an ERP integrator called IT Vision — in 2000, immediately after graduating the …
This former Russian deputy minister is now worth $10 billion after NASDAQ IPO Read More
In early December 2020, an anonymous user set up a TikTok channel, called “First Person”, dedicated to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The channel posts deep fake videos of an actor impersonating Putin. “When you go to a videoconference and don’t have to change out of your sweatpants,” says the caption on the very first video …
Last week, a sizable deal in the field of neurosciences was announced in Russia. Maxim Basov, an executive from the agro industry, has invested in Wikium, an award-winning startup offering brain productivity exercises for office staff and students. Basov took control of the company, acquiring a 66% stake, Rusbase reported. The amount of the deal was not disclosed, but Rusbase noted …
Citrix Systems announced today an agreement to acquire Wrike, a leader in SaaS collaborative work management, for $2.25 billion in cash. Still subject to regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to close in the first half of this year. “The transaction unites leading workspace delivery platform with best-in-class SaaS work management solution, ushering in new era of employee productivity. This combination …
A Russian hacker was sentenced to 12 years in a US prison Thursday for consumer data theft worth $19 million from 100 million customers of over a dozen financial service companies, the Justice Department said. Andrei Tyurin, 37, pleaded guilty in 2019 after his extradition from the country of Georgia the previous year, admitting to computer intrusion, wire fraud, …
