bne_Tech_07_2019

Contents
bne:Tech
July 2019 www.intellinews.com @bneintellinews
Investment in AI is on the rise in Russia
Investment into Russian AI (artificial intelligence) has been increasing as more and more companies are embracing the technology while local startups are offering promising solutions. A few weeks ago, the Russian Fund for Direct Investment (RDIF) announced a deal where it attracted $2bn from foreign investors, which the organisation will redirect to local companies working on AI projects.
Investment in AI is on the rise in Russia 2 Russian banks compete with
digitisation schemes 3 Russia's Rostelecom restructures
to get control in Tele2 5
Leaders 6
Russia's Mail.ru expands food delivery assets 6 Internet major Yandex accused of
abusing search engine market share 6 Yandex.Taxi snaps up Vezet
assets from rival Mail.ru 7
Investment 9
4iG clinches mega deal to buy Magyar Telekom's IT subsidiary T-System 9 EU to invest €200mn to improve
rural internet in Slovenia 10 Hungary’s largest online booking
site acquires Czech peer 10 Owner of Skyscanner Chinese Ctrip
buys Russian peer Avia Center 11
Fintech & E-commerce 12
EBRD and Swedbank’s Lithuanian
branch team up to help fintech development 12 Russian online retailer Wildberries
boosts sales by 80% in 1H19 12 Sberbank and Yandex e-commerce
JV may end in divorce after only
one year 13
Telecom 15
Armenia’s Ucom places
local currency and USD bonds 15 Kosovo Telecom CEO is optimistic
about reaching a solution with
Z-Mobile over debt 15 Russian Veon mobile major gets
former Facebook exec for new
Ventures unit 16 Telekom Slovenije to sell 100%
of Kosovo’s IPKO 17
NIBs 18
See page 2
Russian banks compete with digitisation schemes
The race is on. Russian lenders have been switching to digital services, competing with each other for top spots in the
digitalisation race, as the Russian economy continues to go into the cloud.
See page 3