One of Ukraine’s most popular fashion marketplaces, Kasta.ua, has a new investor. According to Scroll.media sources, DCH agreed to purchase a stake in Kasta.ua in 2024. Forbes Ukraine confirms that the deal has only just been finalized, citing a decision by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU), which states that DCH Holding has taken control of Dragton Enterprises Limited, the parent company of the Kasta marketplace.

What happened to Kasta.ua

Kasta.ua (formerly known as modnaKasta) was founded in 2010 by Andriy Logvin and Oleh Skrypnychenko. It has grown into one of Ukraine’s largest marketplaces for clothing, footwear, and accessories, partnering with more than 5,000 merchants and offering over 2 million products. Originally launched as a members-only shopping club, the company later pivoted to a full marketplace model.

«We used to sell everything ourselves, but now only 15% of the items are sold directly. The rest comes from third-party sellers,» Logvin told Forbes. He added that the gross merchandise value (GMV) of goods sold by merchants reached UAH 1.3 billion in 2023. «We plan to grow. Since the beginning of 2024, Kasta has grown by 20% year-on-year, 35% in spring, and 55% in July.»

Over the years, the company has undergone several ownership changes:

• 2012–2014: modnaKasta joined the Naspers group after Allegro Group invested $11 million for a controlling stake.
• The five-year agreement didn’t run its full course, as Naspers exited all Ukrainian projects due to the war with Russia. The investment was converted into debt, and Logvin became the sole owner of Kasta.
• In 2018, he secured a creditor to help repay the debt to Naspers.
• Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, Kasta was valued at $100 million. When the war began, the company nearly went bankrupt.
• In September 2022, Logvin secured new funding, though he has not disclosed the name of the fund or the amount invested — only that it is «an international investment firm with Ukrainian roots.»

Scroll.media sources familiar with the matter say that Dragon Capital stepped in at the last moment to support the company. A source close to Dragon Capital confirmed this information anonymously.

In 2024, negotiations began with Oleksandr Yaroslavsky’s DCH group. By the end of the year, word spread in the market that DCH had acquired a stake in Kasta.

The value of the deal has not been disclosed.

Back in 2021, shortly before the full-scale invasion, DCH acquired 100% of the corporate rights to LeBoutique — Kasta.ua’s main competitor at the time. The deal coincided with the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting boom in e-commerce. However, LeBoutique—once a successful shopping club founded in 2010 by Roman Onyshchenko and Andrii Drohobytskyi — was already operating at a loss by then. The company is now inactive.

What’s next for Kasta?

Kasta founder Andriy Logvin declined to comment for this story. Following the invasion, the business struggled for an extended period. In both 2022 and 2023, the company reported losses, according to Opendatabot. In rare interviews, Logvin has said that 2024 marked a turnaround, with the company growing rapidly and actively seeking new paths to profitability.