In February 2019, Mail.ru Group bought 3.6% of Skillbox
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2025 4:32 am
VK has returned to plans to list its educational project Skillbox on the stock exchange. It could become the first traded edtech company in Russia, unless it is beaten to it by Skyeng, which has planned an IPO this year
Three sources on the investment market told RBC that the educational platform Skillbox is planning an IPO. According to another source, the underwriter syndicate for the placement has not yet been formed, but he admitted that the Skillbox IPO could take place this year.
A Skillbox representative bolivia whatsapp number database told RBC that they "do not rule out the possibility of holding an IPO to further strengthen the holding's leadership position in the Russian Edtech market." It is too early to talk about any specific plans, he added.
How Skillbox was going public
Skillbox was founded in 2016 by its current CEO Dmitry Krutov, co-founder of Business Youth Igor Koropov (who died in November 2020) and Sergey Popkov (now a shareholder and chief designer of the AIC creative studio).
shares (renamed VK in autumn 2021). Subsequently, the group increased its stake in the company to 10.3%, and in December 2019 - to 60.3% of shares. In August 2021, Mail.ru Group, in partnership with the founders of Skillbox and the private fund of businessman Alexander Galitsky, created the educational holding Skillbox Limited based on their Skillbox and GeekBrains platforms. As a result, Mail.ru Group (50.06%) remained the controlling shareholder of the holding, 22.72% of the shares went to the founders of Skillbox, 14.21% went to Galitsky's fund, 13% were reserved for a long-term employee motivation program.
In 2020, VK allowed an IPO of its educational projects, including the then unmerged Skillbox and GeekBrains. But in early 2022, Forbes, citing its sources, wrote that the new VK shareholder "does not need" a Skillbox IPO. At the end of 2021, USM Holding announced the sale of a stake in VK to the Sogaz group, and the holding changed its CEO: Boris Dobrodeev was replaced by Vladimir Kiriyenko. At the same time, Skillbox was laying off staff at that time due to the "deep loss" of the merged holding, Forbes sources claimed.
Currently, Skillbox Holding Limited is part of the Educational Technologies segment of the VK holding along with such projects as Geekbrains, Skillfactory, Mentorama, Lerna, Uchi.ru. Revenue of the Educational Technologies segment for the first nine months of 2023 (the latest available data) increased by 38% compared to the same period in 2022 and reached RUB 11.1 billion, according to VK's report. At the end of the third quarter of 2023, the number of registered students of educational platforms included in Skillbox Holding Limited increased by 17%, to 14 million. The number of paying students increased by 40%, to 649 thousand. According to SPARK, the revenue of Skillbox LLC alone in 2022 amounted to RUB 6.9 billion, net profit - RUB 1.7 billion.
VK's report mentioned that in the third quarter, Skillbox Holding concluded several deals to consolidate educational assets. In August last year, it became the owner of 51% of the online English school Kespa. In September, Skillbox Holding agreed to increase its stake in Skillfactory from 63.763% to 100%. The deal is scheduled to close in January 2024.
Three sources on the investment market told RBC that the educational platform Skillbox is planning an IPO. According to another source, the underwriter syndicate for the placement has not yet been formed, but he admitted that the Skillbox IPO could take place this year.
A Skillbox representative bolivia whatsapp number database told RBC that they "do not rule out the possibility of holding an IPO to further strengthen the holding's leadership position in the Russian Edtech market." It is too early to talk about any specific plans, he added.
How Skillbox was going public
Skillbox was founded in 2016 by its current CEO Dmitry Krutov, co-founder of Business Youth Igor Koropov (who died in November 2020) and Sergey Popkov (now a shareholder and chief designer of the AIC creative studio).
shares (renamed VK in autumn 2021). Subsequently, the group increased its stake in the company to 10.3%, and in December 2019 - to 60.3% of shares. In August 2021, Mail.ru Group, in partnership with the founders of Skillbox and the private fund of businessman Alexander Galitsky, created the educational holding Skillbox Limited based on their Skillbox and GeekBrains platforms. As a result, Mail.ru Group (50.06%) remained the controlling shareholder of the holding, 22.72% of the shares went to the founders of Skillbox, 14.21% went to Galitsky's fund, 13% were reserved for a long-term employee motivation program.
In 2020, VK allowed an IPO of its educational projects, including the then unmerged Skillbox and GeekBrains. But in early 2022, Forbes, citing its sources, wrote that the new VK shareholder "does not need" a Skillbox IPO. At the end of 2021, USM Holding announced the sale of a stake in VK to the Sogaz group, and the holding changed its CEO: Boris Dobrodeev was replaced by Vladimir Kiriyenko. At the same time, Skillbox was laying off staff at that time due to the "deep loss" of the merged holding, Forbes sources claimed.
Currently, Skillbox Holding Limited is part of the Educational Technologies segment of the VK holding along with such projects as Geekbrains, Skillfactory, Mentorama, Lerna, Uchi.ru. Revenue of the Educational Technologies segment for the first nine months of 2023 (the latest available data) increased by 38% compared to the same period in 2022 and reached RUB 11.1 billion, according to VK's report. At the end of the third quarter of 2023, the number of registered students of educational platforms included in Skillbox Holding Limited increased by 17%, to 14 million. The number of paying students increased by 40%, to 649 thousand. According to SPARK, the revenue of Skillbox LLC alone in 2022 amounted to RUB 6.9 billion, net profit - RUB 1.7 billion.
VK's report mentioned that in the third quarter, Skillbox Holding concluded several deals to consolidate educational assets. In August last year, it became the owner of 51% of the online English school Kespa. In September, Skillbox Holding agreed to increase its stake in Skillfactory from 63.763% to 100%. The deal is scheduled to close in January 2024.