bne_Tech_10_2018
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bne:Tech
October 2018 www.intellinews.com @bneintellinews
BCS launches digital lender Sfera
Contents
BCS launches digital lender Sfera 1 EasternEuropeMovestoRegulateCrypto 1 Romania’s “disobedient” GenZ shun employment for startups 5 Russia's Digital Economy roadmap estimated cost jumps 66% 6 “Iran’s Amazon” lays off staff as
Trump sanctions hit business 7
Leaders 8
Russia's Yandex.Market and Sberbank online marketplace to focus on non-Chinese suppliers 8 Russian Post plans to boost
e-commerce infrastructure 9 Romania’s software and IT market
to exceed €5bn in 2019 10 Russian lottery operator could move
to online car leasing 10
Investment 11
Russia's MTS mobile major acquired
data processing center 11 Russian online entrepreneurs Oskar Hartmann and Igor Rybakov invest $750,000 in Australian car sharing platform 12 Romania's Bitdefender takes over Australian peer 13
Blockchain & Cryptocurrency 14
Russian company launches giant
mining farm near St. Petersburg 14 Russian Raiffeisenbank registered
first blockchain mortgage loan 15 Armenian MPs approve draft law
for technology FEZ devoted to blockchain-based projects 15
Fintech 16
Russia’s SimpleFinance secures $15 million from Japanese fund SBI 16 Russia's CBR could greenlight
P2P insurance 17 Sistema’s venture arm invests
in Indian credit startup 17
NIBs 18
Telecom 21
Iran’s imports of mobile phones
in five-month period surge 92.9% 21 Russian internet major Yandex
denies facilitating piracy 22 Makedonski Telekom prepares for commercial launch of 5G technology 22 Broadband users in Montenegro
rise 14.8% y/y in July 23 Macedonia’s Telekabel to launch
mobile telephony services 23 Mobile phone penetration in
Montenegro up to 184.12% at end-July 23 Russian state telecom major
Rostelecom seeks control of Tele2 24
Russia's financial group BCS has launched Sfera, a digital bank for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), aiming for a 10% share of the small business segment by 2022.
"We ran in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs and figured out the main problems hampering development of their businesses," says Sfera CEO Dmitry Kostenko. "As we learned, so far, there
hasn't been a product in the market that satisfied all
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Eastern Europe Moves to Regulate Crypto
Across Eastern Europe, regulation of cryptocurrency is still in its formative stages, with various countries' approaches ranging from hostile to friendly. Here, we're taking a look at what governments and regulators are doing about crypto in the region.
See page 3
