In a new illustration of investor interest in Ukrainian e-commerce, Prom.ua, a major B2B and B2C marketplace owned by Poland’s Allegro Group, has acquired Zakupki-online.com, a platform that helps companies organize sales and purchases online without middlemen.
The news was reported by the Ukrainian online edition of Forbes magazine, which estimates the transaction at Hr 10 million (approximately $770,000).
According to Evgeny Sarantsov, CEO of the startup, there are currently around 3,000 companies using the platform,which generate a monthly turnover of Hr 50 million (nearly $3.9 million) monthly.
Today on Zakupki-online, businesses buy and sell all types of assets, from buckwheat and margarine to building materials. According to the developers, the speed of concluding deals is 100 times higher than under the accompaniment of a bank, which requires a visit to an office and to submit a number of papers. This come in addition to the reduction of expenditures on marketing and trade representatives.
Plans for Zakupki-online include expansion to the European Union and the creation of a solution for the automated trading of stocks.
Prom.ua is a part of the Polish Allegro Group, which itself falls under the international holding company Naspers. In April 2009, Allegro sold a controlling stake in Prom.ua. Forbes reports that up to $1 million was invested.
This story first appeared in Ukraine Digital News, the English-language online resource on Ukraine’s IT industries.
