Intel Capital and Almaz Capital have led a new round of funding in AlterGeo, a Russian geo social service. Intel and Almaz invested several million dollar in exchange for a 25% stake in AlterGeo, valuing it at $20 million, according to newspaper Vedomosti. That could imply $5 million new investment.

AlterGeo previously raised $1 million from Kite Ventures and AddVenture.

AlterGeo (formerly Wi2Geo), like Foursquare, is a Russian location-based mobile platform (geo social service) that makes cities easier to explore. AlterGeo users can “check in” via a smartphone app and share their location with friends while collecting coupons, points and virtual badges. For example, the leading Russian retail bank VTB24 launched a loyalty program “Become a major of VTB24!” with Foursquare in April 2011. Next month VTB24 added AlterGeo to its loyalty program.

Launched as Wi2Geo in Moscow in July 2008, AlterGeo has more than 0.7 million users. AlterGeo was founded by Sergey Kurlovich and Denis Alaev in 2007. Almaz Capital has investment in mobile social network provider Apollo.

Founded in 2007, Foursquare has over 8 million registered users worldwide. Its users make over 2.5 million check-ins per day. Over 250,000 businesses use its merchant platform. Foursquare raised more than $20 million from Union Square Ventures, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and angel investors.

In 2010, Intel Capital invested $2 million in Rock Flow Dynamics in Russia.

The leading Russian search engine company Yandex, which completed $1.4 billion IPO on NASDAQ in May 2011, has invested in personal finance startup Zenmoney.ru. The investment was made as part of Yandex.Factory (Яндекс.Фабрика) initiative, according to Yandex start-up blog. Zenmoney will have to use Yandex.API for future service development.

Founded in early 2010, Zenmoney.ru (Дзенмани.ру) offers online accounting and planning service for personal finances. Based in St. Petersburg, Zenmoney is headed by CEO Anton Fedosin.

Zenmoney appeared on Yandex radar by taking part in Yandex.Start (Яндекс.Старт) start-up meeting on March 15, 2011. Yandex.Factory makes investments in seed and early-stage internet and mobile start-ups in the range several hundred thousand dollars.

Yandex recently acquired two Russian start-ups such as web login service Loginza and website analytics service WebVizor. Each deal was in the range of few hundred thousand dollars.

In 2010, Yandex invested $3 million in facial recognition company Face.com from  Israel.

The leading Russian nationwide cinema network Cinema Park has agreed to acquire Rising Star Media, operator of KinoStar DeLuxe Cinemas chain of movie theaters in Russia from UFG Private Equity, Shari Redstone and Paul Heth, according to ProfMedia press announcement. The acquisition was financed from own funds of Cinema Park‘s owner ProfMedia of Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin. The cinema chain Kinostar could be valued at $100 million, which could be more than 3x capital invested back in late 2009.

Founded in 2002, KinoStar DeLuxe Cinemas chain includes six multiplex movie theaters with 75 screens (including 4 IMAX screens) in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Rising Star Media revenues of KinoStar DeLuxe Cinemas amounted to $100 million in 2010. The private equity firm UFG, Shari Redstone and Paul Heth acquired Rising Star Media from National Amusements in late 2009.

Founded in 2002, Cinema Park operates 20 multiplex movie theaters with 169 screens in 15 cities in Russia. Cinema Park reported revenues of $120 million in 2010. Cinema Park is majority owned by ProfMedia. Its partner in Cinema Park is International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The united entity of Cinema Park and Kinostar DeLuxe (Rising Star Media) will create the largest cinema chain in Russia with 244 screens (incl. 9 IMAX screens), thus implying 9.6% market share in movie theaters in Russia.

In 2009, AlloCine of France acquired Russian cinema information site KinoPoisk.ru.

The Russian nanotechnology investment company RUSNANO has agreed to invest $15 million out of $22 million investment in a new round in SiTime Corpotation, an analog semiconductor company developing MEMS-based silicon timing solutions. Based in California and Ukraine, SiTime plans to open a new design center in Russia with new funds, according to Rusnano. The Zelenograd, Russia-based center of SiTime is expected to focus on designing a new generation of MEMS oscillators.

SiTime offers MEMS-based silicon timing solutions including resonators, oscillators and clock generators for telecom, networking, storage and wireless applications. The global market is valued at $5 billion.

SiTime Corporations is funded by Bosch Group, CampVentures, CID Group, Grazia Equity, Greylock Partners, JAFCO Ventures, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), and Northgate Capital.

RUSNANO recently invested in ItN Nanovation of Germany.

When Rambler merged with Afisha in 2010, it appointed new CEO Nikolay Molibog from Afisha, who replaced Olga Turischeva. The united company of Afisha and Rambler, which is owned by media group ProfMedia, has unvelied a new logo and brand of Rambler, reported newspaper Vedomosti. The new logo and brand were created by Afisha’s art director, Irina Voloshina and designer Eugene Timerman, according to the paper. The new Rambler logo will be launched on June 6, 2011. The new Rambler logo and brand visual symbol looks like a compass, a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the Earth’s magnetic poles.

Launched in 1996, Rambler.ru is one of the leading Russian online portals. Rambler.ru monthly audience reached over 14 million users, according to TNS Web Index. Rambler.ru search market share in Russia is 1.5%, as compared to Yandex search share of 65%. Rambler‘s annual revenues exceed $100 million.

Russian Yuri Milner‘s firm DST, which recently raised $1 billion for DST Global 2, is joining $100 million round investment in Airbnb at $1 billion valuation. The round is led by Andreessen Horowitz, according to TechCrunch.

There is a recent influx of Russian online travel agencies (OTA) such as Oktogo.ru, Travelmenu, HipClub, Ostrovok.ru and travel meta-search engine Jizo.ru, which has to compete with global OTA such as Booking.com, Hotels.com and Airbnb.

Airbnb was founded by Nathan Blecharczyk (CTO), Brian Chesky (CEO) and Joe Gebbia (CPO) in 2007.

Airbnb raised $7.2 million from Sequoia Capital, Greylock, SV Angel, Ashton Kutcher and Youniversity Ventures.

Social game publisher Pixonic is one of the social game publishers in Russia. It was first funded by AddVenture. The Russian leading online travel agency Oktogo.ru venture capital investor Ventech as well as Kite Ventures of Edward Shenderovich and TA Ventures of Ukraine has put $5 million in Pixonic at a valuation of ca. $10 million, according to business daily newspaper Kommersant.

Update: According to Ventech founder and general partner Alain Caffi, his firm Ventech invested $2.5 million in $5 million round in Pixonic.

In Russia, Ventech of France previously invested in Oktogo and women-centric online portal WomanJournal.ru.

Ventech is also an investor in Crocus Technology that recently agreed a multi-million dollar investment with RUSNANO.

The Estonian Skype engineers prvate equity vehicle Ambient Sound Investments (ASI), which made its first Russian investment in Software as A Service (SaaS) inventory management software provider LogneX (Moy Sklad) in 2008, has sold its stake in LogneX to Russian ERP software provider 1C Company. In the future, 1C plans to increase its stake in LogneX (moysklad.ru) by an equity capital increase.

According to Margus Uudam of ASI, the Estonian firm Ambient Sound Investments generated positive return from its investment in Moy Sklad (МойСклад). In early 2008, ASI invested $0.2 million for a 30% stake in LogneX.

Founded in 2007, LogneX has over 400 small and medium-sized business customers who use its Moy Sklad web-based inventory management service. Moscow-based LogneX (Moy Sklad) is headed by CEO Askar Rahimberdiev.

Almaz Capital Russia Fund I, Russia-focused venture capital fund that is backed by Cisco, shall have returned all money to investors with just two investments, fund’s Managing Partner Alexander “Sasha” Galitsky revealed on twitter. Those investments should have been made by Almaz in Qik and Yandex. Almaz‘s first close was at $60 million. Then, Almaz added $30 million from EBRD.

Mobile video software provider Qik was acquired by Skype for over $150 million in January 2011.

Russia’s leading search engine company Yandex went IPO at $8 billion valuation on NASDAQ on May 24. Almaz Capital acquired a stake in Yandex at $1 billion valuation in September 2009.

Almaz Capital Managing Partner Peter Loukianoff was recently on the Board of Directors of Qik and managed Almaz‘s investment in Yandex.

In addition to Qik and Yandex, Almaz Capital invested into ERP software provider Acumatica, casual game publisher Alawar Entertainment, mobile social network provider Apollo, virtuallization software vendor Parallels and online travel agency Travelmenu.

Private equity firm Aton Capital Partners, which invested $30 million in Russian broadband telecom operator NetByNet just over a year ago, shall generate a return of some 3x capital invested. NetByNet (NBN) is being acquired by Russian mobile telecom operator Megafon for ca. $360 million, reported newspaper Vedomosti.

Founded in 2006, NetByNet is the 4th largest broadband telecom operator in Moscow. NetByNet also operates in towns of the Moscow region and the Central Federal District of Russia. NetByNet reported 450,000 residential subscribers and 6,000 corporate customers at the end of 2010. NetByNet had revenues of $52 million and EBITDA of $25 million in 2010, according to the newspaper.

In addition to Aton Capital‘s investment, NetByNet raised $25 million from Gazprombank in 2007.

Aton Capital Partners, a growth capital investment division of Aton Capital Group, is headed by Dmitry Bosky.

Over the past year, several Russian online travel agencies (OTA) such as Oktogo.ru, HipClub.ru, Ostrovok.ru, Anywayanyday as well as travel meta-search engine Jizo.ru have emerged and raised angel and venture capital funds. Today, yet another online travel agency in Russia, Travelmenu.ru announced Series A funding of $1.6 million from early-stage venture capital funds Almaz Capital Russia Fund I and Runa Capital. The two funds share the partners Serguei Beloussov of Parallels and Acronis and Alexander “Sasha” Galitsky.

Travelmenu.ru domain name was registered in 2005. The site was first launched for B2B agents in Russia in February 2009. Founded in 2006 by Nina Pogossova (Нина Погосова), Moscow-based Travelmenu (Тревел Меню) offers tour, hotel and airline ticket booking.

Travelmenu‘s business model is likely similar to Oktogo‘s, i.e. it earns a comission fee of 10%-15% from each booking.

We have released Quintura visual search apps for touchscreen devices for iOS, Android and Symbian. Most of the Quintura search apps reached top 10 apps in their respective categories.

On May 23, one of the Quintura search apps has become #1 app in App Store. Our visual-based search app for sex life and relationship Q Секс is #1 Lifestyle App in App Store in Russia and other Russian-speaking countries. It also reached top 10 app overall.

Quintura tops comparison shopping app Yandex.Market (Яндекс.Маркет) from Yandex, cityguide app Afisha (Афиша), classifieds app AVITO, and other lifestyle apps in App Store.

The Quintura search apps in iTunes App Store include kids’ search app Quintura Kids, recipes search app Quintura Cook and web & image search app Quintura Search.

Quintura mobile search apps can be downloaded from iTunes App Store, Amazon appstore for Android, Vodafone 360 Shop, Verizon Media Store and Nokia’s Ovi Store.

Yandex completed $1.3 billion IPO on NASDAQ yesterday, on May 24. Its shares (symbol “YNDX“) surged 55% from $25.00 to $38.84 at the first day of trading. More than 70 million Yandex shares changed hands, which is larger than Yandex IPO volume of 52.2 million shares. Yandex IPO underwriters included Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman Sachs, Piper Jaffray and Pacific Crest Securities.

After underwriters discounts and comissions of $65.2 million, Yandex IPO proceeds amounted to $365.8 million. The selling shareholders of Yandex generated proceeds of $873.4 million from IPO.

Yandex reported revenues of $440 million and net income of $134 million in 2010. Yandex holds 65% search market share in Russia.

Today, Yandex shares started trading on NASDAQ under the symbol “YNDX“.

The shares are up 40% to $35 per share, implying a market cap of over $11 billion.

In honor of the occasion, Arkady Volozh, CEO of Yandex, rang the Opening Bell of the NASDAQ Stock Market.

The Yandex team visited the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York City’s Times Square to celebrate their initial public offering on NASDAQ.

The leading Russian search engine and contextual advertising company Yandex will price its shares at $25 per share at IPO. The IPO will value Yandex at $8 billion. Today, the shares of Yandex will start trading on NASDAQ under the symbol “YNDX“.

Yandex will raise $385 million at IPO for potential investments and acquisitions. The Yandex shareholders will sell shares for ca. $919 million at IPO. The strong demand for Yandex shares from institutional investors should have helped increase IPO price from $22 per share to $25 per share.

Founded in 2000, Yandex has 65% search market share in Russia. Yandex also operates in Ukraine and Kazakhstan. In 2010, Yandex revenue increased 43% year-on-year to 12.5 billion Roubles (ca. US$ 410 million).

________________________________________________________________________________________

Click to download Quintura search apps for iOS, Android and Symbian.

The Russian nanotechnology investment company RUSNANO has agreed to invest EUR 10 million (ca. USD 14.3 million) in exchange for 2 million shares in the capital increase by way of indirect subscription rights or for between 25% and 29.9% stake in ItN Nanovation AG, a German public nanotechnology company. The investment is expected to be used for company’s development in Germany and for a Russian production site to manufacture nanoceramic coatings for energy sector and foundries.

Founded in 2000, ItN Nanovation AG makes innovative ceramic products such as filter systems and coatings for major industrial customers. The company produces nanoceramic coatings for power plants and foundries, membrane filters based on nanoceramic coatings and mobile units for waste water treatment. The Saarbrucken, Germany-based ItN Nanovation is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Its customers include Mercedes, STIHL, Bosch Siemens Home Appliances, and Grohe.

ItN Nanovation previously raised over EUR 50 million from German venture capital fund Nanostart AG and other institutional and private investors.

RUSNANO recently agreed to invest $140 million in magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) manufacturing company Crocus.

While Yandex will go IPO on NASDAQ this month, its popular Russian online map service is being challenged by 2GIS‘ Russian city guide and map services. Being available for more than 100 Russian cities, 2GIS has released its Moscow city guide and map service. 2GIS maps and city guides include more corporate information details than both Yandex.Maps (Яндекс.Карты) and Google.Maps.

Founded in 2004, DoubleGIS (ДубльГИС) reported sales of ca. $35 million in 2010. Based in Novosibirsk, 2GIS offers digital maps and city guides for more than 100 cities in Russia and Ukraine. The 2GIS maps, which are free to use, are supported by advertisements.

DoubleGIS released its 2GIS app for Android, Windows and Symbian. There is no 2GIS app for iPhone yet.

In 2010, Yandex acquired GIS Technology for Yandex.Maps.

The German Otto Group-backed eVenture Capital invested in Mapia.ua online map service in Ukraine in 2009.

DST Global, private equity firm run by Yuri Milner, has closed $1 billion fund DST Global 2 to invest in later-stage internet companies, according to Bloomberg. The money came from both institutional and private investors.

DST Global invested in online music service Spotify, online retailer 360buy.com and coupon business Groupon.

Yuri Milner was recently named to the Forbes Midas List. DST previously invested in Facebook, Zynga and Mail.ru Group. In November 2010, Mail.ru Group completed $1 billion IPO in London.

The Russian nanotechnology investment company RUSNANO has made a total commitment of ca. $140 million (3.8 billion Roubles) to invest in MRAM (Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory) manufaturing company in Russia, Crocus Nano Electronics (CNE), a joint-venture with Crocus Technology of France. The CNE company will manufacture medium to high density MRAM products based on Crocus‘ Thermally Assisted Switching MRAM technology at 90nm and 65nm lithographies.

RUSNANO together with Crocus Technology‘s existing investors CDC Innovation, Ventech, IDInvest Partners, NanoDimension, and Sofinnova Ventures will make an equity investment of $55 million into Crocus. In addition, some $125 million will be invested in the first year for setting up CNE‘s MRAM facility in Russia. In subsequent years, some $120 million is expected to be deployed to increase production capability of the MRAM facility.

MRAM (Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory) is a new type of memory technology which combines traditional semiconductor and advanced magnetic technologies, resulting in memory chips that offer the benefits of well-established semiconductor memories, such as DRAM, SRAM, and Flash, without their key limitations.

Crocus Nano Electronics‘ 90nm and 65nm manufacturing capability will enable Crocus to offer much higher density MRAM devices than ones currently available on the market. The products to be manufactured by CNE will be marketed and sold worldwide by Crocus, excluding Russia and other former CIS states, while CNE will market directly within Russia and the former CIS. Crocus products sourced by CNE will address such markets as storage, mobile communications, networking and cloud computing. In addition to general purpose memory applications, Crocus’ MRAM technology will serve specific uses in smartcards, network processing, biometric authentication, near-field communications (NFC), and secure memory.

The deal between RUSNANO and Crocus Technology is the second multi-million dollar technology transfer investment for RUSNANO in less than a year after Plastic Logic.

The first Russian hybrid car maker Yo-Auto, a joint venture between truck manufacturer Yarovit and Onexim Group of Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, has collected more than 50,000 pre-orders for its Yo-mobile hybrid cars in less than 24 hours after beginning to take pre-orders.

Yo-auto reveals that the cost of Yo-mobile (ё-мобиль) will range from 360,000 Roubles (ca. $13,000) for gasoline, 4X2 wheel model to 450,000 Roubles (ca. $16,000) for natural gas (methane)/gasoline, 4×4 wheel model. The Yo-mobile can also be turned into 30kW electric power generation station.

Yo-mobile will be initially offered in three models: yo-crossover, yo-minivan and yo-van.

The ë-mobile hybrid cars are expected to hit the market in the second half of 2012. The car manufaturing plant will be built near St. Petersburg, Russia.