Durov Brothers reported on raising $ 850 million for Telegram and TON blockchain platform

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a notice on the offer of securities owned by Telegram Group Inc. and TON Issuer Inc. owned by Pavel and Nikolay Durov. Assets with a total value of $ 850 million are used by Telegram developers for creation of the Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain project, which became known as early as December 2017.

The companies are registered in the British Virgin Islands. Pavel holds the positions of general and executive director. His brother Nicholas is also the executive director.

TON will create its own platform with its own cryptocurrency called Gram. The platform will be based on the messenger. Financial instruments integration into the messenger will make Telegram commercial profitable. Pavel Durov has initially financed the project by himself.

Prior to this, Pavel Durov himself financed the development of the project.

So far the companies of the Durov brothers have placed securities in dollars and euros for a limited number of investors and it secured their participation in ICO. Token placement worth $ 1.2 billion will take place in March 2018 presumably.

The news about TON launch became very interesting for many investors. The existence of a popular messenger with a multi-million audience and the fame of Pavel Durov provided a general credibility for the project, which in total attracted bids for $ 3.8 billion.

SEC does not disclose project investors, but the journalists managed to find out that Russian businessmen and several large funds from the Silicon Valley are among the investors.

Also, some media reported on the project participation of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who allegedly invested $ 150 million in TON. The representative of the businessman John Mann said that this information "is not true." At the same time, it remained unclear whether Abramovich had invested a smaller amount or did not participate at all in the project.

The maximum amount of investments from one investor was limited to $ 20 million, although some of them were ready to invest more. Totally 81 investors participated in the purchase of the securities.

Forbes recently estimated Pavel Durov's fortune at $ 1.7 billion. Given that Telegram has not yet made any profit, the messenger monetization can make the entrepreneur much richer.