Skyeng

Skyeng is an online English language school.

2023

Preparing for IPO

At the end of November 2023, it became known about Skyeng's plans to place its shares on the Moscow Exchange. If this IPO is held, it will be the first for Russian EdTech companies.

Skyeng's intention to list on the Moscow Exchange is written Sheets"" with reference to several of its sources. According to one of them, as part of this placement, the company expects to attract about 3-5 billion. rubles

Skyeng plans to place shares on the Moscow Exchange

The executive director of Skyeng Group Rustam Aynetdinov, in a conversation with the publication, noted that the company is considering various sources of attracting funding, including an IPO at the Moscow Exchange.

The goals of attracting funds from us are classic - financing our activities, the development of new business areas. In the case of IPO, reputational benefits will be added to this list, "he explained.

One of the newspaper's sources said that the IPO could take place in the first half of 2024, but by the end of November 2023, Skyeng had not yet chosen an underwriter. The underwriter helps the company, which goes public, assess its investment attractiveness and set stock prices.

According to Vyacheslav Berdnikov, chief analyst at Sovcombank, and Leonid Delitsyn, analyst at Finam, Skyeng may place a 10-15% stake on the stock exchange. Berdnikov estimated the potential amount of funds raised in the amount of up to 5 billion rubles. The same forecast was given by Sergey Libin, an analyst at the market analysis department of Gazprombank - in his opinion, the cost of the entire company, taking into account its growth rates in 2023, is 40-50 billion rubles. Delitsyn from Finam believes that Skyeng can raise more funds at the IPO - up to 9 billion rubles. Berdnikov from Sovcombank noted that the shares are likely to be in high demand when placed, while Skyeng is one of the leaders of the EdTech market.^[1]

Refusal to buy StudyFree due to employee debts

In March 2023, it became known that Skyeng refused to buy StudyFree amid a scandal that centered on an educational start due to non-payment to employees and customers. Read more here.

A fine of 60,000 rubles for leaking user data

On March 1, 2023, the judicial district of the Tagansky district of Moscow fined Skyeng 60,000 rubles due to the leakage of personal data of users of the online English school. The company was found guilty under Part 1 of Art. 13.11 of the Administrative Code (processing of personal data in cases not provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation). The maximum punishment under the article is a fine of 100,000 rubles.

Earlier, the court said that the protocol of Part 1 of Article 13.11 of the Administrative Code was drawn up for violations of the requirements of the federal law "On Personal Data," which regulate access to the user database. This resulted in the dissemination of Skyeng customer data among an unlimited number of people by posting on the Internet.

A court in Moscow fined Skyeng for leaking user data

The volume of the leak and information about when it occurred could not be clarified in court, RIA Novosti notes. By March 2023, only one major leak of Skyeng user data is publicly known - it was recorded in June 2020 and included a database of 5 million students and service employees. The company itself did not admit that the cause of the leak on the side of Skyeng. Data in the public domain is not related to the service, the company claimed then. By March 2023, Skyeng is among the top 15 most expensive Runet companies. This is one of the largest language services in Russia.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the government to consider the introduction of working fines for companies that leaked personal data of Russians by July 1, 2023. Since the president's order only obliges to "consider issues" about the introduction of negotiable fines and "submit proposals" for amending the legislation, this does not mean at all that the law should be adopted by this date, said Karen Ghazaryan, director of the Institute for Internet Research. According to the instruction, it is Mishustin who will have to report on the advisability of adopting this law, the expert explained.^[2]

2020: Data leaked on 5m students and staff

On June 27, 2020, it became known that the Telegram channel In4security discovered a data leak of 5 million students and employees of the Skyeng language online school. The information in the database turned out to be genuine, but the company did not confirm the fact of leakage or hacking.

The founder of DeviceLock Ashot Hovhannisyan clarified that the data is sold for 40,000 rubles. According to the expert, the database contains 270,000 records of Russian users, including students, teachers and employees of an online school. The entire base costs about 80 thousand rubles.

Platform partner Alexander Laryanovsky said there was no reason to believe that the base was related to Skyeng.

Hovhannisyan suggested that the base leaked as a result of open access to the server MongoDB to about three months ago. The database is laid out in the MongoDB dump format, which can be seen by the data format ("_ id": ObjectId).

In January 2018, it became known that Skyeng attracted investments from Baring Vostok funds. The company was valued at $100 million^[3].

2017

As of January 25, 2017, Skyeng School provides English language learning services. Skyeng operates on its own Vimbox learning platform. Learning English takes place in a virtual classroom.

Notes