AVITO.ru, the largest online classifieds website in Russia, announced today that it has received $75 million in new funding from Baring Vostok Private Equity Fund IV, Accel Partners, and existing investors Kinnevik and Northzone. The new funds will be used to further fuel the company's strong growth throughout Russia and to continue attracting world-class talent.

"Avito is outpacing the already strong growth of the Russian Internet market, the 5th largest in the world", said Jonas Nordlander, CEO and co-founder of AVITO.ru, "Avito is the absolute leader among general classified sites. The site launched in October 2008, and according to TNS Index's research data 40% of Russia's internet users visit the website every month, placing it in the top ten largest online properties in the country."

"Avito has built a leading position as an innovative marketplace that allows both consumers and businesses to discover and transact with each other", said Sonali de Rycker, partner at Accel. "The company has the momentum and especially the reach to become one of the most important businesses in the Russian internet. We look forward to supporting the management team in their ambitious growth plans."

Avito attracts close to 30 million monthly unique users who browse a total of more than 2 billion pages and spend on average one hour a month on the site. More than 6 million new items are added every month by over 3 million users. Overall, in excess of 10 million people have listed items for sale on AVITO.ru. The cumulative value of items traded on the site this year is expected to top 3% of the Russian GDP.

"With the additional funds, Avito now has more resources to support small and medium sized businesses using our service in addition to catering to individuals" said Filip Engelbert, executive director and co-founder of AVITO.ru. "Over 2,500 entrepreneurs are already paying clients of Avito.ru and we are adding hundreds every month. We believe that these entrepreneurs have understood the opportunity provided by Avito's tens of millions of visitors. Avito helps SMBs drive additional sales in a very cost efficient manner. The businesses featured on Avito are traditional retailers as well as real estate agencies and automobile dealerships."

Accel Partners and Baring Vostok Private Equity Fund IV will add support for Avito's future growth by providing sector specific knowledge, deep online experience, and a vast network from their global investments activities. Baring Vostok Private Equity Funds have led investments in some of the leading Russian companies, including Ozon, Yandex, CTC Media, Golden Telecom, 1C and CFT. Accel Partners has invested in global leaders in the Internet space like Facebook, Groupon, Kayak, Wonga, Spotify, Angry Birds (Rovio) and Dropbox, and has also invested in Kupivip and Ostrovok in Russia.

About AVITO.ru
AVITO.ru - the leading classifieds service in Russia, which makes communication between buyers and sellers faster and easier. Thanks to this resource millions of users across Russia have the opportunity to give away the things that have become unnecessary in the house while earning money. No fee is charged for an ad placement. Users who wish to may pay for optional functions, such as advanced search functionality, highlighting ads, etc. Avito also offers a special service for small and medium businesses called "AVITO.ru online shop."

About Baring Vostok
Baring Vostok is one of the leading private equity firms operating in Russia and the CIS. The Baring Vostok Private Equity Funds have invested over $1.6 billion USD in more than 56 companies since 1994, and currently have committed capital of $2.2 billion USD. The Funds' portfolios were diversified among financial services, oil and gas, consumer products, telecommunications, and media sectors, including СТС Media, Golden Telecom, Yandex, Ozon, Gallery Group, Centre of Financial Technologies, Enforta, ER-Telecom, 1C, Burren Energy, Volga Gas, Zhaikmunai, Novomet, Kaspi Bank, Orient Express Bank, Europlan, EMC and others. The Investment Advisor of the Funds, Baring Vostok Capital Partners (Guernsey) has been voted "Russian Private Equity Firm of the Year" by the readers of Private Equity International and Private Equity Online every year since 2005.

The sub-advisor of BVCP has a branch office in Moscow with a team of 30 experienced investment professionals. Baring Vostok is a member of Baring Private Equity International, a global private equity group with more than $10 billion of capital under management by affiliates in CIS, Asia, India, Europe and Latin America.

About Accel
Founded in 1983, Accel Partners has a long history of partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class businesses. Accel today invests globally using dedicated teams and market-specific strategies for local geographies, with offices in Palo Alto, California, New York City, London and Bangalore, as well as in China via its partnership with IDG-Accel.

Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 successful companies, many of which have defined their categories, including Angry Birds (Rovio), ComScore, Facebook, Groupon, Kayak, Playfish, QlikTech, Spotify, and Wonga.
For more information, please visit the Accel Partners web site at www.accel.com or find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/accel.

About Kinnevik
Investment AB Kinnevik was founded in 1936 and thus embodies seventy five years of entrepreneurship under the same group of principal owners. Kinnevik's objective is to increase shareholder value, primarily through net asset value growth. The company's holdings of growth companies are focused around seven comprehensive business sectors; Paper & Packaging, Telecom & Services, Media, Online, Microfinancing and Renewable energy. Kinnevik has a long history of investing in emerging markets which has resulted in a considerable exposure to consumer sectors in these markets. Kinnevik plays an active role on the Boards of its holdings. In the past 30 years, Kinnevik's shares have generated an average effective yield of 20 per cent per year through higher share prices and dividends, as well as the value of the offer to subscribe for shares.

About Northzone
Northzone was established in 1996 and has offices in Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm and London. Since its inception Northzone has raised six funds (€500 million), invested in some 75 companies. Notable investments include Lastminute.com, Pricerunner, Spotify, Nextgentel, Funcom, Stepstone, Nimsoft, EPiServer, Avito and Mamut.