Russian billionaire Zakhar Smushkin — chairman of the Ilim pulp and paper group and #122 in the Forbes ranking of top Russian businessmen — intends to invest 400 million rubles in an adtech startup called Vieweo. This capital injection (equivalent to $5.5 million at the current exchange rate) will be made until the end of …
A Moscow-based startup called Neiry is developing “human-friendly neural interfaces” applicable to a variety of daily tasks — from gaming and entertainment, to medical therapy, to training, to business. Supported by Russian state innovation programs, this startup believes it can “improve and restore human abilities and functions that were previously unattainable,” and contribute to “the acceleration …
In this second coronavirus spring, Russian-founded food delivery services are making their way in western countries. One of them is Getfaster.io, a German fresh product retail and delivery company launched in 2020 by former X5 executive Dmitry Bergelson alongside with Georgy Skalsky, Kirill Solonitsyn and Anton Zakharov. After starting operations in Düsseldorf in January 2021, the company …
Russian-founded food delivery services make their way in western markets Read More
Emerge, a major conference held last week to highlight the startup and venture scene of the ‘New East,’ has published a selection of 100 promising startups from the region. Touted as having a unicorn potential, these startups were selected according to a variety of criteria — in particular, company maturity (up to three years of age), …
Startup report highlights 100 “unicorns-to-be” from Eastern Europe Read More
Earlier this month Russian delivery service Broniboy raised 100 million rubles ($1.35 million at the current exchange rate) at a 3 billion ruble valuation ($40 million), reports Rusbase. This fast-growing company, which already operates in six Russian cities including Moscow, raised 130 million in a previous round, and plans to attract an additional 800 millions rubles next year. …
Researchers from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) have developed a new methodology that leverages Big Data to “analyze the growth dynamics of technology-based new ventures.” The key findings of the research are summarized as follows: Google Trends is a credible source of high-quality data for analyzing new ventures; It can be used …
Russian researchers propose Big Data approach to analyze startup growth dynamics Read More
Crunchbase and East-West Digital News are teaming up to cover key tech and venture trends from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The last column by EWDN Chief Editor Adrien Henni highlights the most notable industry facts and trends in the first quarter of 2021. Almost no major local deals took place in this period, but Eastern …
Tip automation startups are much-desired in Russia right now, if judging by an acquisition announced by Yandex, just weeks after another one from Alfa-Bank. The NASDAQ-listed search giant is now the owner of Chaevye Prosto (‘Just Tips’) — a startup founded in 2018 by Evgeny Zagoruyko and his wife, who spent much of the family’s savings to develop the service. The terms of the …
Yandex acquires tip automation startup to offer full-cycle foodtech services Read More
2GIS, a leading mapping service owned by Sber, is in the process of acquiring RocketData, a successful geomarketing startup from Belarus. Founded in 2017, RocketData provides an “easy-to-use platform to manage your company’s business information and user reviews among more than 30 location-based services” — from maps, search engines and directories, to GPS devices, to social networks. RocketData …
Russian mapping major 2GIS acquires Belarusian geo-marketing startup Read More
Russian-speaking tech entrepreneurs and investors are more than ever active abroad — which has been illustrated again in the UK by a grocery delivery and dark store startup called Jiffy. Founded in November 2020, this company aims to deliver fresh products, meals and household essentials “in just 15 minutes” in several districts of the British capital. With products sourced from local …
An e-scooter startup called Urent has raised 1.2 billion rubles (nearly $16 million at the current exchange rate) in equity funding and loans. The investor pool includes Citimobil, a Russian ride-sharing company, Sber, the state-controlled digital and finance giant, and Sistema SmartTech, a new venture vehicle of the Sistema conglomerate. The latter contributed 200 million rubles …
Russian e-scooter startup raises $16 million to become regional leader Read More
Yesterday Sber, the state-controlled financial and digital giant, announced a binding agreement to fully acquire Muzlab, a leader in the Russian B2B audio streaming market. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed, but industry publication VC.RU heard it was between 500 million rubles ($6.5 million) and 1 billion rubles ($13 million at the current exchange rate). Muzlab has developed a …
