RTVI: Yandex has created a new international business with a dozen startups

Yandex has registered a new holding company, Beyond ML, in Armenia and the United States, in order to avoid problems when working on Western markets against the backdrop of sanctions imposed on Russia, found out RTVI. The press service of Yandex confirmed that Beyond ML is a company project and called it an “internal experiment”.

Legally, Beyond ML, which owns a dozen technology startups in the field of machine learning (ML) around the world, is registered with Yandex top managers Maxim Zagrebin and Dmitry Stepanov. However, according to the channel, some company employees were told that Beyond ML was created to mitigate “country risks” and continue Yandex’s work in Europe and the United States. Mr. Zagrebin’s LinkedIn page states that in March 2022 he ended his work at Yandex and became a co-founder of Beyond ML.

From the data on the official website Beyond ML follows that this is a “venture studio for machine learning startups” with registration in Yerevan. The company’s divisions are also located in New York, Belgrade and Seville. RTVI found 10 startups associated with the company, six are listed on the site.

In November, writes RTVI, on the portal of the job search service HeadHunter, on behalf of Yandex, a vacancy was posted for a product manager in one of these startups, Lawrify. On the official website project says that the service belongs to Beyond ML.

RTVI notes that Yandex’s parent company Yandex NV has repeatedly published an official list of subsidiaries, but Beyond ML has never been listed.

The Yandex press service said that Beyond ML is one of Yandex’s internal experiments, created to promote B2B services and technologies. “The program of internal experiments has been working inside Yandex for many years. In the early stages, independent brands are often used for them, ”Yandex’s press service told RTVI.

After the entry of Russian troops into Ukraine, sanctions were imposed on many Russian companies. The co-founder of the company was included in the sanctions list of the European Union Arkady Volozh and Managing Director Tigran Khudaverdyanwho subsequently left their posts. At the same time, the company itself did not fall under Western sanctions.

At the end of November, Yandex announced its intention to divide the assets: to leave only part of the group’s business, in particular international projects in the field of cloud technologies, to the parent structure from the Netherlands. Most of the group’s services, including search and advertising, are planned to be transferred to the new group of companies. Almost immediately after that, the former head of the Accounts Chamber Alexei Kudrin informedwhich will be involved in the development of plans for the division of Yandex.

Read more about the company’s plans – in the material “Kommersant” “Dirty Dutchman”.

Milena Kostereva