Учи.ру

Учи.ру is one of the country's largest online educational platforms for school education. Produces educational content for children from 1st to 11th grade in mathematics, English and Russian languages ​ ​ and other subjects. As of the end of 2020, according to the company, more than 8.5 million children use its platform.

The average number of employees of the company in 2019, according to the Federal Tax Service, was 458 people.

Performance indicators

2020: Putin reported on a threefold increase in the revenue of the Учи.ру project

In 2020, Учи.ру 's revenue reached three billion rubles. This was reported at a meeting with the president on Vladimir Putin February 3, 2021 by the general director (Strategic Initiatives Agencies ASI). Svetlana Chupsheva

For example, the Учи.ру project. In 2017, you met in Karelia with the founder of this educational startup Ivan Kolomoets. Last year, their revenue reached three billion rubles, the Kremlin website quotes Chupshev.

ASI CEO Svetlana Chupsheva told Vladimir Putin how some startups are doing "(photo - Kremlin.ru)"

Over the year, the revenue of "Учи.ру," it turns out, increased by about 3 times: in 2019 it amounted to about 1 billion rubles (for more information on the results of 2019, see the block below).

The company at the time of publication did not comment on the dynamics of its turnover. But earlier, Ivan Sebedash, product director of Учи.ру, told TAdviser that the pandemic is not the main driver for the development of technological educational projects in 2020, although it significantly spurred audience growth and interest in educational platforms in general. An increase in the use of the service was observed before the pandemic.

ASI CEO at a meeting with Putin also noted that half of Russia's schoolchildren study through Учи.ру, and that Mail.ru Group, together with RDIF, entered this project as investors.

The attraction of investments "Учи.ру" reported earlier (see in the block below). According to the database of legal entities Kontur.Fokus, "in December 2020, the composition of the project's investors has already changed. Thus, 25% of Учи.ру LLC now owns Mail.ru through its Cypriot company Lomigor Investments.

Other Cyprus-based firms also appeared among the owners - Buchkana Holdings Limited with a share of about 1.2% of the company, Zigki Holdings - also 1.2%, Flycrost Holdings with a meager share of about 0.1%.

As of the end of 2018, all these Cypriot legal entities were listed on the website of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on the list of persons under the control or significant influence of which Sovcombank is located, and the Russian Federation represented by the Federal Property Management Agency and China represented by the State Council of the People's Republic of China^[1]They, apparently, represent the Russian-Chinese Investment Fund (RCIF), the attraction of investments of which "Учи.ру" also reported earlier.

RDIF now owns 2.5% of the company. Ivan Kolomoyets now owns about 12.8% in the authorized capital of Учи.ру against 17.1% earlier, Alexei Sonk - about 16.7% against 20.2% earlier. To varying degrees, other co-owners-individuals also reduced their shares in December.

Svetlana Chupsheva at a meeting with Putin cited "Учи.ру" as an example of one of the projects that were first small, startups, and then they were presented at the supervisory board, and they were supported by Putin. Last year, they attracted large investments, and large investors believed in them, said ASI CEO.

History

2023

Buying Ufirst English Online School

In mid-December 2023, it became known about the sale of a network of English schools UFirst holding VK. The latter conducts the transaction through a subsidiary structure - the online platform "Учи.ру." Read more here.

Consolidation of 100% of VK's online Учи.ру platform

The Russian technology company VK has consolidated 100% of the online platform for schoolchildren "Учи.ру," having bought out the remaining share in the amount of 75%. The transaction amount amounted to 8.7 billion rubles. This was announced on February 20, 2023 to TAdviser by representatives of VK. According to the company's calculations, the deal will allow VK to strengthen its position in the segment of additional school education.

VK became 100% owner of the educational platform for schoolchildren "Учи.ру"
Photo: sk.ru

On the educational online platform "Учи.ру," children study school and extracurricular subjects, study, to program prepare for exams and participate in Olympiads. Over 12 million students, 6 million parents and 800 thousand teachers use Учи.ру products and services. In addition to the educational platform, the Учи.ру group of companies is also developing the school of online tutors "Uch.Doma," the educational portal "Uch.Answers," a network of offline circles and centers "Учи.ру" in programming, mathematics and English an online educational resource. "YAKlass"

According to Alexander Aivazov, VK Senior Vice President for Investment and Business Development, education is one of the key areas of work of VK, which provides people of all ages with the opportunity to gain new knowledge and demanded specialties on VK platforms. Thus, the consolidation of the holding "Учи.ру" opens up additional opportunities for the development of the educational direction. According to the top manager, VK will continue to invest in the development of school education in Russia and take an active part in this process.

The founders and management of Учи.ру have created the largest educational company with a significant market share. "Учи.ру" is an important part of the additional education of schoolchildren, enjoys the trust of parents and teachers. For two years now, we have been actively interacting with Учи.ру: we are launching Olympiads for schoolchildren, holding conferences for teachers and parents, "added Alexander Aivazov. "We are pleased to welcome the team and partners of the Учи.ру educational platform to VK."

VK develops education on all steps - from school to professional. The perimeter of the company includes educational services, Skillbox,, GeekBrains" SkillFactoryУчи.ру," "," and Umschool Tetrika "Sferum" others. The company implements educational and educational initiatives for young people, including actions for schoolchildren "IT Knowledge Day" and "Figure Lesson," projects "VK Education" on the basis of leading universities, countries and the creative platform "Prostor." VK develops the Olympiad direction and annually holds - IT emakes on its own platform. All Cups

2022: Ministry of Digital Development of programming courses

In September 2022, the Public services portal started accepting applications for programming courses for schoolchildren within the framework of the "Code of the Future" project, which is being developed by the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation. A month later, the Учи.ру educational platform announced the launch of free programming courses offered as part of this project. They are accessible to students in grades 8-11.

You have to study twice a week offline or online: in computer classes of schools or in the school of online tutors "Uchi.dom" from "Учи.ру." You can find out about the availability of full-time classes in the region through an interactive map on Public services. Applications for training are accepted until October 25, 2022.

Free programming courses are launched

The school of online tutors "Uchi.dom" from "Учи.ру" provides a choice of three free courses:

• Programming on. C++ The course will help schoolchildren learn basic programming skills in C++, the most popular language for creating system software and application programs. As a result, students will create their own projects from scratch: a simple computer game, a text editor and a browser.
• Python Start programming. Schoolchildren will learn to solve typical problems in mathematics and computer science, as well as develop the simplest games using the high-level Python language. As a result, the students will create their own project - a computer game.
• Python Pro programming. An advanced course for those who want to improve their Python programming skills. Schoolchildren will learn to use various frameworks, develop games and solve applied problems. As a result, students will receive an extensive knowledge base and skills that will help them master the developer's specialty in the future.

The Code of the Future project will help schoolchildren learn modern programming languages ​ ​ and gain popular IT skills. In 2022, more than 100 thousand schoolchildren will start studying courses in online and offline formats.

2021

Purchase of EdTech project "YakLass"

On November 18, 2021, it was announced the sale of the EdTech project "YakLass" to the educational platform "Учи.ру," 25% of which belongs to the VK holding. The company did not disclose the value of the transaction. Read more here.

Buying 8.7% from TutorOnline Online School

At the end of July 2021, it became known that the online school "Учи.ру" bought 8.7% in TutorOnline. The latter intends to use the attracted investments to develop the platform, content projects and increase the user base. In addition, the platform plans to actively scale in the US and European Union markets. TutorOnline receives more than a third of its revenue abroad - in the EU countries, in the USA and Canada. Read more here.

Owners

As of February 2021, the owners of the educational online platform "Учи.ру" were:

• Lomigor Investments Limited - 25%
• Sonk Alexey Nikolaevich - 16.7%
• Kolomoets Ivan Vladimirovich - 12.8%
• Zubrilin Vladimir Ivanovich - 11.2%
• Milyutin Evgeny Mikhailovich - 10.5%
• Andrey Andreevich Suzdaltsev - 9.9%
• Kashirskaya Ekaterina Vladimirovna - 4.9%
• Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) - 2.5%
• Zotova Ekaterina Alexandrovna - 2%
• Virovets Yuri Alexandrovich - 1.4%
• Buchkana Holdings Limited - 1.2%
• Zigky Holdings LTD - 1.2%
• Vorontsov Evgeny Mikhailovich - 0.6%
• Flycrost Holdings LTD - 0.1%

2020

Attracting investments from Mail.ru Group, RDIF and RCIF

On December 8, 2020, the online educational platform "Учи.ру" announced the attraction of investments from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the Russian-Chinese Investment Fund (RCIF) and the Internet holding Mail.ru Group.

Under the terms of the agreement, Mail.ru Group will buy 25% of Учи.ру for 3.75 billion rubles with the possibility of increasing the share to 49.5% through an option that can be exercised by the end of 2021. The Mail.ru Group clarified that the acquired share of 25% will be redeemed proportionally from all owners of Учи.ру. At the same time, the founders of the service will remain shareholders and continue to develop the platform.

EdTech-company "Учи.ру" attracted investments from Mail.ru Group, RDIF and RCIF

The shares of RDIF and RCIF in the EdTech startup are not specified. The founders of Учи.ру, Yevgeny Milyutin and Ivan Kolomoets, will remain shareholders and continue to develop the platform.

Support from the RDIF is an opportunity for Учи.ру to increase the pace of development of the product necessary for all participants in the school educational process, and continue confident growth, "said Kolomoets.

According to him, classical education existed in the online environment even before the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, but during it the demand for Internet solutions in schools increased significantly.

The funds received from the transaction will allow "Учи.ру" to expand the technological and product base. The company plans to finalize the technology platform, develop interactive elements and new educational products. It is also planned to expand its presence abroad - in the BRICS countries, the USA, Vietnam and other regions.

In addition to "Учи.ру," the Mail.ru Group's portfolio in the online education market includes controlling shares in the online universities GeekBrains and Skillbox and a minority share in the online programming school for children "Algoritmika."^[2]

Owners

As of October 2020, according to the database of legal entities "Kontur. Focus," the company had about 10 co-owners. The largest share - 20.2% - belonged to Alexei Sonk, the founder and former largest shareholder of Merlion.

The co-founders of Учи.ру - Ivan Kolomoets and Evgeny Milyutin - owned shares of 17.1% each in the company.

Among the owners was also the co-founder and president of HeadHunter Yuri Virovets. Its share in Учи.ру was 4.9%.

The full list of co-owners and their shares in 2020 looked like this:

• Sonk Alexey Nikolaevich - 20.2%
• Vladimir Ivanovich Zubrilin - 17.4%
• Kolomoets Ivan Vladimirovich - 17.1%
• Milyutin Evgeny Mikhailovich - 17.1%
• Andrey Andreevich Suzdaltsev - 15.4%
• Virovets Yuri Alexandrovich - 4.9%
• Kashirskaya Ekaterina Vladimirovna - 4.9%
• Zotova Ekaterina Alexandrovna - 2.3%
• Vorontsov Evgeny Mikhailovich - 0.8%

2019

Revenue "Учи.ру" rushed by 197% and reached almost a billion rubles, traffic took off 8 times

In 2019, the revenue of the educational service "Учи.ру" amounted to about 982 million rubles, follows from the financial statements of the company published in the database of legal entities Kontur.Focus. " This is almost 197% more than in 2018, when the company earned about 331 million rubles.

Учи.ру 's net profit amounted to almost 332 million rubles, while in 2018 the company was in a loss of 144.5 million rubles. In 2017, however, she was also in profit, by 3.26 million rubles.

Revenue "Учи.ру" in 2019 reached almost a billion rubles

The company itself could not comment on TAdviser, which became the drivers of the growth of its turnover, but we can say that the dynamics of "Учи.ру" follows the trend of an increase in the volume of the online education market in Russia as a whole and additional online school education, in particular.

According to a study by Netology-Groups, conducted with the participation of the Higher School of Economics, IIDF, FOM, comScore and East-West Digital News, in 2019 the share of online services in the segment of additional school education amounted to 2.7%, which is approximately 3.6 billion rubles in monetary terms^[3]2021, the same analysts predicted its growth to 6.8% or up to 10 billion rubles. And this forecast was made even before the covid story began, which also stimulates an increase in demand for educational services online.

In addition to the general market trend, it is possible that the dynamic growth of Учи.ру 's business was also facilitated by "PR" by President Vladimir Putin. So, in 2017, at a meeting with representatives of socially oriented non-profit organizations, where the co-founder and then general director of Учи.ру Ivan Kolomoets was present, he positively assessed the work of the company and said that at the upcoming BRICS summit we would tell everyone about its practice.

At that time, "Учи.ру" was taking the first steps in the development of business abroad. After meeting with Vladimir Putin, Учи.ру launched an international mathematics Olympiad for primary school students in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. In addition, since 2017, schools at the city and regional levels began to connect to it. For example, according to the administration of the Primorsky Territory, for 2017-2018. about 5.2 thousand students of the region began classes on the platform^[4].

By the beginning of 2020, the number of Учи.ру users totaled more than 3.1 million people in Russia^[5]. As of 2019, data on the number of users of 320 thousand in Brazil, 200 thousand in the United States, 20 thousand each in India and South Africa, as well as 2.5 thousand users in China were also presented.

At the end of 2020, we can expect an even higher growth in sales of "Учи.ру," including due to the situation with the pandemic. Ivan Sebedash, Product Director of Учи.ру, noted in a conversation with TAdviser that the pandemic is not the main driver for the development of technological educational projects in 2020, however, it significantly spurred audience growth and interest in educational platforms in general. Interest in projects in teaching schoolchildren and in additional education for adults is especially noticeable, he says.

As for our platform, even before the quarantine, millions of students were engaged in "Учи.ру," hundreds of thousands of teachers used educational tools. During distance learning, the demand for Учи.ру services increased significantly, largely due to the fact that we managed to launch free services in demand for distance learning in record time, "Sebedash told TAdviser.

According to him, in the spring the number of registered schoolchildren increased from 4.5 million to 8 million, and as of October, more than 8.5 million schoolchildren use the platform. As for unique users, in the second quarter of 2020, the indicator exceeded the mark of 3 million people per day, the representative of "Учи.ру" cited these. This is eight times more than it was before the quarantine.

We plan to develop the services of our platform, prepare for the release of new courses and new educational formats, - added Ivan Sebedash.

Change of CEO

According to the database of legal entities Kontur.Fokus, "at the end of 2019, the general director changed in" Учи.ру ": Ilya Parshin was appointed to this position. He is the co-founder of the Datamonkey project, an educational service that trains people to work with data analysis tools (Excel/SQL) in an interactive form. Before Parshin, since 2012, the company was headed by Ivan Kolomoets, co-founder of Учи.ру.

2016: The project is approved to be accompanied by experts of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives

In 2016, the Учи.ру project was approved to be accompanied by experts from the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI).

A distinctive feature of projects coming to ASI recently, in my opinion, is the desire to go beyond the framework of one project, and this is already a systematic approach to solving a number of social problems. Today, projects in the field of education were presented at the working group. I was pleased with the arrival of young, well-educated people in this sphere, striving to create an innovative product that can compete in the world market of educational services. Russia, of course, must not only overcome the difficulties of the transition period associated with the technological revolution and the emergence of a new request for people with non-standard thinking, but also create a new brand - "Russian education." Such projects that we considered in ASI are able to speed up this process, - quotes the ASI website following the meeting of the working group "Social Initiatives" Elena Nikolaeva, under the chairmanship of which the meeting was held.

2013: Skolkovo Resident

Учи.ру has been a resident of the Skolkovo Foundation information technology cluster since 2013.

2012

Foundation of the company

In November 2012, Учи.ру was established. It was founded by graduates of MIPT Ivan Kolomoets, who until the end of 2019 also held the position of general director, and Evgeny Milyutin.

Attracting First Investment

In January 2012, the project managed to attract the first investment - several hundred thousand dollars. The creators refused the proposals of venture funds, because they do not give the degree of freedom that they wanted. The investors of the project were entrepreneurs Alexei Sonk, Yuri Virovets, Andrei Suzdaltsev, Vladimir Zubrilin^[6].

Business model

"Учи.ру" builds an individual learning trajectory for each student. It takes into account the speed and correctness of tasks, the number of errors and the behavior of the student. Thus, for each child, the system automatically selects personal tasks, their sequence and level of complexity. "Учи.ру" builds a dialogue with a student. The system responds to the actions of the student and, if the decision is correct, praises him and offers a new task, and in case of error he asks clarifying questions that help to come to the right decision.

The Учи.ру project provides schools with free access to the platform. Only 20 free tasks are available for students at odd hours (after 16:00). So that the child can study without restrictions, parents can subscribe for a month, six months and a year. The basic cost of an annual subscription for one subject is 1,490 rubles (2020 data).

According to the Kontur. Focus database, in 2020 the company also had its first government contracts. So, in April, an agreement was concluded with the Krasnoyarsk Regional Institute for Advanced Training and Professional Retraining of Education Workers for the use of educational resources "Учи.ру." And in October 2020 - with a school and gymnasium from the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The amounts of these state contracts in relation to the total revenue of the company are small - from 186 thousand rubles to 1.84 million rubles.

Geographic coverage

As of the end of 2020, according to the company, more than 8.5 million children from,, Canada,, Russia Brazil USA etc., use its platform, China REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA where they solve the tasks of interactive courses and olympiads. More than 350 thousand teachers use the platform in lessons and for additional tasks.

Учи.ру has offices in Moscow, Ulyanovsk and Nizhny Novgorod, and regional representatives work in another 26 regions of Russia.

Учи.ру Platform IT Infrastructure

According to "Учи.ру" for 2019, her IT team is divided into several areas: DevOps, machine learning specialists, the recently separated BI team, as well as developers and testers distributed across product teams. In total, more than 140 IT specialists, in the infrastructure team - 5 people^[7].

The infrastructure is a classic cloud stack of technologies. Consists of isolated independent projects with APIs on different virtual private clouds. Such an infrastructure scheme is very convenient, the company believes: for example, disruption at one site will not affect the rest.

Cloud Infrastructure Performance for 2019:

• more than 400 servers;
• more than 1000 CPU cores;
• more than 4 TB of RAM;
• more than 300 applications/services in support.

All projects are hosted entirely in public clouds. In Russia, Selectel clouds are used, in the USA - Google Cloud Platform, in Brazil - Microsoft Azure, in India and South Africa - Amazon Web Services, in China - Alibaba Cloud.

The entire infrastructure as code is stored in the Git version control system in one repository. A set of tools is used to manage the infrastructure as code.

The servers are configured using the Ansible configuration management system. Terraform is used to manage infrastructure resources. All sites are divided into folders and in each folder the resource part (for example, the server) is described as Terraform code, and the configuration is described as Ansible code.

Notes