Kommersant reported that venture fund ru-Net is acquiring a 25% stake in the Russian site Esky for $6 million (4.6 million euro).
Esky was founded in 2009 and released its service the following year. Kommersant also reports that turnover for the company was $30 million (23 million euro) for the year 2012.
When yesterday I was writing a story on German online retailer Windeln receiving funding from MCI Management, it struck me that there have been several significant investments recently in stores catering to the parents of young children. This news about ru-Net and Esky’s agreement seems to be another indication that this market is really taking off, at least in the CEE region.
In addition to Esky, two of the biggest companies in ru-Net’s portfolio are Ozon and daily deals site Biglion, which Forbes listed as of the hottest internet companies on the RuNet. The list, which was organized as a listing of the strongest companies in terms of annual revenue, was almost completely dominated by online retailers. Indeed, the original article cites a figure from Morgan Stanley which put the volume of online sales in Russia at 9.2 billion euro for 2012 and another figure from Otto Group Russia which put the volume of online sales of children’s products in 2012 at 475 million euro. The analyst cited for the latter figure says that it represents a 35% increase from 2011.
As is common with deals like this, it’s reported that this funding will used to help the company expand in the region.
