History

Elecsnet is a pioneer of the Russian market of self-service payment terminals. Over the 9 years, the company has crossed a long distance from a handful of terminals in Moscow to the position of market heavyweight with around 3 000 terminals in 16 Russia’s regions. Elecsnet’s history is a commitment to high quality of services, manufacturing and improvement of own terminals and software, growing presence.

2000

Elecsnet was created by Yuri Maltsev and Sergey Kuzin, professionals with many years in the Russian banking industry. The company installs its first terminal in Moscow thus opening a totally new payment option to the Russian population at that time not familiar with self-service payments.

2001

Elecsnet starts active development from the very beginning of the new century. On January 1, first terminals were installed at the offices of Russia’s major telecom operators MTS and Beeline. During the year the company was expanding its client base signing agreements with its first bank Avtobank, a regional cell operator called Nord-West GSM, as well as with an Internet payment system PayCash.

2002

Installing its first terminal in St. Petersburg in January 2002, Elecsnet goes beyond the Moscow region. In April, Elecsnet switches to the banking model – all payments from now on are made through the Moscow Clearing Center, making part of Elecsnet Group and having a banking license from the Central Bank of Russia. The same year, the company signs agreement with Russia’s major Internet provider at that time MTU Intel. By the end of 2002, Elecsnet had already 12 branches in Moscow and the regions.

2003

The range of services is expanding. Elecsnet signs agreements with Russia’s commercial TV operator NTV+, cell operators SkyLink and Alaris, Moscow’s major fixed line provider MGTS, as well as starts collections utility payments. Since May, Elecsnet clients have the opportunity to top-up their WebMoney accounts.

2005

In September 2005, Elecsnet becomes the first Russian terminals player to launch cooperation with VISA to top-up the cards. Elecsnet is still the only player on the terminals market to provide that type of services. In December 2005, Elecsnet becomes the first payments terminals player to attract external financing. Mint Capital invests $10 million in the company. Regional expansion is continued with installment of first terminals in the city of Smolensk.

2006

1000th terminal is installed. Regional branches are opened in Kazan, Ekaterinburg, Novgorod and Rostov-on-Don. Balderton Capital, a US venture-capital fund, becomes a shareholder investing $2 million in the company.

2007

The company turnover exceeded $900 million, revenue totaled $25 million. Elecsnet opens a branch in Samara. The company pioneered on the market with a new service called NoteBook. The service records customer’s payment details to safe the need to fill in them each time making the payment. By the year end the number of NoteBook clients reached 7 000 people. Elecsnet starts an experiment of providing processing to 3rd party terminals chains with a major Izhevsk terminals player called Platezhnye Tekhnologii and giving access to its wide range of payment services, including new to the Izhevsk company products as bank loan repayments, payment for utilities, VISA money transfers, etc.

2008

A year of innovations for Elecsnet. Elecsnet starts equipping its terminals with a device reading contactless cards (RFID technology) that enables owners of Elecsnet cards to make payments even easier. RFID is a logic development of the service launched a year before called NoteBook. In cooperation with Moscow’s monopoly ground public transport manager Mosgortrans, Elecsnet launches a new service enabling terminals’ users to top-up their transport cards. The same year Elecsnet starts collecting road police fines. Elecsnet acquires a 25% stake in its Izhevsk partner Platezhnye Tekhnologii with an option to get control in the company. The acquisition follows a year-long cooperation of Elecsnet and the Izhevsk company. Over the year, Platezhnye Tekhnologii increased its revenue by more than 95% and now controls a 50% share of the local market of payment terminals.

2009. Elecsnet today

Elecsnet today is around 3 000 terminals in 19 Russian regions, more than 3 million clients and 6.4 million transactions a month. The company has agreements with more than 500 companies including more than 50 banks. By mid 2009, Elecsnet equipped all its terminals with a device reading contactless cards (RFID technology) that enables owners of Elecsnet cards to make payments even easier. Elecsnet terminals are located in places with high people traffic like hypermarkets, institutes, gas stations, railways and airports.

Elecsnet tomorrow

Elecsnet is a stable, dynamically developing company focusing on expansion in Moscow and the regions, improvement of the software and services. The company priority is identifying and launching new services, as well as optimization of the existing one like NoteBook and RFID.