The investment is touted as a strategic partnership, with Mubadala anticipating benefits for Abu Dhabi’s startup ecosystem by having a local Telegram presence drawing in skills and talent to the capital. Mubadala Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi-based sovereign investor, is throwing in $75M in exchange for 5-year pre-IPO convertible bonds of Telegram - with Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners investing a further $75M, the pair said today in a press release. Messaging platform Telegram, which recently passed 500 million monthly active users but still isn’t monetizing all the digital chatter it hosts - has taken in a little more funding to keep its engines ticking over. Now he’s got the debt war chest to execute on the plan. “We want millions of Telegram-based creators and small businesses to thrive, enriching the experience of all our users,” was Durov’s strategic vision in December. Monetization would be non-intrusive, he further pledged then, saying any future move to monetize large one-to-many channels through ads would see benefits flow back to the community - such as in the form of “free traffic in proportion to their size” - while future content sales (like premium stickers) would also entail contributing artists getting “a part of the profit”. He also committed not to sell Telegram, reiterating then that he wants it to remain independent. “This will enable Telegram to continue growing globally while sticking to its values and remaining independent,” he goes on, adding that the $1BN debt cushion will also be used to implement a monetization strategy he set out in December - when Durov wrote that “a project of our size needs at least a few hundred million dollars per year to keep going”.

It’s not clear where the additional millions in debt funding are coming from - Durov merely writes that Telegram has sold bonds to “some of the largest and most knowledgable investors from all over the world”. Update: Telegram has now announced it’s pulled in over $1BN in debt financing by selling bonds.įounder Pavel Durov put out an update via his official Telegram channel after a press announcement earlier today had revealed the company had taken in $150M from Mubadala and Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners by selling 5-year pre-IPO convertible bonds.

Telegram x 2021