Online communications and entertainment provider Mail.ru has paid RUB1.6bn ($23.8m) for a controlling stake in its portfolio company Skillbox, a Russia-based remote IT course provider, C.news has reported.
Mail.ru now owns 63.9% of Skillbox after closing the acquisition at a $47m valuation in December 2019. It had owned a 13.9% stake purchased over two tranches earlier in the year.
Founded in 2016, Skillbox operates an online university and now has more than 48,000 customers on 181 courses studying software development, design, marketing and management. Students can also access job placements.
The company’s co-founders owned the company prior to Mail.ru’s investment: Igor Koropov, Dmitry Krutov and Andrey Anishchenko each held 23.5%, followed by Sergey Popkov (19.8%), Eugene Zaltsman (5%) and Andrey Kondratyuk (5%).
Korpov, Krutov and Anishchenko now hold 10.3% stakes while Popkov retains 8.7%. Kondratyuk appears to have exited.