MTS buys 13.7% in YouDo service owner for $12 mln

MOSCOW, Sep 18 (PRIME) -- Major Russian mobile operator MTS has acquired a 13.7% stake in YouDo Web Technologies Ltd. (Cyprus), owner of YouDo, a big Russian online service provider matching freelance labor demand and supply for everyday and business tasks, for U.S. $12 million, MTS said on Tuesday in a statement.

“YouDo is a rapidly growing business in the promising market of virtual ‘labor exchange.’ We expect that the integration of YouDo into the ecosystem of MTS partners will lead to long-term mutually beneficial cooperation,” MTS’ Vice President for strategy and development Alexander Gorbunov said.

“MTS can deploy full range of its resources and competencies to accelerate YouDo’s geographical expansion and substantially increase the efficiency of its digital marketing, both of which will enable the company to maintain high revenue growth rates.”

The agreement was signed under the latest fundraising round of YouDo where MTS became the lead investor. The raised funds will be used to expand the geography of the business, launch new service categories, carry out a federal advertising campaign, as well as further automatize the services offered.

YouDo Group is the leader in the labor exchange market for cleaning, repair, freight, courier delivery, and other services in the customer-to-customer and business-to-business segments.

The service has 5 million registered users and operates in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, and Yekaterinburg. About 30% of orders are virtual, placed and executed anywhere in the world.

End