Oktogo.ru, a Russian online hotel reservation company with its headquarters in St. Petersburg, is closing a $5 million round of financing with Western funds Ventech and Mangrove Capital Partners and Russian fund ABRT.
The two Western funds confirmed the transaction to EWDN but did not disclose the startup’s valuation.
Referring to unnamed sources, Russian business daily Vedomosti estimates the funds’ stake at “over 20%, but less than a controlling stake.”
Oktogo, which was founded in 2010, claims its database encompasses over 2,000 hotels in Russia and the CIS and 100,000 hotels worldwide. Project founder Maria Kolesnik told Vedomosti that she expects her company’s revenues to total $10 million in 2011.
In November 2010, Oktogo closed a first round of financing with the so-called “SuperAngels” Toivo Annus (founding engineer of Skype), Fabrice Grinda (co-founder of OLX), Jose Marin and Javier Perez-Tenessa.
Over the past few years, Luxembourg-based Mangrove Capital Partners has invested in a range of Russian startups, including KupiVIP.ru, the leading private shopping club; Entermedia, an in-game advertising company; Drimmi, a publisher of social games; and KupiBonus.ru, a group buying site specializing in health and beauty services. The fund, however, just sold its stake in Quintura, a Russian search engine in which it invested in 2006.
In 2008, Paris-based Ventech invested in WomanJournal.ru (now integrated in Web Prime Group), a leading women’s portal developed by Direct Group, a Western investment company operating in Moscow.
For the last few years, the travel segment of Russian e-commerce has developed dramatically. Russia saw an estimated 6 million online purchasers of touristic products in 2010. The potential remains huge: less than 5% of travel services are sold online in Russia vs. 30% to 60% in more advanced countries, reported EWDN last month.
On the supply side, the two last years saw strong diversification of online booking possibilities with initiatives from Russian and foreign tour operators, online aggregators, airlines and hotels as well as venture funds.
