Led · Equity · Jun 2022

Profilum is an edtech platform founded in 2014 that helps adolescents choose a professional orientation. The company is positioned to reach Russia’s large school population, cited as 15–17 million pupils in the article. Profilum is planned to be used as the basis of a presidential professional orientation program called 'Ticket for the Future.' In late 2021 the startup was valued at $11.5 million, according to the Inc. Top 100 startup ranking. Previous investors include Genome Venture and the Sistema corporation. The article notes the platform is receiving significant institutional backing amid a semi-hibernation of the local venture scene following Russia’s Feb. 24 attack on Ukraine and ensuing sanctions.

Led · Equity · Dec 2013

Oktogo is a Russian online travel company that operates hotel booking service Oktogo.ru and the travel portal Travel.ru. Oktogo.ru lists more than 8,000 hotels in Russia and 350,000 hotels worldwide. Travel.ru was purchased in 2013 to provide editorial and user-generated travel content to Russian travelers. Led by CEO Marina Kolesnik, the company intends to use the new funding to increase sales and marketing efforts in Russia and CIS countries. The company raised more than $5m in the reported funding round and had previously raised $30m in venture capital from Mangrove Capital Partners, Ventech, VTB Capital and others. Backers in the recent raise included MCI Management and Mangrove Capital Partners. Oktogo operates a hotel-booking website and recently acquired travel information site Travel.ru. The company is rebranding itself under the Travel.ru name following that acquisition. It received a $5 million investment to fund marketing expansion and a revision of its business strategy. The financing is intended to support the rebrand and strategic overhaul. Oktogo is targeting Russia's growing online travel market, noting about 66 million Internet users in the country. The company is based in St. Petersburg, Russia. Oktogo.ru is an online hotel reservations agency designed for Russian travelers, led by founder and CEO Marina Kolesnik. The service lists over 5,000 hotels in Russia and more than 250,000 hotels worldwide. The company is based in St. Petersburg, Russia. In March 2013 it raised $11M in venture capital to support brand building and development in Russia. Backers included Mangrove Capital Partners, Ventech and Victor Sazhin Group, and Victor Sazhin joined the board. The company previously raised $10M in 2012 and $5M in 2011. Oktogo.ru is an online hotel booking and travel company based in St. Petersburg, Russia, led by Founder and CEO Marina Kolesnik. The company operates a database of over 2,500 hotels across Russia and the CIS. It raised $10M in the reported financing to expand its presence in the Russian online travel market. Oktogo.ru intends to provide most of Russia’s roughly 10,000 hotels with an online presence. The company previously raised $5M in April 2011, bringing total equity capital to date to $15M. Philip Wolf, founder and chairman of PhoCusWright, was added to the board as an independent director. Oktogo.ru operates an online hotel-aggregation service offering contracted hotel inventory and travel-related services. The company says it currently reaches 2,000 contracted hotels and claims the largest contracted hotels database in Russia and the former Soviet republics. It also markets what it calls the largest and most relevant hotel offering for Russians traveling abroad, including offline payment methods and visa support services. The new funding is intended to help Oktogo.ru sign up more Russian hotels as customers (7,000 mentioned in reporting), accelerate growth and build the company’s brand awareness. Management emphasizes experience in international online travel and IT with sector knowledge of Russia and the CIS. A partner at Mangrove Capital framed the investment as backing the current and potential growth of the Russian travel market.

Led · Equity · Dec 2013

Travel.ru, rebranded from Oktogo after the September acquisition of the Travel.ru brand, operates as an integrated one-stop travel shop pairing bookings with travel information and user-generated content. The site allows users to search and purchase airfare, hotels and tours, and provides visa and practical travel information alongside in-house and user-generated editorial content. It offers bookings across roughly 5,500 hotels in Russia and about 350,000 hotels worldwide, and attracts about 3 million monthly unique visitors. Management says the content strategy is intended to increase user engagement and conversion to paying customers as the company differentiates amid strong competition from players like Booking.com and Ostrovok. The company plans to build out its branding and new business strategy and may expand into other russophonic markets and possibly adjacent countries such as Turkey. Observers cited in the article note sizeable opportunity in Russia’s growing online travel market, which industry analysts estimated at $10 billion in 2013.

Led · Series A · Dec 2013

Anturis offers an IT-monitoring service aimed at small and mid-size businesses, positioning itself between enterprise software and open-source offerings. Its platform provides monitoring and notification technology comparable to Nagios, with product updates released on a bi-monthly basis and a cPanel integration currently in beta. Pricing is modest: the company’s most expensive offering is under $100 per month. The development team is based in Moscow, while the company has begun building a U.S. presence by hiring a business development lead. The firm raised $2 million to support growth, with some funds earmarked for U.S. marketing. The article notes Anturis has "marginally profitable price points" and suggests additional capital may be needed to expand U.S. hiring if the company is not yet fully profitable.