Prominent Russian venture fund Almaz Capital Partners has provided a round of financing for Tallinn based online dating service Flirtic, the latter reported in a news release yesterday. The undisclosed amount will be used for the development of Flirtic in Russian and English speaking communities.
AlterGeo, a Russian startup inspired by the Foursquare concept, announced yesterday it has closed a third round of financing with Intel Capital, prominent Russian venture fund Almaz Capital — sometimes called the Almaz-Cisco fund, and U.S. angel investor Esther Dyson, who is involved in several Russian IT projects.
Roscosmos Deputy head Anatoly Shilov announced yesterday significant improvement in Glonass accuracy. “Today, the system’s precision is to 6 meters, compared to 7 meters for GPS. In the next one or two years we must achieve an accuracy of 2 to 3 meters.” The statement was made at an international forum on satellite navigation held in …
DST, the top Russian Internet investment fund, will participate in a still-undisclosed round of financing in favor of alternative accommodations marketplace Airbnb, reports TechCrunch from unnamed sources. The round is being led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Travelmenu.ru, a site offering a suite of travel products including hotels, flights, and vacation packages, announced yesterday that it has raised $1.6 million in growth capital from Almaz Capital Partners and Runa Capital, two important venture capital firms in Russia. The funds will be used “to invest in a direct-to-consumer marketing campaign and build additional …
MegaFon, a leading Russian mobile operator, has made its phone interpreting service available nationwide. The service, which until now was accessible only from Moscow region, uses a three-way conference call format, enabling a person to speak with another person through an interpreter.
Moscow-based startup incubator Fast Lane Ventures has just launched Jizo.ru, a metasearch engine for airline tickets. Jizo.ru aggregates ticket information “from a myriad of sources,” says the company, including the booking systems of leading travel agencies, airlines and booking sites. Its simplified, uncluttered interface allows users to select airline tickets by two main criteria: date …
Fast Lane Ventures launches airline ticket search engine Jizo.ru Read More
You once said that you were in love with Russia. Please explain! To be in love means to believe and to be committed. We believe in Russia, in its entrepreneurs who are hungry for success. Some of them are very bold, like Oskar Hartmann (founder of leading online private shopping club KupiVIP.ru), Nikita Sherman (founder …
David Waroquier of Mangrove Capital Partners: Investing in Russia with “love” Read More
Some 500 speakers at the annual three-day Russian Internet Forum (RIF) participated in dozens of conferences and forums on virtually everything from SEO, online PR and non-standard advertising to usability, group buying, payment systems, and online monetization issues. Those concerned with legal issues and regulation were served with conferences on author’s rights, children’s Internet safety …
Industry reverberations at the Russian Internet Forum Read More
Ostrovok.ru, an online hotel booking service launched last summer, announced last week it had raised $1 million from General Catalyst Partners, a US-based venture capital and growth equity firm, Kite Ventures, a Russian venture fund, and business angels who founded online travel services in the US and China such as Kayak and Qunar.com. The founders say …
Western and Russian investors bring $1 million to hotel booking site Read More
Oktogo.ru, a Russian online hotel reservation company with its headquarters in St. Petersburg, is closing a $5 million round of financing with Western funds Ventech and Mangrove Capital Partners and Russian fund ABRT. The two Western funds confirmed the transaction to EWDN but did not disclose the startup’s valuation.
Ozon.Travel, a specialized arm of leading Russian e-commerce player Ozon.ru, announced last Monday a twentyfold increase of its annual gross booking sales, from 44 million rubles in 2009, the year of launch, to 898 million rubles in 2010 ($1.47 million and $29.9 million, respectively).
