Russia saw Wednesday its first IPO since the war in Ukraine began with local kicksharing service Whoosh raising 2.1 billion rubles ($32.6 million at the current exchange rate) on the Moscow exchange.
The IPO valued the company at 20.6 billion rubles ($320 million). This is a very honorable performance for a Russian startup launched in 2019, just three years ago — even though Reuters heard, a few months, ago that Whoosh targeted a much higher valuation, at 40 billion roubles.
The company said it was backed by major Russian investment funds as well as by some 20,000 individual investors.
In June this year, Whoosh secured 13.5 billion rubles in bonds (around $25 million at that time) in bonds on the Moscow exchange.
Launched in 2019, the company is a market leader in Russia with 82,000 scooters and 11.2 million claimed users across some 40 cities of Russia and neighboring countries, as of September 2022.
Among Whoosh’s early investors were are Ultimate Capital Fund, a Cyprus-based fund with Russian founders, and VTB Group, a Russian state-owned financial institution.
Until recently, Whoosh had international ambitions. As a first step in early 2022, it launched its service in Lisboa, where the company moved its headquarters. The Whoosh service was also made available in Hungary and Poland.
A few months later, however, Whoosh sold its businesses in the EU due to the “complexity” of operating there in the current circumstances, reported Forbes Russia.
