Earlier this month SBT Venture Capital, the venture arm of Russia’s national savings bank Sberbank, led a $6.5 million investment round for Mobeewave, a Canadian startup that develops fast and secure NFC mobile payment acceptance services. Business angels also participated in the round, but their identity has not been disclosed. Founded in 2012, Montreal-based Mobeewave presents itself as …
Walking past a row of vending machines and ATMs at the Kursky train station in Moscow, Sergei Amirkhanov stops in front of a bright orange cash machine. Instead of inserting his bank card, he scans his passport, poses for a photo and enters his mobile number. He receives a text message on his phone a few minutes later, telling him …
This bizarre Russian ATM wants to lend you money Read More »
Life.Sreda, a Russian fund investing in financial and mobile technologies, has acquired iboxPro, a leading Asian mobile point-of-sale service, and intends to merge it with its Russian portfolio company LifePay. The details of the transaction have not been disclosed, but an unnamed source told business daily Kommersant that it amounted to “up to $10 million.”
QIWI Venture, the investment arm of Russian electronic payment giant QIWI Group, has launched a new acceleration program, Universe 2.0. Like its predecessor, the program is intended to facilitate the quick launch of pilot projects which are looking to work in partnership with the company. QIWI hopes the accelerator will attract both major, established companies and …
Russian fintech fund Life.Sreda is seeking buyers for the greater part of its portfolio companies, both Russian and foreign, Russian business daily Vedomosti has learned from unnamed industry insiders. The fund intends to concentrate on the development of its most promising project, mobile acquiring startup LifePay. In an exchange with the newspaper, Life.Sreda representative Anna …
Earlier this week Seattle-based startup LendingRobot completed a $3 million funding round led by Runa Capital, a venture firm operating globally from its offices in Moscow and San Francisco. Club Italia Investimenti II also participated in the round along with individual investors, but the amount of their respective contributions was not disclosed. An automated investment service for online lending, LendingRobot claims to serve more than …
Runa Capital leads $3 million round in US startup LendingRobot Read More »
MasterCard has agreed to transfer card processing inside Russia to the National System of Payment Cards (NSPC) while Visa is still discussing the matter with the authorities, Interfax.ru reported, citing the Central Bank’s press service. MasterCard’s move will not affect cardholders, Interfax quoted a MasterCard representative as saying. The company previously used its own processing system, which is located …
MasterCard reaches agreement with national payment system; Visa may follow Read More »
The Russian telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor has blocked access to five bitcoin-related websites because the cryptocurrency “contributes to the growth of the shadow economy.” The sites include Bitcoin.org, a primary community resource for the cryptocurrency that’s run by the Bitcoin Foundation, the Bitcoin.it community wiki, the Russian-language BTCsec.com security site, the London-incorporated Indacoin exchange, and Russian bitcoin community site Coinspot.ru — although the …
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Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development has reacted negatively to the bill to ban cash equivalents, including electronic money, such as bitcoins. It said the proposed ban could hit major telecom operators, retailers and banks hard. The Ministry of Finance has developed a draft law on the introduction of responsibility for handling cash equivalents after President …
Yes to bitcoin! Russian ministry says quasi-money ban may endanger banks, retailers Read More »
Last week Life.SREDA, the venture arm of Russian finance group Life, announced its investment in mobile bank Rocketbank. The amount of the transaction has not been disclosed, but an unnamed source close to the deal told Russian tech blog Firrma.ru that the fund’s stake in Rocketbank does not exceed 10%. Life, which is made up of seven commercial banks across Russia, …