The Russian manufacturer of bionic prostheses Steplife has announced the start of accepting applications for a closed pre-IPO round from January 21, writes Kommersant.
The company plans to place 100,000 ordinary shares issued as part of an additional emission. The issue volume corresponds to 9.1% of Steplife’s charter capital after the emission is completed, and the total amount of funds raised will be 200 million rubles with a business valuation of 2.2 billion rubles. A protective mechanism in the form of a put option is provided for investors, tied to the achievement of planned financial indicators — sales revenue and net profit.
Meanwhile, the company is not abandoning its plans for an IPO. “The IPO will be realized either when the company reaches a target valuation of about 20 billion rubles, or when it achieves an EBITDA of 2 billion rubles, which is forecasted for the end of 2029,” Steplife said.
However, experts believe that the company’s plans to go public are unlikely to be realized given the current market conditions. “There is currently no window of opportunity for a company to go for an IPO. In the current market, with the current interest rate and liquidity crisis, it is quite difficult. We believe it is too early for Steplife to think about an IPO. There is a clear market leader — the company Motorica, which will try to consolidate the market further,” said Sergey Gaivoronsky, Investment Director of Kama Flow. Earlier, Motorica announced plans for an IPO in 2026. Given the current limitations of the prosthetics market volume and the slowdown in growth rates over the past year, it is unlikely to sustain two public players, Gaivoronsky believes.
OOO Steplife was registered in September 2019 in Moscow; the company is owned through AO Steplife by its general director Ivan Khudyakov. The company’s revenue for 2024 grew by 112%, to 240 million rubles, net profit — by 311%, to 96 million rubles. According to an estimate by the agency Smart Ranking, in 2025 Steplife became the fastest-growing company in the segment.
As reported earlier, two representatives of the pharmaceutical market — Ozon Farmatsevika and Promomed — were among the top five most profitable newcomers on the Moscow Exchange.