LONDON, UK: Board of Directors of Mail.ru Group Limited approved the company’s participation, together with certain other shareholders, in the additional funding round of AliExpress Russia JV.
Following approval from the Board, the Company submitted a $60.3mn payment to AER in return for additional shares in the AliExpress JV as part of its new share issuance.
The share registration process is expected to be completed in the coming days, with Mail.ru Group’s shareholding expected to remain broadly unchanged following the expected completion of the funding round in Q4 2021 versus the current 15% economic and 17.6% voting level.
The new round of investment will fuel AER’s ongoing active expansion into the local market, while also supporting its leading cross-border eCommerce business in Russia and its overall growth ambitions.
Additional funds will primarily be used for active logistics and fulfilment development, expansion into new categories as well as the broad enhancement of AER’s overall service level and customer experience.
Mail.ru Group develops the VK ecosystem helping millions of people with their day-to-day needs online. More than 90% of the Russian internet audience use it every day.
The ecosystem enables people to keep in touch (using social networks OK and VK, messaging apps and email service), play video games (via MY.GAMES), get and offer items and services, browse jobs and hire talent (via Youla and VK Jobs), order food and grocery delivery (via Delivery Club, Samokat and Local Kitchen), get a ride (with Citymobil and Citydrive), master new skills (at GeekBrains, Skillbox and other educational services), buy and sell at AliExpress Russia and fulfill other needs.
The VK ecosystem features a number of shared elements bringing the services together. Users can sign in to different services with a single VK Connect account, pay and earn cash back with the VK Pay platform, get discounts and deals with VK Combo, access their favorite services via the VK Mini Apps platform – and the Marusya voice assistant can help with any task.
The company offers enterprises to employ its dynamic ecosystem to digitize their business processes, providing a range of solutions from online promotion and predictive analytics to corporate social networks, cloud services and enterprise automation.
