Pixonic, a Russian social game publisher, has raised USD 5 million in a round of funding with a valuation of USD 10 million. Investors include Ukrainian based TA Ventures, Kite Ventures and Ventech. Ventech has stated that they invested USD 2.5 million of the USD 5 million. Pixonic (www.pixonic.ru) Founded in 2009, Moscow based Pixonic [...]

Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries now has its foot in the door of the Russian discount purchasing market after announcing an investment in Vigoda.ru. Access Industries purchased 1/3 of Vigoda.ru at a cost of USD 6 million. The Russian market for discount coupon shopping, which includes names like BigLion, Groupon Russia, and KupiKupon, is expected to [...]

The field of Groupon knock-offs continues to grow, this time with BigLion – a new Russian discount purchasing service now open in the country’s major cities. Leonid Boguslavsky’s ru-Net II, a secondary investment arm of ru-Net Ventures, has provided venture capital to get the new site off the ground. BigLion joins the crowded discount purchasing [...]

Group purchasing giant Groupon has stuck its foot in the Russian door by acquiring Darberry.ru, a web portal offering similar services. The acquisition comes in the form of venture funding which gives Groupon a majority stake. Groupon has been buying up discount shopping services around the world, including the recent acquisition of Germany’s CityDeal. At the same [...]