After 5 years, Ozon.ru will have to cost more than 100 million euros

At a press conference today, representatives of Ozon.ru and Baring Vostok Capital Partners officially confirmed receiving investments from Western partners - an international syndicate, which included Index Ventures, Holtzbrinck Ventures and Cisco Systems. Investments amounted to $ 18 million, they will be spent for about 5 years.

The venture fund Index Ventures , which once invested in projects such as MySQL, Skype, Netvibes and Last.fm, was the main investor. However, the distribution of shares in the syndicate was not disclosed. What remains unknown is whether the partners have become owners of a share in Ozon.ru.

As the main directions, which will be spent on the funds received, the general director of Ozon.ru Bernard Luke highlighted the improvement of the logistics system, expanding the range of products and marketing campaigns. In his speech, he also spoke about the results of the company's work in 2006 and plans for a new reporting period. In particular, the total turnover of Ozon.ru in 2006 was $ 53 million, while the share of the catalog project, which closes this year due to the termination of relations with previous investors, was $ 18.7 million. Net profit of the leading online store in runet amounted to $ 600 thousand
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The turnover of Ozon.ru increased by 77%, for 2007 the company plans to grow by 65%. Mr. Luke noted that this predicted figure is the minimum that is agreed with investors and must be met.

Last year, the company sold more than 3 million units of goods, this is 880 tons, that is, in fact, the train. 40% of online store sales accounted for books, 19% - movies (on any type of media), 18% - electronics. Daily site ozon.ru visits more than 100 thousand unique visitors.

In its work, the company, as before, plans to focus on books: it is in this market segment that the company occupies a leading position, it is this product that makes up the largest share in the turnover of the online store. Ozon.ru does not plan to fight for the electronics market: Mr. Bouquet noted that there are already serious players in this area, which the company is not ready to compete with.

Index Ventures fund general partner Giuseppe Zocco noted that usually the organization he represents expects that in 3-5 years the object of investment will cost more than 100 million euros; In this case, the investment is considered justified and successful. Following this, the board of investors will have to decide whether the company will become an open joint-stock company or part of an international group of companies. Usually Index Ventures selects those companies that are leaders in a particular area or create a new segment of the Internet market. Ozon.ru in this situation was chosen as the leader among Internet shops of RuNet.

Particular interest among journalists at the press conference was caused by the participation of Cisco Systems : this company is investing for the first time in Runet. A Cisco spokesman explained that Ozon.ru will not be the only investment. The fact that Cisco is participating in the syndicate as a minor “contributor” is natural: the company has chosen this time to work with “strong partners”.