Grafika

History

2024: Skillbox's exit from Grafika capital

In August 2024, it became known that the EdTech company Skillbox sold its minority stake in the Grafika drawing school. The financial terms of the transaction as of the specified date were not disclosed, but it is known that the founders of the platform became the buyers of the package.

According to the portal RB.ru the share of Skillbox in the amount of 10% was acquired by the general director of Creative Education LLC (a legal entity of the Grafika school) Andrei Lomtev: his asset increased from 47.37% to 57.37%. The remaining 42.63% belongs to the second founder of the named organization - Yuri Samokhvalov.

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Grafika

"As a result of our cooperation, we decided to withdraw from the project. Now we are focused on other areas of development of the holding's platforms, but we do not exclude the development of our own offline projects in the future, "Skillbox representatives said, commenting on the exit from Grafika's capital.

Freedom Finance Global analyst Vladimir Chernov believes that the cost of a 10 percent stake in Creative Association LLC at the time of the sale could range from 29 million to 60 million rubles. But given the high growth rates of revenue and net profit of the Grafika school in annual terms, a premium of 10-20% to the indicated figure is not excluded. Thus, the total cost of the share sold by Skillbox could range from 32 million to 72 million rubles.

The Grafika website says that as of 2024, the project network has more than 60 schools in different cities of Russia, as well as in Belarus, Moldova and the United States. The number of graduates exceeds 10 thousand. All modern directions of live and digital drawing are available. In turn, Skillbox in mid-2024 is in second place in the ranking of the largest EdTech companies in Russia according to the Smart Ranking agency.^[1]

2022: Skillbox takes 10% stake in Grafika

On December 9, 2022, the EdTech company Skillbox announced the purchase of a 10% stake in the Grafika drawing and programming schools network. The financial terms of the agreement are not disclosed. After the completion of the transaction, its participants plan to create a joint venture.

It is noted that Skillbox, together with Grafika, want to scale offline business in the regions. So, by the end of 2024, more than 70 schools of modern professions and skills of Skillbox, as well as 100 offline schools of Grafika, will open in the cities of Russia and the CIS countries.

Online school Skillbox bought a stake in the Grafika drawing and programming schools network

Andrey Lomtev, co-founder and CEO of Grafika, became the head of the offline direction of Skillbox, the company's press service noted. Yuri Samokhvalov, co-founder and marketing director of Grafika, will be responsible for the work of marketing in all schools of the network, and Sergey Popkov, co-founder and program director of Skillbox, will oversee the business direction for the development of offline spaces.

The business will develop according to a franchise model, the company added. Skillbox and Grafika began partnering in May 2022. During this time, the companies opened 7 offline Skillbox spaces. Schools are open in Krasnodar, Kazan, St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk, and a career guidance hub is operating in Moscow.

By December 2022, the Grafika network consists of 56 offline drawing schools in the cities of Russia, the USA, Kazakhstan and Belarus, at the end of November 2022 its turnover exceeded 50 million rubles a month.

EdTech projects can find a new audience through offline projects, Dmitry Zakharov, CEO of Moscow Digital School, told Kommersant, commenting on the sale of 10% of Grafika to Skillbox. Offline training is still relevant, especially for officials, he added.

Igor Zakomorny, director of the Учи.ру offline circle network, considers the prospects for offline training in IT professions in the regions to be higher, since "there still many consider offline training to be a more suitable format for themselves, especially when changing their profession."^[2]

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