Below is an email sent today to Uber employees from Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, head of Uber’s business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Team,

Just three and a half years ago, Uber officially launched in Moscow. It was the start of an incredible journey which has seen us build, from scratch, a business that spans 16 cities in Russia and five cities in Azerbaijan, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Today I’m excited to announce we are taking the next step in our mission to ensure everyone in these countries can get a reliable ride at the touch of a button.

As I just discussed with the local team in Moscow, Uber and Yandex have entered into an agreement to form a new company which combines our Rides and EATS businesses in Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Kazakhstan, as well as Armenia and Georgia where we currently do not operate. This is an exciting opportunity in a unique situation and our operations in other countries will not be affected.

The new company’s goal will be to serve the needs of riders, drivers and cities as we develop a fast-growing, sustainable ridesharing, food delivery and logistics business in the region. Combining Yandex’s local expertise in search, maps and navigation with our leading global experience in ridesharing will enable us to build the best local services and provide a credible alternative to car ownership across the region.

For the foreseeable future, the Uber and Yandex brands and rider apps will continue to operate, while the driver apps will be integrated after the transaction closes. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions and is expected to close in Q4 of this year.  

As shareholders in our company, all of us should be incredibly excited about this next stage. Over the last three years we have invested around $170 million to build and expand our business to 21 cities in these countries.

Combining our business with Yandex will give us a very significant stake in a new company which will initially serve more than 35 million trips each month and operate in an incredible 127 cities in six countries across the region. Uber will also have three of the seven seats on the new company’s board and—together with the $225 million cash investment we are making in the new company—our 36.6 percent ownership stake will be worth almost $1.4 billion.  

This deal is a testament to our exceptional growth in the region and helps Uber continue to build a sustainable global business.

Of course this success would not have been possible without our amazing team in the region and I am pleased to say that as part of today’s agreement all full time Uber employees in the countries involved will be part of the new company.

I’m sure there will be lots of questions so, in addition to the sessions we are holding in the region today, we will also have the opportunity to discuss this on the next Global Staff Call. Please submit any questions here.

Yours,

Pierre