Baring Vostok, the Russian PE/VC giant, Winter Capital, a Moscow-based international fund backed, in particular, by billionaire Vladimir Potanin, and Goldman Sachs have invested $50 million in GetCourse.
This Russian edtech startup allows its customers — more than 20,000 schools, trainers, coaches and bloggers — to create, deliver, promote and sell their own educational content. The service, which includes lead-generation, analytics and CRM functionalities, is integrated with payment systems and popular social networks.
GetCourse also offers its own educational projects.
According to a Winter Capital Partners press-release, GetCourse generated some $600 million in gross merchandise value (GMV) in 2020, and expects to exceed the $1 billion mark this year. This will “put GetCourse on par with global leaders Kajabi (annualized GMV of $1.5 billion in May 2021) and Thinkific (2020 GMV of $0.3 billion),” states the investment firm.
GetCourse was founded in 2014. According to official data cited by Rusven, its shareholders include VTB Capital Pre-IPO Fund (which received a 15.2% stake in Sept. 2020), Cyprus companies Janewill Ltd and Greum Ltd, UK company Bradley Hall Holdings Ltd, Luxembourg company West Street EMS Partners, while Matvei Kalachev, Timur Karimbaev, Sergey Mikhailov and Yana Ostanina own more than 10% of the company.
Edtech is one of the sweet spots of Winter Capital Partners. The firm recently invested in Russian startups Skyeng (together with Baring Vostok) and Algorithmics as well as in Californian Udemy.
Sources: Winter Capital Partners, Rusven
