5 Oct 2021 07:00
SkillFactory joins Skillbox Holding Limited
October 05, 2021. Mail.ru Group Limited ("Mail.ru Group") announces the merger of the educational platform SkillFactory with Skillbox and GeekBrains. With SkillFactory joining Skillbox Holding Limited (part of the VK ecosystem), which already unites Skillbox and GeekBrains, the consolidated company will be in an even stronger position on the Russian online education market.
Skillbox acquired a stake in SkillFactory online education platform. Prior to the deal, Mail.ru Group owned a minority stake of 18.31% in SkillFaсtory and an option to purchase additional shares with a plan to use it in the second half of 2021. After all transactions (including the option) Skillbox will hold a controlling stake in the service - 61.8%. The founders and top management of SkillFactory remain minority shareholders.
As a result, SkillFactory will become part of the company, which already unites Skillbox and GeekBrains platforms. This will be the next step in implementing the integrated company's strategy - to become a leader in the Russian online education market. Over 1,000 courses in dozens of various fields are already available to users, and with the addition of SkillFactory, the choice will become even wider.
SkillFactory focuses on professional training and higher education segments. The service includes an online school for specialists working with data and IT products, Contented design platform for creatives, Zavtra.Online remote master's programs, and Product LIVE school for product management. The total number of students in all SkllFactory courses is over 100,000 people. The company's revenue rose by 3.4x YoY and reached RUB 638mn in 2020.
SkillFactory will continue to develop educational projects under its existing brand. SkillFactory co-founder and CEO Alexander Eroshkin will continue to lead the company along with other co-founders.
"Our goal is to help 10 million people learn various skills by 2023 through all our ongoing educational projects and initiatives. Merging SkillFactory with a company that already includes GeekBrains and Skillbox is an important step in this direction. The VK ecosystem brings together educational projects for people of various ages. SkillFactory will strengthen the segment for adults who want to get or change their profession," Mail.ru Group CEO Boris Dobrodeev said.
"SkillFactory shows good results and has a very strong team. Their business and methodology are different from ours, and for Skillbox it's important to bring together within the holding the best expertise in the market. We are happy about this deal and certain that we will enrich each other and get stronger," said Dmitry Krutov, CEO and founder of Skillbox.
"We are delighted to join the largest and the strongest player in the online education market. We believe that together we will be able to grow faster and become even more efficient than each company individually," CEO of SkillFactory Alexander Eroshkin said.
For further information please contact:
Investors
Tatiana Volochkovich
Phone: +7 495 725 6357 extension: 3434
Mobile: +7 905 594 6604
E-mail: t.volochkovich@corp.mail.ru
Press
Sergei LuchinMobile: +7 915 223 35 71E-mail: s.luchin@corp.mail.ru
About Mail.ru Group
Mail.ru Group develops the VK ecosystem helping millions of people with their day-to-day needs online. More than 90% of the Russian internet audience use the ecosystem services.
The ecosystem enables people to keep in touch (using social networks OK and VK, messaging apps and email service), play video games (via MY.GAMES), get and offer items and services, browse jobs and hire talent (via Youla and VK Jobs), order food and grocery delivery (via Delivery Club, Samokat and Local Kitchen), get a ride (with Citymobil and Citydrive), master new skills (at GeekBrains, Skillbox and other educational services), buy and sell at Aliexpress Russia and fulfill other needs.
The VK ecosystem features a number of shared elements bringing the services together. Users can sign in to different services with a single VK Connect account, pay and earn cash back with the VK Pay platform, get discounts and deals with VK Combo, access their favorite services via the VK Mini Apps platform - and the Marusya voice assistant can help with any task.
The company offers enterprises to employ its dynamic ecosystem to digitize their business processes, providing a range of solutions from online promotion and predictive analytics to corporate social networks, cloud services and enterprise automation.
About Skillbox
Skillbox is an educational platform that brings together the leading experts and practitioners in the market as well as educational content methodologists and producers. The platform has been launched in 2016 and currently offers over 560 educational products.
The products include further vocational education courses in various spheres and complex programs to acquire new and in-demand professions. They also encompass blended learning- bachelor's and master's degrees and business education partnering with the country's largest universities, plus corporate training for businesses.
The Company incorporates a Career Development Center running employment programs, a webinar platform and a Lecture Center.
Skillbox is run on the innovative Skillbox 2.0 platform (LMS) developed to provide highly efficient online training. Educational platform collaborates with more than 90 partnering companies and 500 educators to develop online courses and graduation works and helps students with employment. The platform was used by over 150 000 students to complete their courses.
According to the 2020 Interfax Academy study, Skillbox is the leader in online further vocational education and no. 1 in the RBC EdTech companies' rating for the second quarter of 2020. Skillbox has also won the Runet awards in Education and HR category (2018, 2020) and in Technology and Innovations category (2019).
Learn more here: https://skillbox.ru