Yandex has set up a joint ecommerce venture with Russia's largest bank, Sberbank. Sberbank will be investing 30 billion rubles into Yandex's Yandex.Market ecommerce platform as part of the deal. Both companies will have an equal stake in the venture, which will offer users new financial features on the ecommerce platform, such as consumer lending. In a press release, Yandex said that “the companies intend to combine the technological capabilities of Yandex and the infrastructure and technologies of Sberbank to develop a leading ecommerce ecosystem”. The CEO of Yandex.Market, Maxim Grishakov, said that the venture will “create new benefits for… users”, adding that the partnership will “open up new opportunities for Russian producers, ecommerce players, and small and medium [sized] businesses”. The 30-billion-ruble-deal values Yandex.Market at around 60 billion rubles in total.
