CEPA

CASPA is an online English school. The startup is a resident of the Skolkovo Foundation and specializes in spoken English for adults. By August 2021, the service offers the following prices: from 1375 rubles. for one individual lesson and 3600 rubles. per month for access to the platform with all lessons and materials for independent training.

History

2024: Skillbox increases stake in online English school Caspa to 71.83%

In June 2024, Skillbox increased its stake in Caspa, an online English school, to 71.83%. This is evidenced by the data of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRUL).

As RB.ru writes with reference to this register, Skilbox LLC (Russian legal entity Skillbox) increased its stake in Sistema KESPA LLC from 65.98% to 71.83% due to an increase in the authorized capital by 21%.

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Skillbox

We have increased our share in the online school "Casp" to effectively develop the direction of industrial English on the platforms of the Skillbox holding. The project is in an active phase of growth and is developing in accordance with the holding's strategy, the Skillbox press service told the publication.

They also noted that the company relies on the growth of investment and vertical turnover, at the stage of development this is the priority. The volume of investments and other parameters of the transaction for investing in the Casp platform were not disclosed.

The company "Caspa," according to "Kontur. Focus," by mid-June 2024, 51 vacancies were opened with the number of employees of 29 people. According to RB.ru source, the capitalization of the school is currently about 500 million rubles.

Initially, Skillbox acquired a 30% stake in Casp's online school and an option to buy additional shares. The parties planned to create adapted English programs for marketers, designers, programmers and other professions. Then Skillbox's stake in the startup rose to 51%, and subsequently - by more than 20 percentage points.

Caspa uses speech recognition algorithms and is a resident of the Skolkovo Foundation. Her main specialization is spoken English for adults. The school was founded by Inna Giventhal.^[1]

2023: Skillbox takes control at online English school 'Caspa'

Skillbox's share of Casp's online English school rose from 30% to 51%. This became known on August 28, 2023.

According to Vedomosti, citing data from the SPARK-Interfax system, the rest of the shares in Sistema Caspa LLC (a legal entity of the school) were retained by the founders of this educational service - Andrey Vinograd (10.69%), Inna Giventhal (10.34%), Pavel Remizov (10.34%), Vladilen Sitnikov (7.72%), Vladimir Garev (5.35%), Aleksei Strakhov (3.09%) and Sergey Neistadt (1.47%.

Skillbox gets control at online English school Caspa Media

The representative of Skillbox confirmed to the publication that the share in the service has been increased within the framework of the agreements reached earlier. This direction in online learning will be developed further, since "it is impossible to build a career in modern professions without knowledge of English." At the same time, the financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Casp's estimate during the transaction could have amounted to 330-400 million rubles, since the transaction was probably carried out on the basis of agreements concluded in 2021, when the multiplier standardly reached 4-5 annual revenues, suggests Natalya Tsarevskaya-Dyakina, head of the Skolkovo Foundation's edtech cluster. Accordingly, the amount of the transaction could reach about 70-85 million rubles, she adds.

The main specialization of the online school "Caspa" is English for adults, including professional English for specialists in various fields of activity. Classes on the platform are conducted according to the methodology of Inna Giventhal, the author of six English textbooks.

The newspaper cites data according to which in January-June 2023 the volume of the Russian EdTech market grew by 35% year-on-year. The revenue of the top 100 services exceeded 50 billion rubles. The results "were above expectations given the market's 15-20% year-on-year growth forecast."^[2]

2021: Skillbox buys 30% of CASPA

In early August 2021, it became known about the sale of the CASPA service to Skillbox. Under the terms of the agreement, the buyer will receive 30% in Sistema CESPA LLC, as well as options for increasing the share. The contract allows Skillbox to consolidate and manage the CASPA school and its brand.

With the deal, Skillbox will expand its product line, which already includes additional vocational education and the Career Development Center, higher and business education. Students of the platform will be able to improve the skills of spoken English, including to work in the international market.

Skillbox acquired CESPA

The amount of the transaction was not disclosed, indicates Kommersant"." However, a newspaper source close to the company said that it was estimated at 100 million. rubles

The founder of Netology Group and Digital Dolina, Maxim Spiridonov, in a conversation with Kommersant, noted that the segment of language schools is growing at a high pace due to the flow of audiences from offline to online. In his opinion, "this process will still provide impressive growth rates for a long time, although languages ​ ​ are already the most digitized segment of Russian education."

According to managing partner Skyeng Alexander Laryanovsky, the market for learning English is more than 50% offline, so there is room online for new players. All major online schools are concentrated around three markets: vocational education, additional school and English. So does "," Yandex and Mail.ru Group Skyeng, he added.^[3]

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