Top Tech Stories April 25: Crypto space under pressure

CRYPTO

Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, is the latest platform to restrict its services for its Russia-based users following the latest batch of sanctions imposed by the European Union. Users owning more than ($10,900) in their accounts will only be able to withdraw them, with new deposits and trading prohibited. [Source: Binance]

Russian investors earned $4.29 billion in crypto trading in 2021, a report by Chainalysis found. The country is ranked seventh by the amount of profit obtained by its residents. [Source: Getblock]

YANDEX WATCH

Russian tech company Yandex stopped all investments both inside and outside Russia. The company cited the turbulent business environment, sanctions and restrictions imposed on Russian companies that can impact Yandex’s revenues and prospects. [Source: East-West Digital News]

Yandex is allocating about 10 million rubles ($132,670) to help over 70 couriers working for the company’s food delivery to obtain IT training. They can be trained as coders, testers, designers, analysts through Yandex.Practicum education platform. [Source: IXBT]  

ECONOMY UNDER SANCTIONS

The Russian government is broadening earlier efforts to legalize ‘parallel imports’, which do not require the permission of the trademark holder. The official blessing of the bootleg economy includes a list of brands spanning nearly 200 trademarks such as Tesla, Chrysler, Bentley, Cadillac, Apple, Asus, HP, Panasonic, Samsung, Nokia, Sony, Intel, XBox, PlayStation, and Nintendo among them.

 [Source: Kommersant, Fortune]

More companies have suspended their activities in Russia and Belarus or left the markets altogether. The list includes a broader range of industries like Renault, Teradata, Tietoevry, VELUX Group, WeWork, WPP, Essity, SKF, Veeam, Condé Nast, Dotdash Meredith, Anheuser-Busch InBev, OnlyFans, Edrington, SITA, Guardian Industries, OMV, Marubeni Group, Vičiūnai Group, Crocoblock, Ubuntu, Imperial Brands, Marvel, Danone, Toshiba, Eneos Holdings Inc, General Motors, Heroku, Koch Media, Henkel, McKinsey, David Chipperfield Architects, MongoDB Inc., Reface, Soda PDF, Compass Group, Strava, CD Projekt Red, Hostinger International Ltd, SUSE Software Solutions Germany GmbH, Teknos. [Source: Telegram channel The Provisional Government]

Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade handed over a list of markets left by Western companies to the Chinese government. A top-ranked official said that the exodus of overseas suppliers created attractive opportunities for Chinese producers.  [Source: Kommersant]

Russia’s sanctioned banks will not be able to issue cards through the Chinese UnionPay platform. The platform decided to follow existing sanctions in the face of possible measures against the company itself. [Source: RBC]

RELOCATION

The co-founder of a Belarusian startup PandaDoc Mikita Mikado invested in another startup Mesto.in facilitating Russian and Belarusian IT professionals relocating to Bali and Cyprus. The move reflects a growing interest in relocation services as more Russian and Belorusian IT specialists seek to flee both countries. [Source: RB]

Estimated 28% of Russian IT companies surveyed by the Association of software developers saw their employees relocated to other countries after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The most preferred destinations were Turkey and Georgia (each 22%), Armenia (19%), Asia (9%), and Europe (9%). [Source: Spark.ru]

FINTECH

A London-based startup Seon raised $94 million through an investment round to fund new tools that will tackle attempts to evade sanctions imposed by the U.S., the European Union, and the U.K. Seon’s CEO and co-founder Tamas Kadar said he sees an increase in interest in tools that would prevent sanctioned individuals and companies from getting around the restrictions. [Source: CNBC]

Former top-managers of TCS Group, the owner of Tinkoff bank, Pavel Fedorov and Oliver Hughes will launch a fintech startup Kinetic Finance targeted at primarily Asian markets. Both managers left the group in March 2022. [Source: Bloomberg]  

SOFTWARE

A Russian IT software giant IBS, second-ranked in sales to industrial companies in 2021, bought out an American IT company Luxoft that had refused to continue business in Russia. Luxoft was founded within the IBS group and then sold to USA’s DXC Technology. [Source: Spark]

SCIENCE

Scientists at the Nizhniy Novgorod State University successfully completed trials of a terahertz radiation detector safe for humans. The device can be used in non-destructive control and security screening at airports. [Source: TASS]

Scientists at the Perm National Research Polytechnic University designed a method to enhance the strength and flexibility of polymeric composite materials with the help of gamma and extra-high frequency radiation. The method can be used in production of aircraft and cars. [Source: TASS]

NURTURING TALENT

A Russian marketplace Avito launched a series of events with Russia’s leading tech-focused high schools. The program is aimed at engaging students in IT professions and offering to the best of them internships at the company. [Source: HightechPlus]