Investor In Skype, Mangrove Capital, Invests In Online Russian Travel Company, Oktogo.ru

Online, April 5, 2011 (Newswire.com) - St. Petersburg, Russia - Oktogo.ru, launched in 2010 by Marina Kolesnik, founding team member of Mail.ru, is pleased to announce the following successful milestones.

Oktogo.ru now reaches 2000 contracted hotels creating the largest contracted hotels database in Russia and former Soviet Republics.

Oktogo.ru boasts (http://oktogo.ru/) the largest and most relevant hotel offering for Russians traveling abroad, including offline payment methods and visa support services.

Mangrove CP, a global leading VC firm has become a shareholder, alongside ABRT and French fund Ventech VC. Javier Perez-Tenessa, the founder and CEO of eDreams, Fabrice Grinda, founder of OLX, and Jose Marin, founder of IG Expansion, have joined the company as investors and advisors.

The $5 million investment will help oktogo.ru continue contracting Russian hotels throughout the country and provide a unique online presence to most of the approximately 7000 Russian hotels, accelerate the growth rates and to build a recognized brand in Russia.

"The investment in oktogo.ru, one of the largest in online travel in Russia, will allow us to accelerate the company's growth and secure our leading position in the market," says Marina Kolesnik, CEO. "We have been working with hotels in Russia and worldwide and have good understanding of their needs. With this knowledge we will fulfill our objective of enabling Russian and international travelers to find accommodations in any part of Russia at any budget."

David Waroquier, a partner at Mangrove Capital Partners, says, "The management team at oktogo.ru is comprised of specialists in international online travel and IT with unique knowledge of the domestic travel and hospitality sectors in Russia and CIS. Oktogo.ru has significant potential to become the leader in the Russian market of online travel bookings. By backing oktogo.ru we are investing in the potential and significant current growth of the Russian travel market".

About oktogo.ru

St. Petersburg, Russia based oktogo.ru (http://oktogo.ru/) is a premier Russian hotel booking site. The founders of oktogo.ru were the founding team members of Russia's leading online property, Mail.ru and helped build DataArt, Inc., one of the premier software developers for the travel sector in EU and the USA.

About Mangrove Capital Partners

Mangrove Capital Partners (www.mangrove-vc.com) looks to invest in passionate entrepreneurs who want to build world-changing companies. Mangrove invests early, often before the product launch, and want to be the partner of choice for innovators seeking financial partners.

Mangrove Capital Partners has more than $ 500 million under management and has invested in more than 50 companies such as Skype, Seatwave, Brands4friends, Rdio, Nimbuzz, Wix, KupiVip, Spreets, Dialcom, Bettymovil, and Drimmi. Mangrove has had the privilege of being the first investor in Skype, which was sold to Ebay for € 3.1 billion in 2005. In 2010, Brands4Friends was sold to Ebay and Spreets to Yahoo.

About Ventech VC

Ventech (www.ventechvc.com) is a venture capital firm based in Paris that, for more than a decade, has invested in start-ups and early growth companies. These investments have focused on the Information Technology sector (more particularly cloud computing, Internet, Media and mobile) and Life Sciences, mainly in Europe. With €365 million under management, Ventech is dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs' projects which have the potential to become global leaders in their market.

Ventech started in 2006 operations in China to help the European companies in its portfolio develop their business in Asia and to invest in the region via a dedicated fund, based out of Beijing.

Contact information

Marina Kolesnik, CEO
E-Mail: [email protected]
+7(495)646-1376