Vostok Nafta invests $25 mln in GetTaxi, sees capitalization topping $2 bln
MOSCOW. Aug 13 (Interfax) - Vostok Nafta, once a major player investor on the Russian stock market and now a direct investment fund, has made a few more major investments after a long hiatus.
The fund, which earned $230 million in Tinkoff Credit Systems Bank (TCS Bank) IPO last October, invested $25 million in the GetTaxi service at the beginning of the second half, part of a $150 million investment round in the company, Vostok Nafta said in its earnings report. Including the latest investment, GetTaxi, created by Israel's Shahar Waiser, has raised $210 million. Other investors include Leonard Blavatnik's Access Industries and the Inventure Partners Fund.
GetTaxi, which operates in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tel Aviv and New York, has been growing at a 400% annual rate. It targets revenue totaling $150 million in 2014, Vostok Nafta said. Just one competitor - Uber - is larger and GetTaxi enjoys a number of competitive advantages. GetTaxi's value may top $2 billion in the next few years, Vostok Nafta said.
GetTaxi told Interfax that the first tranche of the new round of financing was planned to go mostly towards servicing corporate clients in New York, as well as the development of a similar solution in a number of European cities and in Moscow.
GetTaxi has not disclosed its financial results for its Russian business. The company said that Moscow and St. Petersburg account for 8,500 GetTaxi cars, which service private (80% of the total) and corporate clients. Among such corporate clients are Google, Samsung, Ericsson, MediaMarkt, Uralsib and others.
Vostok Nafta also invested $7.5 million in Quandoo, a restaurant reservation platform.
Vostok Nafta was one of the largest players on the Russian stock market in the middle of the 1990s, but sold off practically its entire portfolio in order to focus on direct investments. Its main investment are in online classified platform Avito and TCS Bank. Vostok Nafta announced its first major investment in recent years in June: $8 million in Yell.ru.
