Problems with Visa and Mastercaed perpetual cards, Samsonite sold Russian business: latest news August 23

Russia

• The NRG Ventures fund has launched a business accelerator for technology companies with founders from the post-Soviet space who are going to enter Middle Eastern markets.

• By the end of 2022, the Russian Ministry of Digital Development plans to create a registry of unacceptable cybersecurity violations. It will be available to all organizations.

Business

• Yandex buys food and grocery delivery service Delivery Club from VK. The company will abandon the news aggregator and develop it. ru as your new cover. VK buys Zen and Novosti.

• VK acquires 100% of Delivery Club and withdraws from O2O Holding.

• The American manufacturer Samsonite sold the Russian business to local top managers. Until February, the company, taking into account the exclusive rights to sell products in Russia, could cost at least 100 million dollars.

• Yandex decided to register two brands for the sale of electronic products and household appliances: Vionic and Tuvio. The list of products includes refrigerators, washing machines, kettles, robotic vacuum cleaners, as well as a virtual reality headset and gloves for it.

• Canadian IMAX, which exited the Russian market on June 1, has banned the use of the format of the same name in Russia to show domestic films. The equipment for the exhibition of films in IMAX format belongs to national distributors, however, permission from the company is required to exhibit a film in this format.

• Long-term car rental service in Russia is more profitable than buying it by an average of 20%. The next five years, the trend will only develop.

Finance

• The Ministry of Finance is considering the placement of Russian bonds in yuan. They want to attract Chinese investors to the topic, their preparation will take at least a year.
• Russians complained of difficulties paying with expired Visa and Mastercard cards. Failures may occur due to the lack of the necessary settings that allow you to skip payments through expired Visa and Mastercard cards.
• VK on the basis of United Media Agency (UMA) plans to distribute content to music streaming platforms. The company also promises to put tracks by Russian artists on foreign platforms.

Technology

• Laboratory service “Helix” has launched “Labomats”, where you can conduct medical tests confidentially and without contact. Now 30 reception points have been installed in St. Petersburg.

• Rostelecom Solar, a developer of cybersecurity solutions, and the Center for Information Security have created a joint venture to protect companies that work with state secrets. The new legal entity will supply customers from corporations and state departments with special equipment, hardware and software.

Services and means

• The SBOL application, which is an analogue of Sberbank Online, was removed from the App Store. Also, in the app store search, the Prime Balance app, similar to the VTB app, is no longer issued.

• Wildberries has started testing a new fintech service that will allow entrepreneurs to receive payments for goods sold in real time.

• VK will distribute music to streaming platforms. The company will also put the tracks of Russian artists on foreign platforms.