RBC improves education – Kommersant

The ProductStar IT education project became part of the RBC media holding, where, according to the latter, it will be developed as an independent product. The company will be able to become a source of additional income for RBC, which is already developing its edtech business.

RBC acquired the ProductStar educational service from its founders Mikhail Karpov and Roman Abramov, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. According to the extract, 87% of the authorized capital of the ProductStar legal entity (LLC Trivium) was transferred directly to Rosbusinessconsulting JSC, 13% – to its Sinyus.ru LLC. Mr. Karpov remains CEO of ProductStar.

ProductStar was founded in 2016 and offers courses in IT specialties and corporate training programs. Revenue at the end of 2022 amounted to 154.7 million rubles, net profit – 11.9 million rubles, follows from the data of SPARK-Interfax.

The ProductStar project “will remain an independent product and brand,” Kommersant was told in the holding. The representative of the holding, however, did not rule out ProductStar’s collaboration with other RBC projects, “primarily with the RBC Pro subscription product, which has its own educational direction.” The amount of the transaction was not disclosed by RBC. ProductStar did not respond to Kommersant’s request, it was not possible to contact Mr. Karpov. Finam investment consultant Timur Nigmatullin valued the company at RUB 90-160 million based on debt load and revenue.

In the Russian media market, such purchases are rare, says Nikita Pribylovsky, executive director of SA Media advertising agency. Meanwhile, the sale of related services remains a promising source of income for the media in the current conditions, says Maxim Spiridonov, co-founder of the Reforma business club and educational projects Netology, Foxford and Edmarket. In his opinion, it was logical for RBC to acquire “any well-made edtech project aimed at the middle class, whose representatives can be both consumers of news content and buyers of courses.” Dmitry Solopov, founder of the communication group Progress, admits that RBC bought the project “to strengthen the research direction and expand services within the framework of B2B partnerships.” Previously, the educational holding Ultimate Education considered the possibility of acquiring ProductStar, but considered that the project “did not show strong growth in 2022,” said Nikita Podlipsky, managing director of the holding. At the same time, he acknowledged that ProductStar is “a strong player in its niche, with great expertise in product management training and a systematic approach to working with the business segment.”

ProductStar also rents out its own Learning Management System (LMS, which allows companies to create their own courses). Irina Yanova, the head of sales development for services on Russian Softline products, said that the popularity of such systems grew in 2022: “I am sure that in 2023 demand will increase by 15%.”

Yuri Litvinenko