Earlier this month Mail.ru Group, the LSE-listed Russian Internet giant, announced an investment in data science education startup SkillFactory. The amount fo the transaction was not disclosed, but the group stated it will “receive a 18.31% share in the service with the option to add on more shares.”
SkillFactory’s offers include:
- An online Big Data analysis and coding school with 35 classes and courses;
- A content design and creative school with nine courses;
- InternetCollege.ru, which teaches the basics of digital professions.
In total, around 75,000 people hone their skills in the three SkillFactory schools monthly, according to the group.
Earlier this year Mail.ru Group teamed up with SkillFactory and MISiS, a prestigious Russian science and technology university, to launch the first Russian-language online Master’s program in data science. In May, the group opened additional free admissions into its MADE Big Data Academy for IT specialists.
SkillFactory will become part of Mail.ru Group’s “educational ecosystem,” which already includes :
- GeekBrains, an online learning platform for developers in which Mail.ru Group started investing in 2016;
- Skillbox, an e-learning platform for digital and IT specialties which was acquired in 2019;
- Algoritmika, a provider of online courses for schoolkids, in which the group invested in 2019;
- Online colleges “for hundreds of thousands of children to master new professions, from game development and programming in Go, to film direction and interior design,” as stated by the group.
