New Russian online marketplace by Yandex and Sberbank

Yandex and Sberbank announced that they completed the formation of a joint venture based on the Yandex.Market platform. The main task of the new company is to create a marketplace – an online retail platform where people will be able to buy goods from different sellers. The technological capabilities of Yandex combined with the infrastructure and technologies of Sberbank will help develop a leading B2C eCommerce ecosystem.

At closing of the deal, the company was valued at 60 billion rubles. The two partners will have equal stakes in the company. Sberbank bought the Market’s shares worth 30 billion rubles. 10% of the company’s shares will go for future equity awards for employees of Yandex.Market.

The new joint venture will focus on three areas. Firstly, the company will create a new marketplace where customers will be able to find a wide range of products, and sellers will get access to a high-quality operational, financial and logistics services. The marketplace will process orders, deal with customers, organize logistics and delivery of goods. The second area is the development of cross-border eCommerce. Also, the company will continue to develop the Yandex.Market service as a platform for comparing prices and selecting goods.

The turnover of the Yandex.Market, which gives access to goods of over 20,000 merchants and more than 150 million offerings, exceeds 100 billion rubles. According to Sberbank’s forecast, the turnover of the joint venture will reach 500 billion rubles by 2020.