Quick News №2

We had already told you about the negotiations around the new funding round for the Clubhouse. In general, last week was richer than usual in terms of infotainment around the social network. For example, Bloomberg citing close sources said that Twitter was in negotiations over the purchase of Clubhouse for several months — today the discussions are not ongoing. Nothing is known about the total amount of the potential deal, but it was based on a $4B valuation of the startup. The potential merger could be connected with the fact that in December Twitter began testing its own voice chats.

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In related news from last week. Pavel Durov’s closed blockchain project continues life in the development of TON Labs, which raises a $6M in funding round, while Durov’s main project, the messenger Telegram, has begun preparations for an IPO, according to sources close to the company, “Vedomosti”. A possible date is 2023, with a potential valuation of $30–50B for the company in an offering. So far, all figures are in the “maybe” stage, as are the details of the offering such as the choice of a stock exchange or the scenario of the process.

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Last week saw two interesting raises. First, ZeroAvia, the founder of which is Valery Miftakhov, who moved to California straight from Western Siberia, raises $24.3M. The investors include British Airways, Horizons Ventures and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, nor was the startup’s total valuation. However, it is known that the developed hydrogen engine solutions are ready to be applied by several major airlines, including the British Airways.

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Meanwhile, Weappy, an independent Belarusian video game development studio, raises $1.4M from international investment company GEM Capital. For the last ones, it is a logical investment: the game industry, unlike the oil industry, did not suffer from the pandemic, but only benefited from it. The world global market is growing steadily and generating foreign exchange earnings, while the CIS game development market benefits from a high level of professionalism and relatively average, sometimes even low, salaries for specialists.

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Let’s finish the run by slowing down. Forbes has published its traditional “30 under 30” list for Europe. It includes businessmen from various fields, among which there are Ukrainian representatives in the current ranking. You can find out who these businessmen are in a report by MC.today. Also, on the list in the “Finance” category is Maria Zhivitskaya from Belarus. Congratulations to the guys!

And “run in” to a new week:)