The sellers included the company’s founders Philip and Kirill Ilin-Adaev, as well as Elena Ishcheeva, who exited the business as a result of the transaction. The second shareholder, Russia Partners fund, retained its stake in the company. The deal settled all disagreements between the founders of Banki.ru and Russia Partners.

Dmitri Krukov, Senior Partner at Elbrus Capital Funds, commented on the deal: “With the development of digital economy and financial services, Russia will see steadily growing consumer demand for high quality online price comparison services for financial products. We see high potential of Banki.ru as the leader in this sector in Russia supported by the company’s recognizable brand and strong relationships with a wide range of financial institution partners. We are glad that one of the Elbrus Capital funds has invested in Banki.ru and we will aim to contribute to the further growth of the company."

“We are pleased with the terms of the deal, as well as the fact that we have sold our stake to this particular consortium of investors; we do care about who will own the company that we have given 16 years of our lives,” said Banki.ru co-founder Philip Ilin-Adaev. “We understand that the new investors share our values of providing customers with as complete and accurate information as possible. We are confident that Banki.ru will become a successful investment for them.”

Alexander Lupachev, Investment Director at Russia Partners Advisers, also welcomed the deal: “We have been shareholders of Banki.ru since 2013, and during this time the company has grown its financial metrics by multiple times and transformed into the #1 financial marketplace in Russia. As a long-term investor, we believe in strategic prospects of Banki.ru and will be happy to cooperate with the new shareholders to enable continuing development of the company."

Anton Farlenkov, Managing Director at Winter Capital Advisors, commented on the deal: “We are pleased that Winter Capital expanded its portfolio with such a strong financial marketplace player as Banki.ru. Even though the company is already the sector leader, we believe in further significant growth potential of the business. In Russia, the penetration of price comparison websites (PCW) for financial services is significantly lower than in advanced markets. The share of banking products sold through PCW is still 0.5% in Russia, while in advanced economies it can reach 30%. We expect PCW penetration to grow due to increasing usage by customers, growing marketing expenses of key financial institutions, as well as high importance of the PCW channel for banks”.