Author HolonIQ
RBC identifies Russia’s leading EdTech teams. IIDF sets aside funds to support Russian startups with global ambitions. Russian home cinema startup Multibutik secures $5M. Like Center business school acquired by entrepreneur and investor Sergey Solonin and Mail.ru increases its share in Skillbox to 70%. Epic Growth launches edutainment video series.
Russian tech startup fund supporting startups abroad.
The Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF) announced that it is supporting Russian startups abroad as part of its new investment strategy, which will invest up to 65 million rubles in companies with the first sales and confirmed demand in the global market. As part of the criteria, at least 50% must belong to the founders or final beneficiaries with Russian citizenship. For later stage startups that have stable revenue in the international market and proven sales channels, IIDF will invest up to 200 million rubles.
There are many successful Russian-led EdTech startups operating globally and the IIDF support will help more Russian EdTechs to the global stage. IIDF will help teams develop business in the markets of the USA, Great Britain, India, Southeast Asia as well as prepare companies to enter foreign accelerators or support participation in programs with additional capital.
RBC identifies leading Russian online education players.
RBC together with the research company Smart Ranking have compiled a rating of the leading players in the Russian online education market. A total of 40 companies were shortlisted and first in the overall ranking was SkyEng, which also ranked first in the foreign language category. iSpring led the online learning platforms category and for online learning, with Uchi.ru ranking first in the K12 school education category and third in overall ranking and Netology led the category of universal online platforms. In the workforce and professional learning category, Skillbox leading the digital professions, Like Center won the category of business education and Infourok led in professional development. The Sikorsky Beauty Academy led the applied Skills category, with Wikium leading the Soft skills category.
Russian home cinema startup Multibutik (Cinemood) has secured a $5 million loan from factoring company GameBoost42.
Now headquartered in San Francisco, this startup is one of Russia’s most hyped international startup success stories. It has developed mini cinema projectors for children, including a cloud connected one that can project content onto any surface. Cinemood offers expertly curated content so that users can pick from movies, cartoons, audio stories, digital books and fairytale adventures. The fresh funding will be used to support the company’s marketing and production expenses, as well as its further commercial expansion in the USA and Europe.
This factoring deal, which covers all future company sales, is presented as a first on the Russian startup market. Cinemood previously secured several rounds of funding in more standard forms, including $2.5 million in 2017; $4 million in late 2018; and $2.9 million in August 2019. A Cyprus-based company with Russian roots, GameBoost42 is part of the GamesUp42 holding. It provides loans of up to $2 million at rates starting from 2.2% monthly.
Sergey Solonin became the owner of the Like Center business school
At the end of last year, the ex-head of Qiwi Sergey Solonin acquired a 10.5% stake in “Like Business” from the founder Ayaz Shabutdinov. It is the managing company of the Like Center Russian business school. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. The training programs of the Center are designed for beginners and active entrepreneurs, as well as for those who are planning to open their own business. One of the features of Center’s training is the introduction of new business tools immediately during the course of the program. Over the past year, students of Ayaz Shabutdinov's educational programs have opened about 5.6 thousand companies and created 16 thousand jobs.
A survey of 290 graduates of the center showed that about half of the students without entrepreneurial experience start their first business. Experienced students launch new projects 30% of the time. The most popular business areas: selling goods or services and education. More than 80% of the graduates noted that they applied in practice the knowledge and skills gained in the course of training at the center. According to Like Center's own data, the company's business communities are open in 163 cities of Russia and the CIS. The chain's revenue in 2019 amounted to RUB 932 million, revenue for 9 months of 2020 - RUB 957 million.
Sergey Solonin is a Russian entrepreneur and investor in projects with a significant social component. Solonin is a co-investor of the “Ubirator” platform, the Ikra school of creative thinking, the Universal University of the creative industries, the Otus online educational platform, The Theory and Practice portal, IT Hub college, the company "Smart Course".
Mail.ru increases share in SkillBox
Mail.ru Group increased its share in the Skillbox service to 70%, having bought 10% from the cofounder, and acquired 45% in the Tetrika online school, which offers remote preparation for the Unified State Exam with a tutor. The transaction details were not disclosed. According to the Cypriot register, this is a subsidiary of Mail.ru Group, that is, the latter has increased its presence in the project to 70%. Skillbox founder Andrey Anischenko left it for his own projects on the same model in other countries. Another 30% were retained by three other co-founders.
Recruiting automation service FriendWork raises $2.5M
FriendWork, a recruitment automation service, improves the process of finding, evaluating, and hiring candidates. Founded in 2012, the company services over 4,000 HR directors and this investment from Prytek will support additional technology development. Prytek notes that FriendWork helps to predict which specialists will be in demand on the horizon of 5-10 years and for employees, identify gaps in knowledge and competencies with links to choosing programs for training.
Epic Growth launches edutainment video series
Somewhat like MasterClass in it’s format, Epic Growth just launched an educational video series focused on IT product development. The program includes lectures on hypothesis testing, analytics, UX research, team management and others. The series is aimed at product managers, analysts, marketers, entrepreneurs and other professionals who are responsible for product growth and speakers will be the heads of companies such as Yandex, Netflix, Miro, Booking.com, SoundCloud, Skyeng, X5 Retail Group, Delivery Club, Aviasales, Badoo, and others. Participants will receive minilectures from 5 to 15 minutes on the following topics: cases of successful experiments; hypothesis testing; research tools; growth teams; product analytics; subscription services; content and so on.
EdCrunch pivots ot online with EdCrunch-on-Demand
The “EdCrunch on Demand” EdTech Conference will take place online from December 8-10. Experts will discuss how to introduce technology into education, use new tools when working with employees, teach students in virtual reality, and other topics. Among the speakers are Russian and foreign entrepreneurs, university representatives, scientists and technology specialists. As part of the conference, the organizers will announce the winners of the EdCrunch Award online course and EdCrunch Product contests, as well as the semifinalists of the Global EdTech Startup Awards.
