The Skolkovo Foundation, which has been instrumental in pumping R&D funds into the Skolkovo innovation hub just outside Moscow since 2010, has contracted with an international consortium to create a comprehensive ‘smart city’ concept. Under the terms of the 89.7 million ruble ($3 million) deal, the Russian software developer Cognitive Technologies, Britain’s Ernst&Young, the U.S.’ …
Skolkovo: Global majors hired to shape ‘smart city’ Read More
In an unusual diversification bid, St. Petersburg Cable TV, a major northwest Russian telecom also known as TKT, has launched a security service that fends off domestic trouble for homeowners from a distance. The Your Intelligent House package monitors a residence when the owner is away, alerting him to any household emergency or unwanted intrusion. …
PayPal has held discussions with the Russian Post to prepare its entry on the local market, Russian business daily Kommersant reported earlier this week. Beyond the launch of the international virtual currency on the Russian market, a co-branded payment card has been discussed, which could be replenished from PayPal accounts and used to settle purchases, to withdraw cash …
1C, the Russian enterprise software giant, has acquired a 51% stake in Megaplan, a publisher of cloud-based business service solutions, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported yesterday. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. The Russian management company IQ One, an early investor in Megaplan, has kept a blocking minority share in the …
Leading Russian business software publisher 1C acquires cloud solution developer Megaplan Read More
On Wednesday, Vimpelcom, a major Russian mobile operator, announced it will deploy the NFC-based contactless payment system it implemented in St. Petersburg last year within the Moscow subway. Widespread commercial launch in Moscow is scheduled for the end of the year. While most offline and online purchases made in Russia are still paid in cash, …
Contactless payments take their first steps in Russia Read More
The Russian venture capital scene, which counted less than two dozen active funds just two years ago, is continuing its impressive growth. Its newest player, an early stage venture fund named Frontier Ventures, has just been announced by its founder, the Russian entrepreneur and investor Dmitry Alimov. The fund’s target of $50 million has already been …
New $50 million fund targets early stage B2C Internet startups Read More
MTS, one of Russia’s largest mobile operators, and Samsung Electronics have shaken hands on a deal to develop retail sales jointly in Russia by the end of the year. The agreement – the first of its kind in Russia with a single manufacturer – calls for the opening of Samsung product stores in Russia’s ten …
One of Russia’s leading business monitors, RBC daily, pooled efforts earlier this month with the St. Petersburg Politics Foundation and the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy in putting together a ranking of Russia’s regional innovation activity for the first two months of this year. The four leaders in this ranking are the Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk …
Siberia on its way to create its own analog of Silicon Valley Read More
Moscow, Russia / San Francisco, California – Farminers, a Russia-based technology incubator backed by In-Mobile Investments, is bringing the members of its 2012 Startup Academy for technology startups to San Francisco’s RocketSpace to prepare for launch in the United States. Chosen from thousands of Russian tech startups that applied to the Farminers Startup Academy, these …
Farminers partners with RocketSpace to bring Russian tech startups to the United States Read More
Runa Capital, a Moscow-based fund that began investing outside Russia last fall, is providing $1.5 million in funding to Capptain, a French startup that has developed a SaaS platform for mobile analytics and marketing. Capptain’s valuation has not been disclosed, but Runa is a minority shareholder, Laurent Lathieyre, the startup’s co-founder, told East-West Digital News. …
French mobile analytics startup nabs $1.5 million from Moscow based venture fund Read More
Since Scartel, a leading Russian WiMax provider operating under the Yota brand, launched Russia’s first LTE network in Novosibirsk in January, new initiatives have confirmed that 4G is on its way towards covering large portions of the Russian Federation. Roskomnadzor, the state telecom regulator, announced yesterday that the tenders to allocate the remaining LTE frequencies …
LTE tenders to take place in one month, Sochi to get LTE for 2014 Winter Olympics Read More
The US software giant Microsoft announced last week that a PC game production unit recently set up in Yaroslavl has started providing its products to Russian customers. An international digital entertainment company, Arvato Digital Services, has been contracted to produce Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console compatible games at its own factory in this city, which is …
