LONDON, UK: VK has fully consolidated Uchi.ru, the largest online platform for school students, after buying out the remaining 75% of the company.

Deal value stood at RUB 8.7 billion. Through this acquisition, VK will strengthen its foothold in the segment of extracurricular education for schoolchildren.

Uchi.ru is Russia’s largest online platform used by school students for taking school subjects and extracurricular activities, learning to code, preparing for exams and taking part in academic Olympiads. More than 12 million students, 6 million parents and 800,000 teachers are using the platform.

Apart from the educational platform, the Uchi.ru group of companies is also developing its online tutor courses Uchi.Doma, online educational portal Uchi.Otvety, a network of offline Uchi.ru-branded clubs and workshops for programming, Math and English, as well as the YaKlass educational website.

“Education is one of our key business lines. VK’s platforms offer people of all ages the opportunity to acquire new skills, relevant knowledge and career, with particular focus on schoolchildren and college students. The consolidation of Uchi.ru opens additional opportunities in development of VK’s EdTech business segment. Uchi.ru’s founders and managers have created one of the largest educational companies with a high-quality product and significant market share. Today, Uchi.ru plays an important role in school students’ extracurricular activities, while also being a platform that parents and teachers trust. We have been actively engaging in Uchi.ru’s activities over the past two years, including around the launch of multiple Olympiads as well as parent-teacher conferences,” said Alexander Ayvazov, VK’s Senior Vice-President of Investment and Business Development.

“We are happy to welcome Uchi.ru’s team and partners to VK. We will continue investing in the development of school education in Russia by driving the process.”

VK develops its education business in all segments from school activities to post-graduate studies. The company’s education business unit includes Skillbox, GeekBrains, SkillFactory, Uchi.ru, Umschool, Tetrika, Sferum and other services.

The company organizes various educational initiatives for young students including projects like Day of IT Knowledge and Digital Lesson for school students, VK Education in partnership with Russia’s leading universities, and the Prostor creativity platform. VK is an active supporter of competitions and holds its own annual IT championship within its All Cups platform.