Russia-based online streaming service Ivi has selected banks for an initial public offering that could give media company Prof-Media an exit, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, VTB and Alfabank are set to arrange the IPO, which is likely to take place in the United States in 2021, according to two financial market sources. A third told Reuters that Bank of America is also on board.
Ivi runs a freemium online streaming service that offers viewers licensed television shows and films, and it generated about $95m in revenue in 2019 through advertising and subscription fees.
The platform had about 50 million monthly active users and 2.2 million paying subscribers as of the end of 2019 but has likely experienced similar user growth to counterparts elsewhere during the coronavirus pandemic.
The company had raised ‘several dozen millions of dollars’ before adding $40m in a 2012 round led by private equity firm Baring Vostok and backed by Prof-Media, Tiger Global Management, Frontier Venture and Ru-Net (since renamed RTP Global).
RTP Global and Baring Vostok returned for another $40m round in June 2019 that also featured Russian-Direct Investment Fund, Mubadala Investment Company, Flashpoint VC and Winter Capital.
