Heverest.ru Gets a New Round of Investment

MOSCOW--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Heverest.ru, an online retailer for sport, leisure and travel goods, has attracted another $4.3 million in financing. The majority of the investment was received from one of Russia’s largest investment funds, along with one of the existing finance partners of Heverest.ru, the European venture fund, eVenture Capital Partners. After this new round of investment, the total amount invested in Heverest.ru has now reached $6.7 million.

The company intends to use this additional funding to finance the expansion of their online product offering, as well as improving the quality of their customer service by developing the current CRM system. A proportion of the new funds will be allocated to subsidize the launch of a new marketing campaign, which aims to increase brand awareness of Heverest.ru among current and potential clients.

Heverest.ru is a start-up business launched by Fast Lane Ventures, a company focused on the development, launch and promotion of innovative internet businesses since 1^st June 2011.

At present, Heverest.ru has an online collection of more than 6,000 items from 150 major International sport and leisure brands including: Salomon, Nike, Columbia, Adidas, Reebok, Puma, Speedo and others, with the product range being renewed on a regular basis. The website has an average of 600,000 visitors per month.

Vladimir Kim, CEO of Heverest.ru, commented:

“Our ambition is to become Russia’s most popular online store for sport, leisure and travel goods. Before Heverest.ru, there were no such websites offering all kinds of sport, leisure and travel products in one place. We are in a strong position to change this, having joined the club of most successful startups in the Russian market of e-commerce, such as UTINET, KUPUVIP, SAPATO, etc.”

Marina Treshchova, CEO of Fast Lane Ventures, commented:

“We are witnessing two significant trends in this country. First, is an unprecedented growth of e-commerce and second, is an increasing government interest in sports and encouraging active lifestyles. Heverest.ru, as an online supplier of sporting goods, benefits from both of these trends. The Company’s dynamic pace of development and committed support from our investors, supports our own philosophy and proves that this is the right choice of the business model.”

A recent report by Russian market research agency RuMetrika.ru showed that Russia’s sports and leisure industry made about $6 billion in 2010. According to Fast Lane Ventures’ forecast, the market is likely to reach $12 billion by 2015. Equally, the global market of sport and leisure goods is expected to grow from $175 billion in 2010 to $240 billion in 2015 (Data Insight). That means Russia’s share in this segment will increase from 3.5 to 5%.

Fast Lane Ventures is the leading developer of internet companies in the high growth Russian internet market. For more information on Fast Lane Ventures please visit http://fastlaneventures.ru/en/