OREANDA-NEWS. October 26, 2011.DealHunter, i-Free’s unique mobile search engine for discount coupons and deals, has won a prize at UpStart “Innovation Lane” Awards, held on October as part of the Russian Internet Week (RIW’2011) exhibition and conference.

DealHunter, the iPhone and iPod Touch application which aggregates info from the major coupon sites in Russia and the rest of the CIS, was launched by i-Free at the end of September.

Probably the most unique thing about DealHunter is that users can add their info to it, building up the fullest mobile catalogue of sales and deals for more than 60 cities, and a community of people helping each other locate the best deals. A built-in map and GPS will help locate sales near you.

The application is doing pretty well. Over 7,000 people across Russia have downloaded DealHunter in the three weeks since its release on the Russian iTunes App Store, and the catalogue has been complemented with hundreds of new deals, found and added by users.

DealHunter was submitted for the UpStart “Innovation Lane” Awards as part of RIW’2011. The jury, comprised of professional online project investors, thought very highly of DealHunter, awarding it a special prize. Now the app is going to Russia’s 4th National Innovation Convention, to take place in Moscow on November 29.

“It means a lot to us that market experts – professional investors have appreciated DealHunter, as well as regular users,” said Ilya Chernetsky, Strategic Marketing Manager at i-Free Innovations, referring to DealHunter’s award. “They put it on the Top 5 list and recommended it for the highlight of the year, the Russian National Innovation Convention. We believe that geo-social utilities, on which users exchange handy information, have a great future, so we’ll keep building up and improving DealHunter.”

DealHunter is available for free download on the Russian iTunes App Store, and the app stores in Belarus and Kazakhstan. An updated version of DealHunter fits the new iOS 5. For more details on DealHunter, please visit http://getdealhunter.com/ru.

More information on the UpStart “Innovation Lane” Awards can be found on the official website of the Russian Internet Week: http://2011.russianinternetweek.ru/upstart/.

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i-Free is a Russian innovation-minded company that has expanded around the CIS since 2001 and internationally, since 2006. i-Free is a specialist developer and implementer of innovation projects in mobile and NFC technology, electronic finance, digital content distribution, electronic payments and micropayments, apps for smartphones and new network devices, digital products for the B2C market, and B2B mobile marketing projects.

i-Free is present and operates successfully outside Russia with offices in Kyiv (Ukraine), Minsk (Belarus), Almaty (Kazakhstan), Mumbai (India), Beijing (China) and Sao-Paolo (Brazil). i-Free products and services are now available in more than 100 countries.

i-Free is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Russia, and has an office in Moscow. The company currently employs over 450 staff.

i-Free partners with some of the leading cellular operators in Russia and the CIS, with global mobile equipment vendors, banks, transnational brands and trademarks, major media holdings, publishers and Internet resources.