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GeekBrains is an educational platform for programmers that offers more than 50 online courses in mobile and web development, game creation, design, SEO and other areas. The service allows novice specialists to learn the basics of programming, and experienced specialists to deepen knowledge and master new areas. As a result of the course, students receive a certificate confirming their qualifications. Courses include video tutorials, webinars, homework, discussion of educational material with classmates and teachers. After training, a GeekBrains graduate can apply for an internship with an IT company or an internal IT incubator project, where users work together on their own startups.
History
2023: CEO's departure, management transition to Skillbox
GeekBrains CEO Alexander Volchek has left the company. Its management was transferred to the leadership of the Skillbox holding, its press service said on March 15, 2023. Read more here.
2022
Data breach of tens of thousands of users
In early May 2022, it became known about the leakage of data of tens of thousands of users of the EdTech service GeekBrains. The company confirmed this and assured that the payment information of customers remained classified.
 | Geekbrains security has detected a data breach on some purchased courses. The data does not affect bank details and information about users' bank cards, the press service of GeekBrains told TASS. |  |
They added that by June 1, 2022, the company is conducting an internal investigation and is doing everything possible to prevent the dissemination of data.
On June 1, 2022, the DLBI darknet search and monitoring service reported that a database of clients, probably the educational portal GeekBrains, was publicly available.
According to DLBI, the source who posted some of the data claims that the full GeekBrains database contains 6 million lines. The part of the leak published in the public domain contains 105,798 lines with full names (as when registering, that is, not completely for the most part), email addresses (86.8 thousand unique addresses) and phone numbers (84.5 thousand unique numbers) of users.
The information security company Infosecurity a Softline Company also reported the appearance of a database of GeekBrains users in the public domain and added that the file also "contains a large number of test records related to the GeekBrains service, which can confirm the reality of the posted data."
In the first half of 2022, several large data leaks of users of Russian services were registered. Against this background, the Ministry of Digital Science agreed on a bill that tightens the responsibility of companies for the leakage of personal data of customers. It involves not only the introduction of a revolving fine of 1%, but also an increase to 3% if the company tries to hide the incident.[1]
Lawsuit from customers over refusals to return money for courses
In December 2021, GeekBrains customers sued the company over refusals to return money for courses. As told To the businessman"" in the legal service Destra Legal, rubles 31 students joined the class action lawsuit with the amount of claims of 4.5 million. The application was accepted by the Savelovsky District Court. Moscow
The plaintiffs allege GeekBrains does not refund online courses if the student chose to opt out at the start of their studies. GeekBrains explains the refusal by the terms of their offer.
According to the rules of the platform, the student is returned the full cost of training within three days from the date of purchase, 30% - within two weeks; 15% - within 14-30 days. If more than 30 days have passed since the purchase, the money is not returned. At the same time, in some cases, access to the course is opened only 30 days after its purchase, which violates consumer rights, according to Destra Legal.
However, in a class action lawsuit, users indicated that they did not get access to the purchased courses, and not to introductory lessons, until 30 days after the purchase. Some were not satisfied with such a delay in training, they decided to terminate the contract before the expiration of this period and receive all the money for the course. But the platform did not pay them anything or only part, and before paying GeekBrains did not provide customers with supporting documents of their expenses, due to which the payment to the client for the training course not provided significantly decreased.
GeekBrains declined to comment on the lawsuit and only told the publication the following:
| | It is absolutely normal that someone from tens of thousands of students may not suit a specific course. Then we'll just get the money back or offer other programs for free. | |
Lawyers interviewed by the newspaper are confident that the plaintiffs have a good chance of winning, and the outcome of the case may affect appeals from clients to other educational platforms with the same claims.[2]
Dismissal of employees due to centralization of processes
At the end of January 2022, it became known about mass layoffs among employees of online services Skillbox and GeekBrains. We are talking about reducing the staff of the educational holding Skillbox Holding Limited, which includes both EdTech projects. Read more here.
2021
Mail.ru Group has created an educational holding on the basis of Skillbox and GeekBrains
On August 10, 2021, Mail.ru Group announced the creation of an educational holding based on the EdTech services Skillbox and GeekBrains. The new structure was named Skillbox Limited. More than half (50.06%) of the company will be owned by the Mail.ru Group, 22.72% will be owned by the founders of Skillbox, and 14.21% will be owned by Alexander Galitsky's Almaz Capital Partners fund. Another 13% is reserved for a long-term employee motivation program. Read more here.
Alexander Galitsky's company bought 49% of GeekBrains from Mail.ru Group
In July 2021, it became known that the Cypriot company of the founder of Almaz Capital Alexander GalitskyA . Galaxy Raif V.C.I.C. LTD bought a 49 percent stake in GeekBrains from Mail.ru Group. This is evidenced by the data of the Kontur.Focus database. The financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.
The deal took place on June 6, 2021. After its closure, the direct share of Mail.ru Group in GeekBrains amounted to 1%, another 50% belongs to the educational service Skillbox, which is part of the Russian holding. Mail.ru Group transferred a stake in GeekBrains to Skillbox in January 2021.
As TAdviser was specified in Almaz Capital, the fund is not related to the transaction - it was concluded by A. Galaxy Raif V.C.I.C., which is the family office of Alexander Galitsky.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Mail.ru Group owned 49.9% of the authorized capital of GeekBrains. By July 2021, the share decreased to 0.99%.[3]
Large IT companies invest in online education projects. In addition to the Mail.ru Group, Rostelecom has an educational project for schoolchildren, and Yandex is developing the Yandex.Workshop service, which trains in the specialties of analyst, web programmer, etc. In addition, Yandex planned to invest 5 billion rubles in the development of existing and launch of new educational projects in the IT sector.
Investment in educational platforms is spurred by ongoing coronavirus restrictions, as well as a growing demand for new skills and knowledge and cross-border online training. All this fits into the concept of "knowledge economics," which requires the constant development of abilities and skills and updating information for the widest possible contingent (including those with limited access to classical forms of education for financial reasons or due to geographical restrictions), especially in connection with expectations of the growing importance of remote work.
Mail.ru Group reported on the growth of revenue of its online education block for the three quarters of 2020 by 2.9 times to 1.6 billion rubles. By early 2021, the EdTech sector began to reap the financial benefits of the special attention that it has felt for itself this entire coronavirus (COVID-19) year. Several EdTech companies with Russian roots have closed funding rounds at once.
2020: Mail.ru Group is the sole owner of GeekBrains
At the end of December 2020, Mail.ru Group became the sole owner of the EdTech project. This is evidenced by the data of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
According to Vedomosti, Mail.ru Group (MRG) increased its stake from 51% to 100% in GeekBrains, receiving the assets of service founders Alexander Nikitin and Gaik Hayrapetyan.
Mail.ru Group develops online education on all steps - from preschool to professional. The Mail.ru Group also has shares in the Skillbox educational platform, the SkillFactory service, the Algoritmika programming training course development service for children, and the Учи.ру service for schoolchildren (which allows improving knowledge on most school subjects, programming and "flexible competencies").
Also, the Internet holding invested in the Tetrika platform, which allows you to study with tutors and prepare for exams. Educational projects based on leading Russian universities allow students to receive demanded IT professions in parallel with their studies at the university, the Mail.ru Group noted.
According to Boris Dobrodeev, CEO of Mail.ru Group, since 2016 the group has invested more than $100 million in educational startups. By 2023, the company plans to increase the coverage of users of its educational projects to 10 million - in 2019 there were 2.5 million.
Earlier, Dobrodeev did not rule out an initial public offering of shares of educational startups in international stock markets.
| | Our goal and goal for the entire market will be the emergence of several "unicorns" - billion-dollar companies that will conduct IPOs on international platforms and will be able to show the potential of Russian EdTech and Russian entrepreneurship, "said Dobrodeev. | |
The Mail.ru Group predicts that the volume of the Russian online education market in 2023 may triple compared to 2019 and exceed 140 billion rubles.[4]
2019: Launch of programming training courses for children
The educational portal GeekBrains on October 9, 2019 announced the launch of a children's direction of programming training. On October 15, a course on the basics of Python programming for children 11-17 years old starts. In 3 months, under the guidance of an experienced teacher, students will learn the basics of programming and write their first site in Python.
Students will be told who the programmer is, how he happens and what he does, they will learn the structure of the web application, configure the development environment, study linear algorithms, branches, immerse themselves in loops, get acquainted with the DRY principle (Don't repeat you) and with functions, site layout, Bootstrap and Flask frameworks, Jinja2 template. Students will learn what databases are and what they consist of, learn CRUD technology for tables in the database and data in the table.
Python ownership opens up career opportunities in the creation of client-server and web applications, front-end and back-end development, development in the field of artificial intelligence and big data. The course is designed for those who want to master Python development from scratch. The program was developed in conjunction with the INNOcamp children's IT camp.
The start date of the first stream is October 15th. Training is paid.
2018: GeekUniversity Opens Information Security Faculty
On May 22, 2018, GeekUniversity, an online university of the GeekBrains and Mail.Ru Group IT portal, opens the Faculty of Information Security. Students will go from novice to middle-level developer in just a year and get guaranteed employment after successfully graduating from university.
Anyone can enter GeekUniversity. The applicant must have basic knowledge of working on Linux: for admission, you need to leave an application.
After that, the applicant will be offered to undergo online testing. Those who cannot cope with the test will be assigned to a group with a preparatory course, where they can gain the missing knowledge. The training program is designed for 350 academic hours, the intensity of classes is two to four lessons a week. The student can vary the load himself during the study process. Training is paid. Graduates receive a certificate confirming their acquired qualifications.
During the year, students of the Faculty of Information Security will audit real companies and projects four times. They will learn to work with web protocols, find vulnerabilities in networks, applications, sites, get acquainted with the basics of programming and system administration skills, and master the principles of social engineering. The program also provides a course for preparing for an IT interview. Faculty teachers are specialists of leading Russian companies, including Mail.Ru Group. Each student is assigned a curator-mentor - a specialist in the field of IT security, who will be able to quickly answer questions.
2015-2016
Over the year, the company's courses are completed by about 4,000 people, and the total number of people educated on the platform has exceeded 7,000. GeekBrains' most popular free course, "Fundamentals of Programming," took more than 470,000 people. GeekBrains has a monthly audience of over 500,000. In 2015-2016, the number of users registered on the portal increased from 200,000 to a million people.
In August 2016, Mail.Ru Group announced an investment in GeekBrains, an online educational platform for programmers. Mail.Ru Group has acquired a controlling stake in GeekBrains, the founders of the company will remain shareholders and continue to manage it.
Investments in GeekBrains are part of the systematic work in the development of education and training of IT professionals, which is implemented by Mail.Ru Group. The company cooperates with the departments of technical universities in Russia, creates unique centers of practical-oriented training both in partnership with universities (Technopark at the Moscow State Technical University named after N.E. Bauman, at Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, Technotrek at MIPT and Technoatom at NRNU MEPhI), and on the basis of individual projects (VK University, Technopolice). In addition, Mail.Ru Group holds professional events: international olympiads on programming Russian Code Cup, VK Cup, championship on programming artificial intelligence Russian AI Cup, competition of designers and designers of Russian Design Cup interfaces, championship for IT specialists in the field of web development, mobile services and games Russian Developers Cup.
Notes
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