Ultimate Education

History

2024

Attracting ₽565 million investments

Ultimate Education completed the first pre-IPO placement in the online education market and attracted ₽565 million investments. This became known on December 11, 2024. The placement was carried out on the investment platform of the registrar of NRK-R.O.S.T. JSC.

According to RBC, the company began accepting applications for the purchase of shares on October 15, 2024. The capital raising agent was Alfa-Investments. For unqualified investors, the investment limit is set at up to ₽600 thousand per year, for qualified investors there are no restrictions.

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Freepik

Ultimate Education CEO Pavel Moseikin confirmed the company's plans for an IPO in 2026-2027. Before going public, the company planned to issue bonds and hold a pre-IPO. The rating agency ACRA assigned the operating company of the Altimate Education LLC group a BBB rating with a positive outlook.

According to the analytical agency Smart Ranking, Ultimate Education is in the top 5 EdTech companies in the segment of additional vocational education and in the top 100 fast-growing technology companies in Russia. The holding unites seven industrial online schools: Fashion Factory, XYZ, Psychedemia, Bang Bang Education, Moscow Digital School, MAED Academy and MIIN.

Maria Davydovskaya, head of the investment products department in the capital market, direct and alternative investments of Alfa-Investments, noted that the funds raised will allow the company to accelerate business development and prepare for going public in the coming years.

The pre-IPO is an investment tool for investments in promising companies before they enter the public market. After participating in such a round, investors usually expect to sell their stake to a strategic investor or through an IPO.

In early December 2024, it became known that the possibility of holding a pre-IPO is also being considered by the Russian developer and manufacturer of power tools Interskol. The company plans to raise ₽1,5 -2 billion through placement on several platforms, including the platform of the Moscow Exchange^[1]

Purchase of advertising service Telega.in

On July 16, 2024, the investment company Ultimate Capital announced the purchase of a native advertising marketplace on Telegram Telega.in. Financial and other parameters of the transaction are not disclosed. Read more here.

2022: Attraction of 500 million rubles

The Ultimate Education educational holding, as he said in mid-February 2022, raised 500 million rubles from Vershina Capital and two family offices Nikita Mishin and Konstantin Nikolaev. Investors received a total of 30% in Ultimate Education. The funds raised are planned to be spent on the purchase of new projects and global expansion.

The fact that Ultimate Education closed a large investment area was told to Vedomosti by the managing director of the holding Nikita Podlipsky. The founder and managing partner of Vershina Capital, Andrei Batanov, confirmed the deal to the publication and substantiated it as follows: the Ultimate Education business is growing dynamically - even in the face of strong competition from large players, such as Skillbox holding companies, Yandex.Workshop and Netology.

Russian EdTech holding Ultimate Education raised 500 million rubles to buy new projects and go abroad

The development of online education in Russia is a priority area of ​ ​ Vershina Capital, and we are pleased to become part of the Ultimate Education holding, which invests in strong teams with an effective business model in fast-growing verticals of online education, "Batanov said.

By mid-February 2022, Ultimate Education's portfolio includes five companies: Bang Bang Education Online School of Design (90%), MAED Academy Marketing Training Center (50.1%), Fashion Factory Fashion Industry Online Business Education School (49%), XYZ School Game Development School (45%), and Psychologists and Coaches Training Service Psychodemia (30%). In all, he has an option to buy out the controlling share.

As Nikita Podlipsky noted, in 2021 the holding's revenue doubled, which indicates a justified chosen strategy in the rapidly growing and competitive online education market.

The founder of the Smart Ranking agency (author of the EdTech rating) Daria Ryzhkova is confident that development through M&A transactions is justified. Ultimate Education is primarily interested in projects with strong industry communities, such as the design community at Bang Bang Education, she noted.^[2]

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