Just like Amazon in the US and Europe, Ozon is a leading Russian ecommerce player. Last week it has received $150 million in funding from Russian holding AFK Sistema and MTS, the Russian mobile operator in exchange for 21,6 percent equity stake. This values the company at nearly $700M pre-money.
According to Firrma, the investment will go to further develop logistics in Russia and to broaden the product range of Ozon.ru, Sapato.ru and Ozon Travel. In Russia, logistics it is a well-known problem that hinders the spread of e-commerce outside of the main cities. As Russian post proves to be unreliable, the e-commerce operators are forced to buy a fleet of trucks to deliver purchases to their customers.
Other major transactions in Russian internet include funding for Lamoda ($142,9 million) Kupi VIP ($119,60 million total), and free classified agency Avito ($75 million).
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