UFirst

History

2023: VK bought Ufirst

In mid-December 2023, it became known about the sale of a network of English schools UFirst holding VK. The latter conducts the transaction through a subsidiary structure - the online platform "Учи.ру."

According to Kommersant, Uch.Ru Plus LLC filed a petition with the service to acquire a 100% stake in the authorized capital of the international company (MK) Rushmore LLC (owner of UFirst). The value of the transaction was not disclosed. The general director of AFI Capital, Alexei Gorislavets, estimated it at 100-150 million rubles.

UFirst CEO Elena Mukhametzyanova

MK Rushmore LLC is registered in a special administrative district on Russky Island in Vladivostok. According to the Rusprofile counterparty verification service, by December 13, 2023, 25% of the holding belongs to Elena Mukhametzyanova, another 25% to Madina Fidarova, 20% to Tatyana Ryasova. Information about other shareholders is hidden. the UFirst structure includes 15 divisions - in particular, four in St. Petersburg, ten in Moscow and one in Novosibirsk.

According to Smart Ranking analyst Margarita Aranovskaya, UFirst, after the reorganization, "did not really manage to develop the online format," they tried to create hybrid schools. Integration with "Учи.ру" will allow "to deploy the technical side of the company," and VK will receive "proven years" of training, Aranovskaya believes.

A newspaper source in the online education market, commenting on the purchase of UFirst, noted that VK "obviously strengthens the direction of children's education." At the same time, the interlocutor of the newspaper emphasized that the directions of the UFirst school are "a kind of starter package for a successful student, since it includes the study of English, programming, Chinese."^[1]

2020-2021

The general director of English First, Elena Mukhametzyanova, said that the company began searching for a school buyer in Russia back in 2020. Schools switched to new educational materials, and in 2021 the project began the transition to independent CRM (customer relationship management system) and accounting report.

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