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ICO & Deals
June 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 16
Russian DIY marketplace secures $500,000 from international business angels and VCs
GdeMaterial, Russian DIY marketplace, has at- tracted $500,000 from Niels Tonsen, Burkhard Binder and Dominik Picker, co-founders of fash- ion retailer Lamoda.ru, as well as from Vadim Fedotov, ex-CEO of Gazprom-Media Technologies, reports East-West Digital News (EWDN).
Other investors included Impulse VC, a venture fund, which is reportedly affiliated to Russian bil- lionaire Roman Abramovich, and Eugene Timko, managing partner at Russian venture fund Xplora- tion Capital. Impulse VC had already taken part
in the company’s previous round of RUB10mn ($162,000 at the current exchange rate) in late 2016.
The funding will be used to fuel marketing, prod- uct development, automation and the expansion of the offered assortment, says the company.
GdeMaterial partners with 224 suppliers and manages the fleet of 246 trucks. The marketplace generates revenues from commission fees (5- 10%, depending on the product and seasonality). These revenues already amount to some 30mn rubles (a little more than $480,000 at the current exchange rate) monthly, according to the company.
The Russian DIY market amounted to RUB1.4 tril- lion (around $22bn) in 2017, according to Infoline Analitica. Meanwhile, according to the Russian Association of Internet Trade Companies (AITC), the DIY segment in the Russian e-commerce reached RUB95bn (roughly $1.5bn) in 2017, show- ing a 40% growth compared to 2016 and being
the fastest growing e-commerce segment in the country.
St Petersburg delivery service iGooods get new investors
St Petersburg smart delivery service iGooods raised RUB123mn ($2mn) of new investment, the CEO of the company Gregory Kunis told Vedomosti daily on June 5.
Among the investors are fund SOL Ventures of the founder of Delivery Club Levon Oganessyan and his partners, former partners of Quadriga Capital Rus- sia Kristof, and a number of other private investors.
Prior to the deal iGooods was valued at RUB376mn, with the investors acquiring 24.6% of the company after an additional issue. The founder of the com- pany Dmitry Kunis remained the main shareholder with about 72%.
SOL Ventures was the largest investor with about 4% and previously already invested in Menu Group food delivery service in Armenia, Georgia, and Be- larus. Delivery Club founded by SOL's Oganessyan was previously acquired by Russian internet major Mail.ru. Vedomosti reminds of other nota- ble investments in the delivery models, such as Instamart and SaveTime.
iGooods will use the funds raised to expand in St Petersburg and launch in Moscow. In 2017 it had a turnover of RUB372mn, with over 1,000 daily gro- cery delivery orders from hypermarkets Prisma, Metro, Karusel, Spar, and Lenta.