The company known as “Swiftdrive Rus” was launched by Stanislav Yastrzhembsky, the son of the former press secretary Boris Yeltsin.swiftdriveWas the taxi developed with the funds from VTB?
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A new taxi aggregator called “Swiftdrive” will replace Gett in the market starting from June 1st. The current stage of investment in the company is estimated at 30 million rubles, and there are plans to increase this amount by about five times.
The Moscow Post correspondent investigated the company's backers, their funding sources, and what to expect from the new market players.
old acquaintances
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the founders of Swiftdrive Rus LLC are Stanislav Yastrzhembsky, Yulia Petkevich and Alexander Kolosov. The company, founded in 2020, has already earned more than 4 million rubles by providing taxi services to schools and other budgetary institutions in Moscow.
The same trio are also listed as founders or directors of OTK. Petkevich served as the general director of the organization in 2016-2017. Yastrzhembsky and Kolosov are its co-owners.
Founded in 2014, the company is involved in the activity of “other land passenger transport”. There is a possibility that the new aggregator has grown from this company. However, the office does not have many government contracts. Throughout its existence, only VTB Bank has ordered from it twice.
Who liked VTB
However, VTB ordered impressive amounts – the company earned more than 565 million rubles in total for providing transport services related to the transportation of passengers, luggage, goods, materials, and correspondence. The revenue grew from zero in 2015 to almost 300 million in 2019.
According to information from the Procurement Circuit website, OTC potentially has another contract with the bank, which exceeds the previous ones combined by 628 million rubles. The page indicates that VTB plans to conclude an agreement with OTK.
Photo: https://zakupki.kontur.ru
Besides VTB, the company tried to gain contracts with other state-affiliated institutions, but was unsuccessful. This is not surprising, as the company is young, not well-known, and had not very encouraging revenue indicators until 2019. The question arises – why did VTB like them so much?
From PR to Taxi
One of the founders of Swiftdrive Rus, Stanislav Sergeevich Yastrzhembsky, is a lawyer, while his father is a prominent statesman, diplomat, and former assistant to the President of the Russian Federation.
Sergei Yastrzhembsky was Boris Yeltsin’s press secretary. He was on good terms with the former mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, as confirmed by eyewitness accounts and his own words. It is possible that Yastrzhembsky's connection with Sobyanin, the current mayor, paved the way for him due to his father's political background.
Dating on the dance floor
What is also important – Yastrzhembsky’s brother is a DJ. As, perhaps, in the past, the second founder of Swiftdrive Rus, Alexander Kolosov. At least about him in open sources contains just such information. It is likely that it was through his brother that the son of a politician met this young entrepreneur.
They also write that Kolosov was the founder and co-owner of a number of well-known nightclubs, such as the London nightclub, the Dance Farm bar and the Mr. Pit. Today, in addition to OTK, it develops a mental health service for employees of DigitalHealth companies, and is also working on a project to reduce the negative impact of food and agro-industry enterprises on the environment – EcoBSF.
The above information is reflected in the companies previously registered at Kolosov – London Club LLC and Luxury Music LLC, in the latter he worked with Vladimir Stanislavovich Yastrzhembsky and another DJ – Anton Zagryadsky.
Together with Vladimir and Stanislav Yastrzhembsky Kolosov, even before 2016, he was the founder of the SVS advertising company.
Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
Small offshore detail
The head of “OTK” is a certain Khanmamedov Murad Enver Ogly, who also headed Pep Rus LLC, owned by a British company.
Against “Yandex” and for the benefit in one bottle
In total, it turns out that the son of an influential politician and a versatile entrepreneur once again agreed on the basis of business development. Potentially included in the so-called “Kremlin pool” the head of VTB, Andrei Kostin, realized that here he was dealing, on the one hand, with a trusted person, and on the other, there was where to spend the budget.
