i-Free, a global Russian mobile, digital finance and micro payment company, announced last Thursday the launch of its own internal venture fund to invest in IT startups. The new fund will provide financing as well as training and mentor support for seed stage projects – even to projects with “non-obvious monetization schemes” – and early growth …
St. Petersburg high tech company to fund Russian and foreign startups Read More
St. Petersburg – The Russian Post has announced plans to open 36 new automatic mail sorting centers throughout the country in the coming years, said Russian Post General Manager Alexander Kiselev on Tuesday at a news conference in St. Petersburg. The first sorting center, to be built in St. Petersburg for €50 million, will serve the Northwestern region of …
Russian Post to open 36 automatic mail sorting centers; Siemens expects new contracts Read More
St. Petersburg – Shoring up the slow and difficult transition in the Russian economy from gas and oil to a more knowledge driven paradigm, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum held in the end of last week in Russia’s Northern capital was replete with innovation related declarations on a massive scale. Innovation was a central theme at the …
St. Petersburg – In addressing participants at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum last Friday, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev’s speech did not reveal any substantially new position regarding his government’s now established stance on modernization, but innovation was nevertheless put forward as the first and foremost theme in the President’s address. “Modernization is the only way to address …
Yandex announced earlier this week it will finance St. Petersburg-based Zenmoney.ru, a personal accounting and budget planning service. This seed financing round of an undisclosed amount will be made under Yandex.Factory, an investment program launched last April to help startups finance their product, prototype, or project development at the seed or early stage.
Moscow-based Sitronics, the LSE-traded, high-tech arm of the diversified Russian conglomerate Sistema, is ready to ink a pact with the second-largest Chinese telecom equipment maker, ZTE, to open a research and development center on the outskirts of Beijing, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday, citing Sitronics’ vice president Irina Lanina.
Russian students won five medals in a total of twelve competitions at the Association of Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM ICPC) held from May 27 -31 in Orlando, Florida this year. The student team from St. Petersburg State University, in particular, won the 4th place gold medal at the IBM-sponsored championship.
Mobile discounter Tele2 Russia has announced a program to turn over 25% of its 450 mobile shops in Russia into fully-fledged retail outlets selling mobile services. Of Tele2’s existing 450 stores, 120 are to be transformed into ‘supermarkets’ by the end of 2011. Tele2 has been pilot-driving its ‘cellular supermarket’ concept since the end of …
As of June 1, VimpelCom, a leading mobile operator in Russia under the Beeline brand, will begin testing their wireless payment system, developed by Ambiq Technologies, in the St. Petersburg subway system. The mobile phone add-on was unveiled two months ago by Ambiq Tech St. Petersburg, the Russian branch of American company Ambiq Technologies.
Soyuz-Telecom, a WiMAX operator little known until now, announced last month the extension of its coverage to Vsevolozhsk, a city in the St. Petersburg region. The company, founded in 2007, now covers 17 small cities across the country. It has not, however, disclosed its number of subscribers. Russian entrepreneur Theophan Bondarenko owns a majority stake …
Hong Kong-based electronics manufacturer TPV Technology intends to open a $21 million plant to produce LCD-television sets near St. Petersburg, Kommersant reports.
Megafon, a major Russian mobile operator, is considering purchasing St. Petersburg Internet provider Web Plus, Russian business daily Kommersant reports. The deal price has yet to be disclosed, but, according to experts, the price will be “symbolic”, since Web Plus is a loss-making firm with $4 million debt, the newspaper said. The seller is Telecominvest.
