Telegram may raise another $850 million in the second round of pre-ICO

Pavel Durov's messenger will hold a second, secret round of the preparatory ICO, The Verge reported , citing four sources. Investors were informed about this in an email newsletter.

• The planned amount is still being discussed, one source said. The other two put the figure at $850 million. Telegram raised the same amount in the first round of token pre-sale for large buyers with a discount of 30% to 80% on the price of the future public offering. If this is confirmed, the total amount raised in the closed part of the ICO alone will exceed $1.6 billion.
• The first round has already made the ICO the largest in history. The previous record of $232 million belonged to the blockchain startup Tezos. Initially,the amount of the round was $500 million, but they decided to increase it due to the excitement - the messenger received applications for $3.8 billion.
• 81 investors participated in the first round. The names of most are unknown. Among the Russian buyers are one of the founders of Qiwi Sergei Solonin ($17 million) and former co-owner of Wimm-Bill-Dann David Yakobashvili ($10 million). Both wanted to invest more, but Telegram management limited their investment amounts. According to Vedomosti, Roman Abramovich became another investor in Telegram.
• The largest funds in Silicon Valley - Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark and Sequoia Capital - each invested $20 million in the ICO in the first round.
• The public ICO was scheduled for March; it is unknown whether the timing will change after the announcement of the second presale. In January, the messenger expected to earn another $1.2 billion from its public offering.

What's in it for me?

If you want to invest in Telegram, but you don’t have $10 million, this news may be bad for you - when and under what conditions the public offering will take place is now completely unclear.

Anastasia Stogney