Russia invests in California tech, while American hotels invest in Russia

It's been a busy week for me here in Kiev, and between a stomach illness, my usual Russian classes and internship work, and preparing to take the Test of Russian as a Foreign Language (TORFL) exam earlier today, I unfortunately haven't had much time to blog. From now on, I'm hoping to start posting regularly every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday/Sunday.

With that being said, there's been no shortage of interesting business news from Russia and Eastern Europe lately, especially with regard to foreign investment and finance. One of the stories that grabbed my attention a few days ago was this piece by RIA Novosti about the recent $12m investment of Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, in California-based tech business Sequent. The Sberbank portion of the deal was led by SBT Venture Capital, the venture cap arm of the Russian bank.

Sberbank Russia

Sberbank joined with California-based investors to lead a new round of financing for Sequent, which, according to its official website, "combines expertise in the payments industry with innovation in the mobile ecosystem to offer next-generation credential management solutions." Elaborating further about their corporate identity and mission, Sequent says their "software and services platform enables consumers to easily and securely download payment cards and other credentials to their mobile devices. Consumers use those credentials to make payments and access information and offers from mobile network operators, retailers and financial institutions."

Basically, Sequent makes credit-card processing IT systems. I'm not sure whether Sberbank is hoping to acquire some of their technology for use in their banking systems in Russia, or just sees Sequent as a good investment for the future. Regardless, while this story is already three days old, I thought it was worth posting about, since big Russian investments in American companies (especially California-based tech firms) are a little rare.

Meanwhile, money has been flowing the other direction as well, as many American hotels are pumping money into new projects in Russia. Holiday Inn Express is planning a major expansion in the country between now and 2019, and Hyatt Regency will add a second location in Moscow. Perhaps most notably, the luxury Four Seasons Hotel and Resort opened its first location in St. Petersburg this week, with plans to add a second in Moscow next year.

Four Seasons in St. Petersburg.

In general, international tourism to Russia seems to be on the rise right now, and will only increase in the near future with the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi, and the 2018 World Cup in Russia as well. These new projects seem to be a good play by American hotel companies, who are planning ahead for the upsurge in Western visitors.

For these and other great stories about business in Russia, check out the RIA Novosti Business page on a regular basis.