User:Zergeist2/sandbox/SDV

Social Discovery Ventures (SDVentures) - an international umbrella brand for a group of technology and software engineering companies. Founded in 1998, SDVentures is a collection of more than 50 unique online brands which enable people around the globe to discover each other through the power of shared interests and mutual benefit. SDVentures creates, supports and promotes Internet projects such as communication platforms that enable people from different countries to expand their social and business networks – to travel, learn foreign languages, play online, make friends and date. SDVentures invested into more than 50 international projects among those TripTogether, Dating.com, PumpUp, Streetlife, LinguaLeo, Thrill, Layer, Roomi etc. SDVentures has founded technological companies such as UsabilityLab and Payonline. The company contributes to scientific and humanitarian projects. Its corporate values are underpinned by innovative technologies and contemporary art.

History
The company was founded in 1998 as a developer of technological platforms for online social communication.

In 2006, the company founded UsabilityLab, the largest usability company in Eastern Europe.

In 2008, it founded an Internet-based payment system Payonline.

In 2012, UsabilityLab and Payonline were winners of the Runet Prize competition in the Innovation and Technology, and Economy, Business and Investments categories.

In March 2013, the TripTogether project was launched, helping travelers all over the world to communicate with each other.

In June 2014, the holding company organized an expedition to the shores of Greenland, dedicated to the ‘problem of free will and consciousness in analytic philosophy’.

In the spring of 2015, Payonline was sold for more than $8 million to the US public corporation Net Element. That same spring, the company invested $500,000 in the development of LinguaLeo and acquired the Dating.com website.

In 2016, Social Discovery Ventures has invested in AirDog, the manufacturer of foldable drones designed for self-video shooting in action sports.

Projects

 * ShoCase — the largest professional social network for people in the creative professions.
 * Streetlife — the largest European social network for neighbors.
 * TripTogether — a platform for planning collaborative trips and seeking traveling companions.
 * Payonline — an Internet payment system for goods and services, which also provides a peer-to-peer money transfer service between users.
 * Dating.com — a platform for meeting friends and partners around the world.
 * LinguaLeo — an educational platform for learning and practicing foreign languages.
 * Layer – the company developing software for messaging, voice and video to any application
 * PumpUP – an internet community to share and achieve the members’ health goals
 * Thrill – mobile dating company in India
 * Roomi – a leading marketplace for shared housing and apartments

Offices and employees
The company has offices in New York (United States), Moscow (Russia), Hong Kong (China), Minsk (Belarus) and Riga (Latvia), with over 500 employees. The Moscow office employees are involved in the corporate soccer championship.

Science Initiatives
The company organized and currently supports the Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies which partners with Moscow State University, Philosophy Department.

In 2014, the company organized a philosophical conference and expedition dedicated to the ‘problem of free will and consciousness’. The expedition took place on a schooner heading to the shores of Greenland. The most renown philosophers participated: Daniel Dennett (American philosopher who won the Erasmus prize in 2012), David Chalmers (Australian philosopher and cognitivist, specializing in philosophy of mind and language), Paul Churchland and Patricia Churchland (world famous neurophilosophers).

Art Initiatives
Social Discovery Ventures organized the publication of a series of art works under the title "Contemporary Art". The album presents the most significant works of a number of artists and their reviews by a leading contemporary art critic Viktor Miziano.

The company cooperates with various Russian and European artists, collectors, critics and musicians, including Dmitry Gutov, Oleg Kulik, Pierre-Christian Brochet, Mikhail Pyatigorsky and Polina Osetinskaya.

Social Discovery Ventures in cooperation with the Igor Butman production center is the organizer of street piano festival in Moscow.

It also ran a pop-up exhibition of contemporary technological art under the title "Superconduction" in Riga.

In 2016, it was an official partner of the Art zone at the Geek Picnic 2016 festival.

In cooperation with the "Garage" Museum of Contemporary Art, SDVentures has launched a new grant program "Art and Technology", designed for artists between the ages of 18 and 35 working in the fields of IT technology, engineering and science art.