Last week the Russian edition of Forbes released its annual ranking of the 20 “most valuable companies of the Russian Internet.”
Unsurprisingly, NASDAQ-listed Yandex and LSE-listed Mail.Ru Group lead the ranking, with capitalizations of $10.7 billion and $5.6 billion, respectively. Forbes has identified two other unicorns: Avito, the classifieds giant over which Naspers just took full control at a $3.85 billion valuation, and Wildberries, the rising star of Russian e-commerce, which Forbes values at $1.2 billion.
Absent from last year’s ranking but featured this year are TalentTech, a Severgroup subsidiary which includes online education platform Netology; YouDo, an AI-powered service marketplace which raised $17 million last year; and Profi.ru, a resource to search individual service providers.
KupiVip, Russia’s leading flash sales platform, and online dating service Mamba are not featured in this year’s ranking, unlike last year.
Russia’s 20 most valuable online businesses
The ranking focuses on Russian companies which were initially designed as online businesses and generate more than half of their revenues online. It excludes foreign companies, even those which generate substantial revenues in Russia, as well as fast-growing companies from the fintech and gaming or gambling industries, “due to their specific business models.”
Company valuations – excepted the capitalization of Yandex and Mail.Ru group as of Jan 28, 2019 – have been estimated by the Forbes team, based on information received from the companies themselves and on the opinion of venture capitalists. Industry experts from Data Insight, McKinsey & Company, RB Partners, Skolkovo-Venture Investments also supported the initiative.
