Yandex And Sberbank Form Joint Venture

Yandex, the largest search engine in Russia, announced news on Wednesday (Aug. 9) that it is has inked a deal to create an eCommerce partnership with Sberbank, the biggest bank in Russia.

According to a report in Reuters, Yandex said Sberbank will invest 30 billion rubles or $500.87 million in Yandex.Market, which gives the Russian internet company a value of 60 billion rubles. Both companies will own equal stakes in the partnership. The two are allotting as much as 10 percent of the shares to an equity incentive program for Yandex.Market management and employees, reported Reuters.

In an interview, Maxim Grishakov, CEO of Yandex.Market, said the Sberbank eCommerce joint venture will help the company create a payment solutions and will enable it to roll out new features, like lending to consumers. The deal is slated to close at the end of the year, noted the report.

The move to team up with Russian bank Sberbank is just the latest deal making in which Yandex has been involved. In July, Uber announced it was teaming up with Yandex to create a new company that combines its Rides and EATS business in Russia. In a blog post announcing the news, the ridesharing company said the Russian merger will also include business in Azerbaijan, Belarus and Kazakhstan, as well as in Armenia and Georgia, where it currently doesn’t operate. Uber called the merger with Yandex an exciting opportunity in a unique situation and said the operations in other countries will not be affected by it.

“The new company’s goal will be to serve the needs of riders, drivers and cities as we develop a fast-growing, sustainable ridesharing, food delivery and logistics business in the region. Combining Yandex’s local expertise in search, maps and navigation with our leading global experience in ridesharing will enable us to build the best local services and provide a credible alternative to car ownership across the region,” said Uber in the blog post. “For the foreseeable future, the Uber and Yandex brands and rider apps will continue to operate, while the driver apps will be integrated after the transaction closes. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions and is expected to close in Q4 of this year.”