Yandex Invests In Seedcamp
Yandex, Russia's largest search engine, has invested an undisclosed amount in Seedcamp, the London-based incubator. Seedcamp's sponsors include internet giants like Google, Microsoft, and PayPal, but this is the first time a major company has hopped on board as an investor. The company therefore gains an indirect share in all of the participating countries, and will participate in the selection of the startups.
i-Free Venture Fund Halts Funding Of "Girls Around Me"
Those of you who pay attention to other tech news sources may have heard of the controversy surrounding the app "Girls Around Me," which took location-based checkins to a creepy level, allowing you to see grabbed public check-ins from Facebook and Foursquare of girls that are around you. Apple has since removed the app from the app store.
The startup was funded by i-Free, a St. Petersburg based venture fund, which we covered the funding of last July. The app itself was created by a team at a startup company called Places By Me, which aimed to help people find the more popular leisure venues. But rather than sticking to its model, the application pivoted to the Girls Around Me angle, which the company and i-Free claims had no particular gender bias.
Contactless Payments Take Their First Steps In Russia
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 payment experiments have been flourishing in several Russian cities over the last two years. Last October, Megafon, another leading operator, also launched NFC payments in the St. Petersburg subway, in addition to using the system for loyalty programs with several local banks and retailers.
Zina.ru: Up to 80% Of First Time Online Purchases In Russia Are Made On Couponing Websites
Two years after the Groupon fever hit Russia in March 2010, Leonid Gluzman, the founder of daily deal site aggregator Zina.ru, recalls the history of this thriving industry and shares its key figures and trends for the future. This interview is an excerpt from an in-depth research paper on Russian e-commerce that will be released next month.
How many daily deal sites are there in Russia today and who are the leaders?
In Russia, there are approximately two hundred such sites today. The two leaders are Biglion and Groupon Russia, with an approximate turnover last year of 3.8 billion rubles, or approximately $126 million, Biglion being number 1 with 2.2 billion rubles, or $73 million. Then you have a number of rather strong sites, including Vigoda.ru, Kupikupon.ru, Kupibonus.ru and Bigbuzzy.ru, whose monthly turnover can reach 50 million rubles, or $1.6 million.
US Business Angel Esther Dyson: “Online Services Can Reduce The Costs Of Being Honest”
Among US business angels, Esther Dyson is probably the one who has invested the most to date in Russia. Her portfolio includes no fewer than 15 Russian startups as well as Yandex, the search giant which she advises as a member of its board of directors.
In this exchange with East-West Digital News, Esther Dyson speaks openly about her business successes and failures. She also reveals why she considers Russia her “second country,” and why she thinks that information technologies could bring a better future to Russia by “reducing the cost of being honest.”
US Venture Capitalists Go East: Russia’s Startups Now More Appealing
Is Russia becoming a new frontier for US venture capitalists? With local startups and incubators springing up like mushrooms, a number of foreign tech investors have started to operate in the country, which is striving for modernization.
Exemplifying the invest in Russia trend is Tiger Global Management, a New York-based international investment management firm. Over the past two years Tiger has invested twice in the Russian e-commerce platform Wikimart.ru – $5 million in 2010 and another $7 million in 2011 – and contributed $10 million in a round of financing for online travel sales site Anywayanyday.ru.
From St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, 180 000 Webcams Monitored Russia’s Presidential Election
In an unprecedented experiment to ensure election transparency, most of Russia’s 94 300 polling stations were equipped with webcams offering a live broadcast of the recent voting.
The broadcast, which started at midnight, Moscow time, on election day, ended after all vote counting operations were completed. It was followed by up to 400 000 simultaneous Internet users on a dedicated website, Webvybory2012.ru. As many as 1 600 operators were hired to support a toll-free hotline to answer questions from site users and receive their feedback about technical problems.
Skolkovo’s Influence Extending To Post Soviet Countries
In a renewed round of innovation cooperation in the post-Soviet area, the Skolkovo Foundation, the Russian organization in charge of building a world-class technology hub near Moscow, is expected to start screening and funding technology start-ups from the neighboring CIS countries.
The CIS Economic Council will vest the Foundation next month with full powers to run a ten-year interstate collaboration program, the Armenian Mediamax news agency reported.
Online Surpasses Print Advertising Revenues In Russia, Up 56% In 2011
Online advertising spending surpassed print advertising for the first time in 2011, the Russian Association of Communication Agencies (AKAR) annnouced in its annual report, published this week.
According to the report, the Russian online advertising market reached $1.4 billion, up 56% from 2010, demonstrating the fastest growth among the different segments of the market. In 2010, online advertising spending had grown by 42%.
Print advertising represented $1.36 billion in 2011, up 6% from 2010, while TV advertising grew by 18% to $4.4 billion. Total advertising spending increased by 21% to $8.85 billion, an impressive growth rate despite a slowdown in Q4.
VTB Capital Invests $10M In Online Hotel Booking Service Oktogo.ru
Russian business daily Kommersant reported from unnamed sources on Friday that VTB Capital has invested $10 million in Oktogo.ru, a leading Russian online hotel booking startup, in exchange for a stake of 30 to 35 percent in a capital increase operation. VTB Capital declined to confirm or comment.
Founded in 2010, Oktogo now shows daily traffic reaching 18,000 users on average and up to 25,000 on peak days, project founder Maria Kolesnik told Kommersant. Oktogo’s revenues reached $10 million in 2011 and Kolesnik expects them to triple in 2012.
Gecko Systems Eyes At The Russian Logistics Market And Glonass
Gecko Systems is a Finnish technology company that has taken an out-of-the box approach to location based services and markets. Instead of thinking of the obvious (which by Nordic standards usually means Western markets, USA, etc.), they have turned east towards Russia and their solutions, namely Glonass, a competitor to the GPS (Global Positioning System).
Speaktoit Enters In the Battle Of Virtual Assistants, Faces Siri And Vlingo
Apple with the release of Siri for the iPhone 4S has had everyone praising the feature. It is no doubt a great addition to the iPhone, perhaps the only notable one in the new generation of the iPhone. While that goes for the iOS devices, there is one for the Android, Speaktoit. The application comes from Russia and is in for a challenge from Siri and Vlingo.
There is a need for virtual assistants and to be honest, with Siri in the playground we will definitely be seeing a rapid increase in improved versions. I tried my hands with Speaktoit and it does the job fairly well. You can ask questions or commands directly to the Speaktoit assistant on your Android device and the client processes the same, executing what is being requested. Of course this requires that your commands be specific enough for it to recognize and execute.
Russia Will See Huge Opportunities For Years
I talked to Marina Treshchova, CEO of Fast Lane Ventures, a Moscow based early stage venture capital firm a few weeks back about the investment market in Russia. Fast Lane Ventures is quite a young investment company, but during their 18 months in operation they have invested in almost 1 company every month. Treshchova summed up the situation that there are so many opportunities in Russia at the moment that they have to run really fast.
Yandex Goes On Wheels, Introduces Yandex Taxi
In this day and age, what could be worse than making a phone call to arrange a taxi? It sounds too much of a hassle, and while it might be effective for many, the concept sounds too medieval. This is just my personal opinion, but gladly some firms are keen at bringing Cab facilitation online. The idea is to help ease the task for arranging taxis via one single destination. Yandex has started doing exactly that.
The Russian online giant is leveraging its popularity online in Russia to launch a Yandex Taxi Search Service. Yandex.Taxi sends request for booking a cab to all taxi services and accelerates the process of finding a cab for travellers. To start off, Yandex.Taxi has succeeded in partnering with 11 Taxi Service providers. Currently this service is just in beta and the operations are limited to Moscow alone.
Yandex Revenus And Income Up, Market Share Down
Yandex has had an eventful year: it rolled out a whole set of new features, invested into quite a few start-ups and enlisted on NASDAQ, raising almost $1.5 billion. Though after the initial hype of the IPO their shares were in decline. According to Q3 financial results released this week, the company is doing very well.
Their revenues jumped 65% from last year to $161.9 million and their net income grew a staggering 93% over the last 12 months reaching $53.5 million. However, their share of the Russian search market slightly dropped from almost 65% to 62.7%. Lost market share went to Google, who is trying to grow their market share in the region with the help of their browser, Chrome (popular especially among young people). Though, as Arkady Volozh, Yandex's founder and CEO retorted to Reuters: 'In the long run, clear market leadership is more important to financial performance than the magnitude of that lead which is likely to fluctuate over time'.
Hyperclap: A Fresh Geolocation App From Russia
Geolocation services are on the rise: more and more start-ups are building applications around check-ins, places, events and social media. Hyperclap, a Moscow-based start-up, decided to join the trend and offer their take on how best to combine all those aspects in one app. Their iPhone app lets you follow locations like bars, restaurants and clubs and instead of checking-in to those places users report from locations through messages and photos. The idea behind Hyperclap is to give a tool for movers and shakers to see what's happening in their favorite locations when they are there or when they are away. The app also generates trending spots to display the most popular places in towns.
Yuri Milner Sells Almost $60 Million In Mail.Ru Stock
This news is already a bit outdated by internet standards, but important nevertheless. Yuri Milner, the billionaire chairman of Mail.Ru has sold $59.5 million worth of Mail.Ru stock through his DST Global company. The sale happened towards the end of September, Forbes reports.
The move is significant for a few reasons. Firstly, the company went public in November 2010 so selling so much of his personal stake in the company so soon isn't a very good signal to the market. Furthermore, the stock has been heading downhill more or less since the IPO and this sale further pushed the stock down that day.
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Russian Gamers Buy Less Virtual Goods
Experts of the Russian gaming industry report that Russian gamers are less active in paying for virtual goods compared to their Western counterparts. Two of the biggest local social games developers, i-Jet Media and Progrestar, claim only 5-7% of all gamers buy virtual goods when playing. In comparison, about a third of gamers pay for virtual goods in Western countries (and about 60% of paying gamers buy goods at least once a month), according to the recent research by VGMarket.
Another big Russian game developer, Innova, noticed a further characteristic of Russian gamers: '...unlike gamers in the West, in Russia players want to pay for something that would improve their character's abilities, not change their appearances'. Though this is mostly true for massively multiplayer online role-playing games, not social games.
Yandex Invests In Zenmoney
Yandex, has invested in one of the applicants and finalists that took part in its Yandex Start event on March 15th - Zenmoney.ru. Zenmoney is a personal finance startup developing an accounting and planning application.
ASI Makes Its First Exit From Russia
Ambient Sound Investments, ASI, has made its first exit from Russia according to Quintura. ASI has sold its stake in SaaS-based inventory management software provider LogneX (Moy Sklad). Interestingly enough, LogneX was also ASI's first investment in Russia. ASI sold its stake to 1C, which is a Russian based ERP service provider.
Russian Travelmenu Secures $1.6M Funding
Travelmenu is among numerous online travel booking start-ups in Russia that recently closed impressive funding rounds. Runa Capital and Almaz Capital each contributed $800,000 to the project. Alexander Galitsky, Managing Director of Almaz Capital, commented: 'In Travelmenu we found a company that holds a promising position in the emerging market of online tourist services and in the future can claim a large share of that market'. The new investment would be used to attracted more users to the service as well as develop its infrastructure and establish a strong position in Russia and Ukraine.
I-Free On Russian Mobile And Tablet Market
Local and foreign developers take an interest in Russian mobile market. It is rapidly growing and given the country's 145+ million population it has a lot of potential. To find out latest trends, figures and facts about mobile and tablet market in Russia we interviewed Kiril Petrov, Managing Director, and Ilya Chernetskiy, Strategy Marketing Manager, from i-Free Innovations. I-Free is a St.Petersburg-based Russian software developer and distributor for mobile apps, e-commerce and marketing. It was founded in 2001 and it operates mostly in Russia and CIS. The company employs 350 people and apart from Russia and CIS has offices in India, China and Brazil.
Microsoft BizSpark European Summit Finalists Announced
Microsoft BizSpark European Summit released the names of the 14 finalists from the whole of Europe. The competition involved hundreds of startups from all over Europe and making it to the top means that the selected startups had great potential to impress the selectors. Each of the finalists had to battle their way to this spot against numerous companies and two qualification rounds to grab a chance to pitch their ideas live in front of an audience of investors and a panel of expert judges. This final event will be held on June 14, in Brussels. Impressively, 4 companies are from the Northern European region.
Russian Search Engine Yandex Shared Information With FSB
Yandex has been on top when it comes to coverage recently and sharing another piece won’t be surprising. Unless it isn’t positive. BBC has mentioned that Yandex, Russia’s largest search engine has confirmed sharing confidential data with the state’s secret service; the FSB. Bad news, given that Yandex had set its eyes on raising $1 billion via listing on Nasdaq.
Startup Sauna Participants Announced
The Helsinki based Aalto Venture Garage is putting together in international incubation/acceleration program for very early stage projects that should turn to startups later this summer. In total, 17 teams from the region were accepted into the program from around the Baltic Sea. 3 teams were from Russia, 2 from Latvia, 1 from Lithuania and Estonia as well as Sweden and the rest were from Finland (9).
Why Building A Startup In Russia Is Less Risky Than In The Valley
Serge Faguet is a Russian-born serial entrepreneur. Having built and exited a successful start-up in the Silicon Valley, he recently moved to Moscow and founded a new venture. Serge shared his reasons for switching countries in an interview with Forbes.ru. Serge's most successful start-up so far is Tokbox, a simple tool for video conferences, which he created while studying for a Stanford MBA. Tokbox raised $4,5M initial funding from Sequoia Capital and other investors. Serge exited the company in 2008, receiving a substantial but undisclosed sum. About a year ago he moved back to Moscow and together with Kirill Makharinsky founded an online hotel booking service for Russian-speaking users Ostrovok.ru.
Russia Goes Mapping With Yandex Maps
Yandex has success written all over it when it comes to being the leading search engine and the most visited site in Russia with over 21.5 million average monthly users. When you are this big, there is little reason why you won’t try different things. We have been talking about the Russian Internet company and news has always been different. From providing aspiring entrepreneurs with mentoring at Yandex.Start to funding the same with Yandex.Factory. In its latest release, Yandex announced the launch of Yandex Maps, with map of Moscow and Moscow region being the first to be rolled out earlier.
Yandex.Factory To Finance Startups
Russian firm, Yandex is waking up to assist startups with funding with the initiation of Yandex.Factory. Yandex.Factory is a startup investment program that will provide funding to startup projects in Russia as well as those from the International arena and this investment is by no means small.
Russian Investors Up Their Game
'Venture capitalism works like the solar system: when the sun moves, the rest follow',- said Lubov Simonova-Emelyanova of Almaz Capital Partners. The sun in this metaphor is Digital Sky Technologies (DST). The fund's sheer size and growing activity prompted other Russian investors to increase their investment activities. Russian venture capitalists are expected to make much more investments this year compared to 2010. The catalyst might have been DST's announcement of opening a new fund, DST Global2, which already invested in Groupon this January and is said to be negotiating a $100M-worth funding round with Spotify. Following the lead Almaz Capital Partners announced their plans to invest in four start-ups with the overall sum of investment comprising $30M.
