Educational technology company Skillbox is investing in the development of industrial English. The holding company increased its stake in Sistema KESPA LLC, which it bought in 2021. According to an RB.RU source, the company’s capitalization has increased fivefold in three years.
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Skillbox LLC (Russian legal entity Skillbox) increased its participation in the KESPA online English school. The participant’s share in Sistema KESPA LLC increased from 65.98% to 71.83% on June 19 due to an increase in the authorized capital by 21%, according to data from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. Consequently, the proportion of the remaining participants, individuals, decreased.
“We have increased our participation in the CESPA online school to effectively develop the direction of industrial English on the platforms of the Skillbox holding company. The project is in a phase of active growth and is developed in accordance with the holding company’s strategy,” he explained to RB.RU in the press service.
Commenting on KESPA’s net loss of 209 million rubles at the end of 2023, a Skillbox representative noted that this is due to “the bet on the growth of investments and turnover of the vertical.”
“We are confident in the growth of investment and turnover of the vertical sector; at the development stage, this is now our priority,” they told RB.RU in the press service of the Skillbox holding. The amount of the investment in the company was not disclosed.
CESPA’s income during the year increased by 2.5 times, to 261.7 million rubles. The company, according to Kontur.Focus, has 51 vacancies open with a staff of 29 people. As a source told RB.RU, the capitalization of the school currently reaches 500 million rubles.
In August 2021, Skillbox acquired a 30% stake in online English school KESPA and an option to purchase additional shares. The parties planned to create English programs adapted for marketers, designers, programmers and other professions. The capitalization of the company at that time, according to a source from RB.RU, was 100 million rubles. At the end of 2020, the online school’s revenue amounted to 822 thousand rubles, and its net loss was 4.4 million rubles. In August 2023, Skilboex’s stake in the legal entity CESPA increased to 51%.
CESPA (short for “how to say it in English”) uses voice recognition algorithms and is a resident of the Skolkovo Foundation. His main specialization is spoken English for adults. The school was founded by Inna Givental.
Author:
Ekaterina Strukova
Source: RB
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