Telegram collects another $850 million in the second round of its ICO

The Durov brothers attracted additional funding for the development of Telegram and the development of a blockchain platform for the messenger. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a report stating that the Durovs received $850 million from 94 ICO members, whose names are not known. Each investor had to contribute at least $1 million. 81 investors participated in the first stage of the ICO in February.

The method of raising funds that Telegram is using is not like a traditional ICO. Investors receive securities that give them the right to purchase the instant messenger's cryptocurrency in the future. In addition, not everyone can invest in the development of the project. Only accredited investors are allowed to purchase assets. For example, individuals and organizations that fall under U.S. economic sanctions can not participate in the bidding.

Until now, Pavel Durov has financed Telegram himself, and the method of further monetization remained a mystery. In addition, the entrepreneur promised users that the messenger service will never have built-in advertising.

In December 2017, the idea for the blockchain project Telegram Open Network (TON) first became known. Whether it was real or not remained unknown until the first round of financing, when the SEC published a report on the raising of $850 million.

Over the next year, Telegram's developers will release a blockchain platform, their own cryptocurrency, and the Telegram External Secure ID service to simplify the purchase of the cryptocurrency. By the end of 2018, another round of funding will be held.

At the end of March, Telegram experienced a large-scale outage due to a power failure at the data center. After eliminating the cause of the accident, Pavel Durov apologized to Telegram users and explained that such problems are inevitable for such a fast growing service. At the moment Telegram is used by more than 200 million people, and 700,000 new users registered for the messenger during the last week of March.