Elbrus Capital and Guard Capital have invested $10mn in YClients, a Russian online appointment and automation platform, in exchange for a minority stake, reports East-West Digital News (EWDN).

No further details about the deal were disclosed, but an industry insider told the business daily Kommersant that the company might have been valued in the range of $40mn.

Founded in 2015 by Yuri Petrov, Stanislav Petrik, Dmitry Shestakov and Anton Lutsevich, YClients claims more than 19,000 clients, essentially in Russia and neighboring countries. Operating across a variety of industries – from beauty salons to dental clinics to driving schools – its SaaS platform manages online bookings, inventory accounting, multichannel communications, loyalty program and other functions.

The company says it processes more than 8mn appointments each month for a value of “more than 10bn rubles” (around $160mn).

In 2018, YClients’s turnover reached 294mn rubles (around $4.6mn) with losses amounting to 19.8mn rubles ($314,000), according to the Russian company register cited by Kommersant.

The funding will be used to “further develop existing and new products, scale the business and expand into new industry segments,” Elbrus Capital announced. YClients aims to “significantly increase its customer base, expand geographical presence and strengthen its leadership among cloud-based solutions for small and medium size businesses” in Russia.

A leading private equity firm operating in Russia and neighbouring countries, Elbrus Capital manages assets worth more than $1bn. Its funds invested in such companies as jobs site HeadHunter, real estate classifieds platform CIAN Group, and French car-pooling leader BlaBlaCar. The deal with YClients involved Elbrus Capital Fund II.

Founded in 2009 by a Russian team, Guard Capital has invested in a dozen of projects in the telecom and Internet industries. It generally invests from $2 to $5mn in each deal.