Mail.ru Group invests in Cortica Ltd.

MOSCOW--(Marketwired - May 29, 2013) -

29th May 2013                               For immediate release

                     MAIL.RU GROUP LIMITED

    Mail.Ru Group Invests $1.5 Million in Visual Search Company,
                          Cortica Ltd.

Moscow. Mail.Ru Group, one of the largest Internet companies in the
fast-growing Russian-speaking markets, invests in Israeli-based Cortica
Ltd. Cortica is the pioneer of a new approach to computer-driven
understanding of images and videos through its unique and proprietary
Image2TextTM technology.

Mail.Ru Group is investing $1.5 million in Cortica in order to support
and access its Image2TextTM technology. This investment is a part of the
larger round lead by other high profile investors.

Image2TextTM technology automatically extracts core concepts from images
and video and maps these concepts to keywords and textual taxonomies.
Once a core concept is identified, Cortica enables host environments to
offer relevant content, search and advertising. For instance, when
exposed to a picture of the Eiffel Tower, Image2Text will recognize it
and automatically offer background information on the tower, ads for
cheap tickets to Paris and even a video featuring panoramic views of
the city. Going beyond the real-time analysis, Image2Text can also
assist in building user profiles by using information about how users
interact with pictures and videos to offer them richer, more relevant
content."Cortica's breakthrough technology provides a degree of recognition
and
understanding accuracy that is comparable with that of the human
brain," says Mor Yegerman, Head of International M&A at Mail.ru Group."And
we are happy to support Cortica in this exciting development"."We are
really excited to work with Mail.Ru Group," says Igal
Raichelgauz, Co-Founder and CEO of Cortica. "Mail.ru shares our vision
for leveraging Image2Text technology for visual search and contextual
advertising and taking users' web surfing experience to a whole new
level. Mail.ru has the depth and breadth of market penetration to
expose much larger audiences to Cortica's technology".

Mail.Ru Group(LSE:MAIL, listed since November 5, 2010) is a leading
Internet company in the high-growth Russian-speaking Internet markets.
Mail.Ru Group's sites reach approximately 86% of Russian-speaking
Internet users on a monthly basis, and the Company is one of the five
largest Internet sites, based on the number of total pages viewed
(comScore, March 2013).

The Company operates two of the three largest Russian language online
social networking sites (Odnoklassniki and My World), two largest
Instant Messaging networks in Russia (Mail.Ru Agent and ICQ), Russia's
leading email service and largest Internet portal Mail.ru, as well as
Russia's largest online games platform.

Cortica was founded in 2007 with a vision to fundamentally
revolutionize computers' approach to understanding images and video.
Cortica's technology simulates the human cortex in order to understand
and recognize images with the highest degree of accuracy.The company
was founded by Igal Raichelgauz, Karina Odinaev and Yehoshua (Josh) Y.
Zeevi, some of the best minds in neuroscience and big data. The core
technology is protected by over 50 patents. Cortica headquarters is
based in New York City and its R&D center is in Israel. Cortica is
funded by Horizons Ventures (the investment arm of Mr. Li Ka Shing) and
high profile individuals, including Ynon Kreiz who serves as Cortica's
chairman.

For further information please contact:

Investor Relation Contacts:

Matthew Hammond
Managing Director Mail.Ru Group
Phone:+971 505 56 1315
E-mail:  hammond@corp.mail.ru 

Press Contacts:

Ksenia Chabanenko
Phone: +7 916 0906626
E-mail:  ks@corp.mail.ru 

+7 (916) 090-6626

Cortica contact:

Michelle Kim
 corticapr@brewpr.com 
(310) 464-6344



                    This information is provided by RNS
          The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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