Page 107 - RusRPTJun19

9.1.7 TMT sector news
Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) raised $2bn from foreign investors to support domestic companies developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions, Vedomosti daily reports citing the report of RDIF prepared for the meeting with President Vladimir Putin on AI advancement in Russia. As reported by bne IntelliNews, Russia seeks to boost start-up ecosystem, and country's traditional education emphasis on the hard sciences had helped many companies embrace technology. Russia is, for example, already a global force in fintech, according to a recent report, and actively supports nano-technology. The funds for AI development were rasied from "partners from large sovereign funds and global corporations from Middle East and Asia," RDIF representatives told Vedomosti. To compare, RDIF manages $10bn of own funds and $40bn of co-investments. About 5-10 AI-related investments annually are now planned.
The transportation committee of Russia's State Duma has drafted a bill that would impose stricter regulations on taxi aggregation services and push foreign companies out of the market as well as limiting the capping the commission from the ordered rides, RIA Novosti reported on May 28 citing the head of the committee Evgeny Moskvichev. The shares of Yandex on Nasdaq dropped by 7 % on May 28 to close the trading day at 4% decline on the announcement. The internet major has 16% of its revenues generated by Yandex.Taxi, a Dutch-registered Yandex.Taxi B.V joint venture with Uber Technologies (36.6%). Foreign taxi aggregators in Russia include Gett and Bolt. Reportedly, the deputies suggested allowing only "Russian companies" to provide taxi services via a legal entity form and not "individual entrepreneurs", allowing only drivers with Russian citizenship to work in taxis, and suggest a price calculation methodology for each region. "The discussions are related to the taxi draft law which is aimed at bringing some order to the taxi market, and was approved in the first reading in December," BCS Global Markets reminded on May 28. "The suggestions are surprising, as they would harm the market and Yandex.Taxi, and, apparently, are yet to be discussed in work groups.
107 RUSSIA Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com