iTech Capital, a Russian PE & VC firm, announced today an investment of $10 million in Aviasales.ru, a leading search engine for flights and hotel bookings. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but the firm told East-West Digital News it had obtained a stake of less than 30%. The company – which …
Travel metasearch engine Aviasales secures $10 million from iTech Capital Read More
Competition in the saturated Russian online travel sector is fierce, and one of the main players last week took the dramatic step of a complete rebranding as it seeks to differentiate itself from its rivals. Skolkovo resident Oktogo, which was supposed to be read OK-to-go (a fact lost on many), has adopted the name Travel.ru, …
Oktogo.ru raises $5 million and switches to Travel.ru Read More
The famous tech publication Mashable has published its selection of Russia’s 20 “hottest startups.” According to the site, “Russia is gradually becoming a place where its undoubtedly strong education and engineering standards are blending with original entrepreneurship.” In addition to Skolkovo in the Moscow region, Mashable highlights that “in St. Petersburg and the lesser-known cities …
Travelata.ru, a Russian online travel agency focusing on package tours, has just released an in-depth presentation on the Russian online travel market. Citing a recent report by the global travel market research company PhoCusWright, Travelata reports that the Russian travel market was worth $53 billion in 2012. Only 14% of travel in Russia is currently …
Russia’s online travel market posts 50% yearly growth Read More
Last week Oktogo.ru announced the acquisition of information portal Travel.ru for a price of “up to $2 million including stock incentives,” according to a company statement. Founded in 1998, Travel.ru is one of the oldest resources in the Russian-language online travel segment. It reaches approximately 1.7 million users each month with up to 5 million page …
Online hotel booking service Oktogo.ru acquires information portal Travel.ru Read More
Russian hotel booking service Ostrovok.ru, which has been generously funded by Western and Russian investors since its launch in 2010, has laid off about a third of its staff in order to optimize operations and secure more investments. The company’s co-founder Serge Faguet made the move public in a corporate blog post published yesterday in …
Moscow-based social startup Flocktory announced last week that it has landed a $1.5 million Series A funding round from Digital Ventures, a new Russian venture fund, which has obtained a minority stake in the company. The main product that Flocktory is working on is a SaaS platform, which allows e-commerce companies to target the most …
Russian social marketing startup Flocktory raises $1.5 million from new Russian tech fund Read More
In its pursuit of leadership in the Russian online travel market, online hotel booking service Ostrovok.ru has raised $25 million – its fourth fundraising operation in less than two years. General Catalyst Partners has led the round, with participation from Accel Partners and Russia’s Frontier Ventures as well as from Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, ex-Expedia …
Online hotel booking service Ostrovok.ru raises $25 million amid fierce competition Read More
Oktogo.ru, a leading Russian online hotel booking company, has attracted $11 million in its fourth round of financing since its inception in 2010. The funds have been brought in by Russian entrepreneur Victor Sazhin in addition to some of the startup’s existing investors. These include Luxembourg’s Mangrove Capital Partners, France’s Ventech, and VTB Capital, the …
This article is published in partnership with Russia Beyond The Headlines, an international source of political, business and cultural news and analysis. As a new generation of startup entrepreneurs is emerging in Russia, the local startup scene tends to look more and more like its American, European and Asian counterparts. The stereotype of innovative Russian boffins …
How to invest in Russian startups: An investor’s guide Read More
Once a remote hinterland in terms of foreign investment, Russia is now emerging as a hot destination for investors looking for a slice of the action on the digital frontier. The recent Landing Page conference organised by Digital October Center for Geeks on a Plane (GOAP) participants, Russian VCs and entrepreneurs was a perfect example …
The investment arm of VTB Group, a leading Russian state-controlled financial group, VTB Capital has financed a number of Russian and foreign small and mid-sized IT companies. In the e-commerce and related fields, VTB Capital owns stakes in Mobidengi, a leading mobile payment service provider and Oktogo.ru, a major online hotel booking service, in addition …
