OREANDA-NEWS. Europe Virgin Fund L.P. ('EVF'), a regional private equity fund sponsored by Dragon Capital, has completed its investment in Portmone.com, a leading online payments system in Ukraine. In line with the fund's strategy, EVF has acquired a controlling stake in the business. The founding shareholders retain a minority stake and will continue to manage Portmone.com with support from EVF. The parties do not disclose transaction value.

Since 2002, Portmone.com has been an important and successful player in Ukraine's e-commerce market, which is currently demonstrating booming growth. The company has established itself as the largest independent online payments system in Ukraine, serving over a million of active users. EVF believes that Portmone.com has substantial growth potential, which is to be fueled by a rapid expansion of the country's online and mobile payments market.

“Thanks to the top notch quality and reliability of service, Portmone.com has become one of the strongest brands in the market. With our investment, we intend to provide a new impetus to the company's growth, focusing on expansion of the company's client base, roll out of new products as well as service usability and simplicity,” said Andriy Nosok, Managing Director, Private Equity, Dragon Capital.

“Portmone.com is a great addition to our investment portfolio, which today includes leading companies in FMCG, mass-media and pharmaceutical industries. Our partners are seasoned professionals and we are very enthusiastic about Portmone.com”, said Alex Munteanu, Managing Director, Head of Private Equity, Dragon Capital.

“We have created a simple, user-friendly and reliable service, the success of which is built on our hard work, cutting-edge technology and our desire for constant improvement and innovation that is driven by our focus on particular clients' needs. Our client base includes payers, merchants, as well as banks, and we are determined to retain our position of a preferred provider of innovative services and value added to all of them. We are confident that Ukraine's e-commerce market will experience stellar growth in the coming years, and are happy to have EVF as a partner that fully shares our business philosophy and is dedicated to support the realization of our ambitious strategy and targets,” said Igor Gorin, CEO of Portmone.com.