![]() The two entities are also sanctioned in the UK and Europe. Roman Abramovich, meanwhile, has had his assets frozen in the UK and Europe. Treasury secretary Janet Yellen suggested Abramovich could also be sanctioned in the US. The US Treasury limited Alfa Bank's ability to raise money and cut off VTB. Now several of those co-investors are sanctioned in various territories. Others invested in Ivi include Abu Dhabi's Mubadala and RTP Global, a London-headquartered VC firm originally founded in Russia as a business named ru-Net in 2000, alonside a number of Russian financial entities such as Russia's sovereign wealth fund, Baring Vostok, and private bank Alfa Bank. In May 2021, the startup raised $250 million in funding from Roman Abramovich and his VC firm Millhouse, Russian state-owned VTB Bank through its investment arm VTB Capital, and Abramovich's partner, steel magnate Alexander Abramov via Invest AG. Ivi's cap table of shareholders also includes some of the biggest names in Russian business. Tiger Global, the New York investing firm that has made multibillion-dollar gains on bets on early bets on Facebook and JD.com, has been invested in Ivi since 2012, according to data tracker Pitchbook. In practice, how do you detach yourself from a sanctioned co-investor? Tiger Global is awkwardly placed alongside sanctioned investors Sanctions make it illegal for Western firms to do business with certain Russian entities and individuals. Tiger Global was part of that wave, revealing a nearly $2 billion holding in Russian internet giant Yandex in 2011, and reportedly investing $10 million in 2010 in Anywayanyday, a Russian travel business.īut these ties have been complicated by war, which has thrown up sudden roadblocks to the global capital flow. US investors flooded Russian startups with money in the 2010s, attracted by growing smartphone and internet penetration and the country's engineering talent. It's also emblematic of Russian entrepreneurs' ambitions to go global, with Ivi's financial backers including New York hedge fund giant Tiger Global as well as Russian backers. Ivi is not be a household name in the West but, since being founded in 2010, it has become a major streaming site in Russia, earning a reputation as the "Netflix of Russia." The Moscow-headquartered firm has licensed over 15,000 titles from the likes of Disney, Sony, and Universal. ![]() Ivi's popularity in the country made it a prime target for airing footage that few Russians will have seen. When hacking group Anonymous declared it was "officially in cyber war" against the Russian regime on February 24, its targets included Russian government sites, servers - and a streaming startup called Ivi.Īnonymous announced on March 6 that it had hacked into Ivi alongside Russian TV channels such as Channel One and Moscow 24 to broadcast footage of the war in Ukraine. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Tiger now finds itself sitting alongside sanctioned co-investors. ![]() ![]()
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