Kidzania

The first pool of partners of Moscow Kidzania is Alfa-Bank , Medsi Group, STS Media holding, MTS , AlfaStrakhovanie , Invitro, Perekrestok trading house and MasterCard. Representatives of all companies confirmed their participation in the project; they declined to comment on the financial component. Negotiations with other participants are currently underway, and there will be “many times more” of them, Sargsyan added.

Investments in the Kidzania children's park of professions, which will open in Moscow in October 2015, will amount to $25 million at the current exchange rate, said Gevork Sargsyan, co-owner and CEO of Innova, which will develop the project under the franchise. About 30% of this amount may be investments by partner companies, under whose brands the gaming facilities will operate, he specified.

Kidzania will go to Russia

Innova is negotiating the construction of two more Kidzania parks, Sarkisyan says: one in St. Petersburg and one in Moscow. In addition, if the testing of the mini-format Kidzania in Kuwait by other franchisees is successful, then Innova may open three parks of this format in Russian cities with a population of over a million, he says. The first Kidzania city appeared in 1999 in Mexico, and there are currently 18 parks in 15 countries.

Kidzania is a mini-city with houses, streets, transport, its own currency valid on the park's territory, and government agencies. Its visitors will be able to choose a profession for themselves, which they need to master in order to use the city's entertainment and services. The first Russian Kidzania will open in the Aviapark shopping center; it will be the largest Kidzania park in Europe – it will occupy 10,000 sq. m. The entrance ticket for one child will cost 1,200 rubles; Sarkisyan expects that the park will be visited by a million people per year.

Innova is a major publisher and localizer of online games in Russia and the CIS countries, such as Lineage-2, Aion, etc. According to SPARK-Interfax, the company's revenue in 2013 (there is no more recent data) was 451 million rubles. Innova received a franchise for the development of the Kidzania park for 20 years, Sargsyan said, declining to disclose its terms.

In total, the park will have 60 play objects, which include about 200 professions. For example, Perekrestok will open a supermarket here and will supply a number of products there, said a representative of X5 Retail Group. CTC Media will build a TV studio for the STS channel in Kidzania. The channel is primarily focused on a family audience, says CTC Media CEO Yuliana Slashcheva: "A studio in such a location is ideal in terms of channel positioning."

The AlfaStrakhovanie policy, which will be given to children upon entry, will give them access to many of the center's entertainments and will allow them to undergo a medical examination - parents will be able to find out their child's biometric data, said Deputy General Director Tatyana Puchkova. Medsi will present a children's medical town consisting of four modules - Ambulance, Diagnostics, Surgery and Laboratory, says its representative. Invitro, according to the company's representative, will open a mini-laboratory.

Another children's city of professions, Kidburg, works with partners using a similar model: it integrates real brands into the park's infrastructure, said Maria Karamysheva, the company's development director. The first Kidburg was opened in St. Petersburg in 2011, and today the company also operates in Rostov-on-Don. According to its own data, the cost of a standard ticket to this park for a child ranges from 250 to 850 rubles, depending on the age and day of the visit. Karamysheva does not comment on the financial terms of working with partners.

$25 million for a children's park