Published on: 2026-08-21
Source: Moscow Government – Правительства Москвы –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
The largest segment of social franchises in Moscow—more than a quarter—develops in the field of services for the population (for example, care for the sick or elderly, nannies for children). Educational enterprises account for a fifth of the sector, and projects in the fields of culture and sports make up another fifth. Social franchises are also widely represented in healthcare, inclusion, and ecology. According to metropolitan data Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Development, as of the beginning of 2026, there were more than four thousand franchises in the country. The social franchises accounted for approximately 12 percent, that is, 480. About 100 of them have their headquarters in the capital.
The word “franchise” is associated with restaurants, coffee shops, beauty salons, hotels, retail stores, as these are the types of outlets most commonly opened under a franchise. But a business using a ready-made model can be not only exclusively commercial, but also social. For example, it can involve helping children with developmental disabilities, preparing schoolchildren for in-demand professions, or creating jobs for those who find it difficult to obtain them on their own. The difference is not in the signboard, but in the goal: such a franchise addresses a specific societal problem.
Social franchising involves an approach where successful socially beneficial initiatives are replicated through a network of partners united by a common mission and standards.
In Russia, this phenomenon develops both through the sale of a ready-made business model and through models of knowledge and technology dissemination under license, with conditions for brand transfer.
As explained by the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development of the city of Moscow, social franchising is not a simplified business model, but a full-fledged entrepreneurial sector with its own standards, risks, and economics. Its main distinction is that success is measured not only by revenue but also by real changes in people’s lives. Let’s talk about the Moscow entrepreneurs who have taken this path.
Franchise for expanding capabilities
The federal network of children’s educational centers “UniUM” started its work by holding classes on other people’s premises — in schools and colleges in Moscow on weekends. Today, it consists of 18 franchised centers and three own locations across the country, as well as an online format that erases regional boundaries. About 10,000 schoolchildren (from first to 11th grade) study in the centers annually, and recently preschoolers have also joined them.
The history of the centers began back in 1991, but they acquired their modern look — with separate comfortable spaces and client service — after 2015. Three years later, the scaling of the social business through franchising started.
QUOTE: “By developing children, we are changing the future. And before our eyes, more than one generation of kids has already grown up, to whom we helped provide a well-rounded and quality education. When you can independently teach up to 500 children, that’s wonderful, but with the help of the franchise, the number of students exceeded 10,000. This is inspiring and motivating. It is worth separately noting the work of partners, franchisees, who opened centers based on our model. It is joyful to see how they fulfilled their professional dreams,” shared Natalia Kuzmenkova, co-founder of the network of children’s educational centers.
From the perspective of traditional business, the main benefit of selling a franchise is the lump-sum fee (a fixed one-time payment upon signing the contract, which the buyer pays to the franchise owner for using the business model, trademark, technologies, and corporate identity) and royalties (regular monthly or quarterly payments for support and use of the brand). But in social entrepreneurship, the system is more flexible, and there are more options for cooperation. Here, the franchise owner (franchisor) is looking not just for a financially capable partner (franchisee), but above all a comrade and like-minded person, someone who shares the social mission of the business and is ready to meet high standards.
The creators of the educational EdTech project “UchiDron” abandoned the classic franchising model because their partners — schools and teachers — often cannot afford the lump-sum fee and the purchase of expensive equipment at the start. Instead, they developed a different model.
“We consciously moved away from the classic franchise model. We supply everything at our own expense and receive a percentage only from the functioning extracurricular classes. The plus for the partner is low startup costs. The plus for us lies in fulfilling our mission. Yes, this is not a quick sale but a long-term socially significant model that requires systematic approach and work in such an important and complex field as education,” says project leader Tatyana Kuskevich.
The project helps schools launch programs for studying, constructing, and programming unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for civilian use by offering a complete system: a simulator, educational equipment, methodology, teacher training, lesson support, and equipment maintenance. In the capital, the project demonstrated 98 percent attendance, high participant engagement, and significant knowledge growth in the field of UAS. Currently, the first teachers in Moscow and the Moscow region have been trained, but the main mission is to make engineering skills accessible to schoolchildren not only in large cities but also in the regions by initiating a personnel pipeline from school to college/university to industry.
From a local brand to a federal network
For social business, a franchise is one of the effective promotion tools, allowing local projects to grow into federal networks. Those who buy such a franchise become part of an already established ecosystem with fine-tuned standards, methodologies, and support. And to avoid mistakes at the start, the Social Projects Support Fund has developed a program “How to Buy an Effective Social Franchise”.
“Our program teaches how to vet a partner, what to look for in the contract, and how to build a sustainable business while staying within the social mission. This is a free educational course available at the ‘Social Entrepreneur University’,” said Nikita Novosadov, Deputy Director of the Social Projects Support Fund.
The program is an online recorded course, so it can be taken at a convenient time and without being tied to a schedule. The training includes four lessons, 100 minutes of video materials, and five test assignments for self-assessment. Participants will receive eight practical tools that will help evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of the future franchise, analyze interaction with the franchisor, and understand the advantages of running a business under such a model.
Whereas franchising was previously perceived primarily as a tool for scaling commercial projects, today its social dimension is becoming increasingly clear. A franchise ceases to be just a way to earn money — it becomes a mechanism for replicating benefits, allowing entrepreneurs not only to grow their business but also to improve people’s lives. However, the evolution of this approach does not stop there.
Chairman of the Social Franchising Committee of the Russian Franchising Association, Yulia Bogushevskaya, notes that examples of non-commercial franchises are emerging today. This means that franchising is becoming a universal tool for scaling social impact as a whole — with the ability to protect intellectual property and replicate successful projects. This approach allows for building the operation of a social project using a proven methodology, systematically and clearly, since the franchisor has already gone through this path and helps their partners avoid mistakes at the start, initially moving along a tried and effective trajectory.
Social Projects Support Fund, subordinate to Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Development of the City of Moscow, is engaged in developing a favorable environment for social entrepreneurship — from conducting educational and media projects for social business representatives to developing infrastructure and working on improving legislation.
Business support in the capital is provided within the framework of the federal project “Small and Medium Entrepreneurship and Support for Individual Entrepreneurial Initiative,” which is part of the national project “Effective and Competitive Economy”. You can learn more about Russia’s national projects and the capital’s contribution at special page.
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