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November 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 21
Russia to oblige installation of domestic software on smart devices
Russian State Duma voted in a bill that will oblige all smartphones, personal computers, and smart TVs to come with pre-installed domestically developed software if they are sold in the country, Kommersant daily reported on November 6.
The bill was previously supported by the government in October, seeing it as promoting domestic developers on the market. A similar initiative was also developed by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS).
The analysts surveyed by Kommersant still see
no clarity on how the bill will be enforced, which devices and which types of software will be involved. For Apple devices, complying with the new rules would be particularly challenging, they note.
Unions of electronics retailers that include Apple, Samsung, and other major brands told the daily that the bill was not discussed with the business community, experts, and other stakeholders. The rules will lead to higher costs and might actually decrease the quality of the software, as the developers will seek to comply with the selection criteria, rather than developing a competitive product, they argue.
Russian carsharing BelkaCar changes shareholders
Russian carsharing service BelkaCar changed shareholders, with Coneplace Limited of BMT Private Equity becoming the main shareholder, the company said on October 31 without disclosing the amount of the deal.
As reported by bne InelliNews, carsharing vehicles in Moscow could triple to 30,000 by 2025, according to a PriceWaterHouseCoopers forecast cited by RBC business portal in September 2018.
BMT is controlled by Dmitry Zimin, the founder of the Veon mobile major (former Vimpelcom, operates in Russia under Beeline brand). BMT bought out the entire stake of Swiss Winterberg Group (former Bryanston Group).
The new shareholders will support BelkaCar
in strengthening its position in Moscow and an “aggressive regional expansion”. BelkaCar was founded in 2015 by Ekaterina Makarova, Loriana Sardar, and Elena Muradova.
Sberbank previously estimated that the value of the entire Russian urban transportation market (taxi, carsharing, carpooling, etc) could reach RUB2 trillion by 2025, growing by an average of 15% from RUB748bn seen in 2018.
Armenian government to exit venture capital investor Granatus
The Armenian government plans to sell its stake in the country’s first venture capital fund, Granatus Ventures, Economy Minister Tigran Khachatryan told a government meeting on October 24, Arka reported.
Granatus Ventures was launched in 2013, and as of early 2019 it had a portfolio of 14 high-tech startups that have together attracted over $62mn from venture capital firms in Silicon Valley and Europe.
The government invested $3mn in the Granatus Ventures fund, but said at the time that if the fund was successful and private investors wanted to buy out its share, it would not stand in the way of this.
"After the completion of all procedures, the government will receive its money. Our main goal is to cede additional profit to the private sector. The experience of the fund shows that venture funds can get high incomes and participate
in interesting private investment programs in Armenia," Khachatryan told government officials.