Content |
Edstein is a platform for staff training and development. The company, launched in 2017 (the main sales began in 2019), specializes in the development of HR systems. Among the startup's clients are Mail.ru Group, Wildberries, Magnit, Tatneft, M.Video-Eldorado and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (data for December 2020).
History
2025: Software Integration with Skillaz
The developer of the platform for automating personnel management processes Skillaz fully integrates Edstein software into its platform. Skillaz announced this on January 13, 2025. Read more here.
2024: HeadHunter bought 100% of Edstein
On May 7, 2025, it became known that recruiting holding HeadHunter completed the acquisition of 100% of Edstein, which develops a personnel training and evaluation system (LMS system). According to the SPARK-Interfax system, the deal was issued back in December 2024.
According to Vedomosti, market participants estimate the value of this transaction in the range from ₽200 million to ₽350 million. Edstein founder Yevgeny Obogorov confirmed the sale, but did not disclose the exact amount of the transaction.
As part of the acquisition, Evgeny Obogorov himself (56.31%) and two other co-owners representing the Kirov Group Ventures fund - the owner of the Kirov Group Georgy Semenenko (12.43%) and Nadezhda Morozova (6.26%) sold their shares. Before this deal, HeadHunter already owned 25% of the company.
After the deal was completed, the Edstein team and product were integrated into the Skillaz system, which is also part of the HeadHunter perimeter. The Edstein LMS system became one of the Skillaz modules, and the official Edstein website stopped working. In March 2025, Edstein LLC was renamed Skilaz-LMS LLC, which confirms the process of integrating assets.
In parallel with the purchase of Edstein, the HeadHunter structure (Headhunter LLC and Headhunter IC LLC) in January 2025 increased its ownership in another HR startup Skillaz (Skilaz LLC) from 25% to 90.72%. The initial investment in Skillaz was made in 2019, when HeadHunter acquired 25% of the company for ₽232 million.
Evgeny Obogorov explained the decision to sell the company by the fact that two years after the initial investment, HeadHunter assessed the synergistic effect with Skillaz and made an offer to buy. He also noted that Edstein had a high-quality product and large customers in the fields of IT, retail, banking sector and FMCG, as well as in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, including Uzum.[1]
2022: Attracting investment from HeadHunter
On December 26, 2022, HeadHunter announced an investment in Edstein. Under the terms of the agreement, venture capital fund HeadHunter received 25% in the startup. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
It is expected that the funds provided by HeadHunter will be aimed at expanding the functionality of existing assessment and training modules. This will cover more corporate training scenarios and programs for large companies.
Under the deal, Edstein remains an independent company that will continue to improve its own evaluation and staff training platform. Today, over 140 thousand employees of such companies as VK, Qiwi, Leroy Merlin, Tele2, Technodom and others use the LMS solution of Edstein.
In addition, Edstein, together with Skillaz, in which HeadHunter is the majority shareholder, will develop a new generation HCM platform that will provide most of the modern HR needs of Russian companies. The HCM direction will be led by Skillaz, whose solutions are already widely used by Russian corporations to automate the hiring process.
With the help of investments from HeadHunter and integration with Skillaz HCM, Edstein is reaching a new, larger level of development and application, said Nikita Bugrov, HeadHunter's Head of Innovation.
 | Collaboration opens up new opportunities for us in the development of the product, improving internal processes and client service. We will increase the functionality of existing training and assessment modules, as well as add new modules within the framework of our main competencies in automating HR-functions of training and personnel development of large companies and corporations, - said the founder and CEO of Edstein Evgeny Obogorov. |  |
2020: Attracting investment from KirovGroup Ventures
On December 21, 2020, the Kirovsky Zavod announced its investment in Edstein through its KirovGroup Ventures fund. The latter received 10% of the startup. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Edstein CEO Evgeny Obogorov, commenting on the attraction of investments, noted that the HR services market in 2020 showed a breakthrough, and now it is time for active actions to win new customers and markets.
| | We have confirmed the demand and competitiveness of the product and are now ready to scale it as a SaaS product. Since the beginning of the year, with attracted resources and connections, we begin international sales, now we are holding the first meetings, "he said. | |
The Kirov plant, as reported there, has been actively engaged in venture investments for the past three years. The company launched its startup development program called Industrial Accelerator. The investment portfolio includes the following projects: Robot Vera, FieldBit, AgroWorldTrade, Trace Air.
The KirovGroup Ventures fund will be managed by a team engaged in introducing innovations at the Kirovsky plant: Oleg Bochtarev (strategy and relations with partners), Igor Yarunov (preparation of transactions and portfolio management), Nikita Semenov (business development and international track), Elena Morozova (scouting and portfolio development).
Portfolio companies, including Edstein, will be able to test hypotheses, introduce pilot projects and improve the product within the framework of the venture building studio and industrial accelerator of the Kirov Plant, as well as use specialized expertise and resources of the Kirov Plant group of companies. Successful projects will gain access to foreign markets and support based on the corporation's connections in the business environment and the venture ecosystem of Europe.[2]
Notes
| The site content is translated by machine translation software powered by PROMT. The machine-translated articles are not always perfect and may contain errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. Read original article If you find inaccuracies or errors in the results of machine translation, please write to editor@tadviser.ru. We will make every effort to correct them as soon as possible. |