Skillbox Limited

History

2023: Skillbox increases stake in online school Skillfactory to 100%

On September 11, 2023 Skillbox VK , the educational holding (part of) announced an increase in its share in the Skillfactory IT professions platform from 63.763% to 100%. The deal is scheduled to close in January 2024. More. here

2022: 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.

A representative of the company told Vedomosti that a number of employees left Skillbox Holding Limited. At the same time, he did not name the size of the cuts. Sources of the publication call the layoffs massive, one of them estimates the number of employees who left Skillbox and GeekBrains in the region of 300 people.

Skillbox and Geekbrains fired hundreds of specialists and named reasons

The layoffs affected, for example, Methodists and producers, a former Skillbox employee told the newspaper. According to the former co-owner of Skillbox, specialists from the support service of educational platforms also fell under the cuts in the holding. According to HeadHunter, the most common specializations in current resumes of employees from both companies are a programmer, tester, project manager, designer and analyst.

As explained in the press service of Skillbox Holding Limited, the reduction in the number of personnel in Skillbox and Geekbrains is associated with the centralization of processes after their creation of an educational holding.

After the merger of several companies into a single educational holding in 2021, the management of Skillbox Holding Limited centralizes the processes: combines duplicate functions and carries out the necessary organizational changes. These changes are a logical step for the further development of the holding, Skillbox Holding Limited said.

Former co-owner of Skillbox Andrei Anishchenko told Vedomosti that the period of extensive growth of the holding companies is ending. According to him, by the beginning of 2022, the market for additional vocational education "is moving into a mature stage, when its participants are required to show a systematic management and consistent improvement in profits."^[1]

2021

Buying a service to prepare for the exam "Umschool"

At the end of October 2021, it became known that VK (formerly called Mail.ru Group) acquired 25% of the Russian educational project Umschool, which is preparing for the exam and OGE. Together with the purchase of 90% of the Brazilian online school Mentorama, the total amount of transactions amounted to 1.66 billion rubles. VK said that "the main goal of the acquisition was to expand the group's presence in the online education market ." Read more here.

Buying Mentorama Education Platform

On October 27, 2021, the sale of Mentorama to the Russian online university Skillbox was announced. The companies did not disclose the financial and other terms of the transaction. It is only reported that Skillbox will receive 90% of the Brazilian online school. Read more here.

Mail.ru Group combines SkillFactory educational platform with Skillbox and GeekBrains

On October 5, 2021, the Mail.ru Group announced the accession of the SkillFactory educational platform to the Skillbox Limited holding, which also includes the EdTech projects Skillbox and GeekBrains.

According to the press service of the Mail.ru Group, after the restructuring, SkillFactory will continue to develop educational projects under the existing brand. SkillFactory co-founder and CEO Alexander Eroshkin, along with other co-founders, will continue to lead the company.

Mail.ru Group announced the joining of SkillFactory educational platform to Skillbox Limited holding, which also includes EdTech projects Skillbox and GeekBrains

Prior to this transaction, Mail.ru Group had a minority stake of 18.31% in SkillFactory, as well as an option to buy additional shares with a plan for its implementation in the second half of 2021. After all transactions, Skillbox Limited becomes the holder of the controlling share in the service - 61.8%. At the same time, the founders and top management of SkillFactory remain minority shareholders.

According to Boris Dobrodeev, general director of the Mail.ru Group, the company seeks to help 10 million people master certain skills by 2023 with the help of all current educational projects and initiatives of the holding.

Joining SkillFactory to a company that already includes GeekBrains and Skillbox is an important step in this direction. The VK ecosystem brings together educational projects for people of different ages. SkillFactory will strengthen the segment for adults who want to get or change their specialty, "he said.

Skillbox founder and CEO Dmitry Krutov noted that SkillFactory has good results and a very strong team. The company's business and methodology are different, and it is important for Skillbox to collect the best expertise on the market within the holding, he added.

SkillFactory operates in the professional and higher education segments. It includes the online school of data and IT products specialists, the design and creative specialties of Contented, the online master's degree program Zavtra.Online and the Product LIVE school of product management. The total number of students in all areas of SkillFactory exceeds 100 thousand people (by October 2021).

Creation of an educational holding based on EdTech assets

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.

The Mail.ru Group expects that the merger of Skillbox and GeekBrains will strengthen its position so that Skillbox Limited becomes the leader in the Russian online education market. The companies will combine financial resources and provide optimal conditions for growth, scale and geographical expansion.

Mail.ru Group and the Alexander Galitsky Foundation created an educational holding based on the EdTech assets of Skillbox Limited

The holding will be headed by Dmitry Krutov, co-founder and CEO of Skillbox. Educational products will continue to develop under existing brands.

Commenting on the deal, Krutov noted that "combining the two largest players" will allow companies to expand their product line and "prepare more highly qualified personnel for the country's digital breakthrough."

We expect that by 2023 our educational projects will help 10 million people learn something, improve their qualifications, get or change their profession - and are confident that the creation of a united company will help come to this goal, "said Boris Dobrodeev, CEO of Mail.ru Group.

By August 2021, Skillbox offers more than 560 educational products: additional vocational education courses, comprehensive programs for training new and sought-after professions, undergraduate, master's and business education programs with the country's largest universities and corporate training for business. Within GeekBrains, 50 educational programs are available in various areas.^[2]

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