PRESS: Qiwi’s co-founder Solonin buys event service for $10 mln

MOSCOW, Feb 16 (PRIME) -- Sergei Solonin, a co-founder of Russian payment system Qiwi, has purchased a service to manage events, called Timepad, from its founders and venture fund Target Global for about U.S. $10 million, business daily Vedomosti reported on Friday, citing participants of the deal.

The fund received slightly more than a half of the amount, while Timepad’s founders were paid in accordance with their stakes as of the moment of the transaction.

Solonin bought Timepad himself and the service will not be affiliated with other units of his business.

Timepad organizes and promotes events, which have been visited by more than 15.4 million people, according to the service’s own data. Timepad earns from commissions on sales of tickets to events and their advertisements. The service was created in 2008 by three founders jointly contributing several tens of thousands of U.S. dollars. In 2014, Target Global invested $1 million in the startup.

In 2016, Timepad sold tickets for 1 billion rubles, and revenue from commissions and advertisements was at 122.4 million rubles.

(56.5918 rubles – U.S. $1)

End