InVenture Partners, a major Moscow-based fund, has sold its share in Busfor, an online bus ticketing and distribution platform based in Moscow, Russia, and Kyiv (Kiev), Ukraine. The news was reported earlier this month by Russian business daily Vedomosti.
The stake was acquired for an undisclosed amount by private equity funds Baring Vostok Capital Partners and Elbrus Capital, which invested $20 million in Busfor last year.
Ilya Ekushevskiy, Busfor’s CEO and founder, said that the funding will be used to strengthen its foothold in the markets the company already operates in. The company also aims to launch new projects in Russian-speaking countries and Eastern Europe.
As of today, the company operates in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Georgia, Thailand and several countries of the EU, according to its website.
Since its inception in Ukraine in 2010, Busfor — previously known as Gillbus — had received financial support from Intel Capital, InVenture Partners and FinSight in 2014, and from Ukraine’s Chernovetskyi Investment Group (CIG) in 2015.
Presenting itself as “an Uber for buses, but with quality control,” Busfor aims to change what has been mostly a grey and offline market so far. “We have made it a safe way of transportation and created an online platform for it,” the company’s press service told East-West Digital News in a previous interview.
In 2015, the company launched bus trips under its own brand.
InVenture Partners is a $100-million fund launched in 2012 by Sergey Azatyan and Anton Inshutin. It targets consumer technologies, financial and telecom products, online marketing and advertising tools, tourism platforms, and corporate services.
