Consulting (Russian market)

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2025: The volume of the Russian consulting market for the year grew by 15% and reached ₽140 billion

The total revenue of the largest consulting groups and companies in Russia increased by 15% and reached ₽140 billion in 2024 after two years of decline in the industry. This result exceeds the inflation rate, which amounted to 9.5% in 2024 according to Rosstat, which indicates the real growth of the business services sector. The data is contained in the 26th ranking of the RAEX agency, published in May 2025.

According to agency analysts, the positive dynamics contrasts with the results of previous years, when in 2022 the nominal market growth was 8% with inflation of 11.9%, and in 2023 - 6% with inflation of 7.4%. Of the 200 participants in the ranking, only 46 companies ended 2024 with a decrease in revenue, while 17 of them did not have a drop of 10%.

The number of consulting specialists in ranking companies increased by 13% to 18,446 people. Data for the first quarter of 2025 confirms the continuation of positive trends - the revenue of 112 companies increased by 9% to ₽9,7 billion compared to the same period in 2024.

Managing Partner of SRG Group Fedor Spiridonov explained the growth in demand for anti-crisis consulting and updating business models. Quality consulting, he said, is seen by companies as a critical element of strategy, not a supporting resource. Companies are revising financial plans, cutting nonbinding costs and reconfiguring project portfolios.

An important role in the growth of the market is played by demand from the state and companies with state participation in the form of large-scale long-term investment projects in construction, industry and infrastructure development. Fyodor Spiridonov noted that consultants participate in monitoring the implementation of projects, offer optimization options and accompany decision-making within the framework of state mechanisms for assessing the effectiveness of budget funds.

The largest segment of the market remains IT consulting with total revenues of ₽46,3 billion, which is 30% of the total revenue of the ranking participants. The segment showed an increase of 14% according to comparable data. Of this amount, ₽41,7 billion falls on consulting projects for development and system integration, ₽4,6 billion - on management consulting on IT development.

The growth in demand in the IT segment is due to import substitution to ensure technological sovereignty in accordance with the decree of the President of Russia of March 30, 2022 "On measures to ensure technological independence and security of critical information infrastructure." Additional factors were the improvement of risk management, information security and digital transformation.

Gazprom DIN CEO Anton Kurylenko noted the significant potential of using artificial intelligence in business analysis to identify hidden patterns in large volumes of data. According to him, the company sees prospects in creating ecosystems based on digital twins integrated into the IT architecture, which allows modeling the consequences of changes before their implementation.

The second largest and fastest growing area was consulting in the field of goods and services production with a record ₽19,7 billion in revenue and a growth rate of 38%. Almost all revenue falls on technological and price audits, expertise of design documentation, technical audits of companies and assets, technical supervision of construction work.

Rostislav Shatenok, Managing Partner of Althaus, reported a significant increase in demand for financial and technical expertise of investment projects. When raising financing, clients need to analyze the financial and economic model, conduct a "zero" financial and technical audit and regular monitoring.

Revenue from financial consulting services amounted to ₽18,5 billion (13% of total revenue from ranking) with an increase of 8%. Revenues from tax and legal consultations reached ₽16,2 billion (12% of total revenue) with an increase of 5%, of which ₽3,6 billion fell on legal services and ₽12,6 billion on tax consulting.^[1]

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