Two of Europe’s wealthiest tech billionaires, brothers Igor and Dmitri Bukhman, have quietly set up a charitable foundation.
The Bukhman Family Foundation intends to bankroll research into a cure for type 1 diabetes, as well as providing funding for science, education and the arts, according to the website of Rix Capital, the Bukhmans’ family office, and legal filings from 2023.
The new foundation recently supported a commission by artist Alvaro Barrington at London’s Tate Britain gallery, and was recently hiring staff to run a “wellness” project offering nutrition and parenting workshops at schools across the British capital, according to job postings.
The brothers registered the U.K.-based foundation in November 2023 with the intent to support charitable causes in the U.K, Israel and Ukraine. The Bukhman brothers declined to comment. They have not disclosed how much they donated to the foundation.
Bloomberg reported in April 2023 that the brothers had committed $4 billion to their family office, Rix Capital, making it one of the largest in the world. Rix Capital’s website states it runs a multi-asset portfolio and also makes direct investments in companies in the entertainment sector.
Forbes estimates that Igor, 42, and Dimtri, 39, are together worth $18.2 billion. That’s thanks to their stake in mobile games developer Playrix. The pair founded the company in 2004 in their hometown of Vologda, Russia, and built a string of free-to-play apps including Homescapes and Fishdom. The brothers moved Playrix’s headquarters to Ireland in 2013, and emigrated to Israel in 2016. The company cut its last ties with Russia in October 2022, shutting its offices and relocating hundreds of staff as a result of the invasion of Ukraine.
The pair remain majority shareholders of the business, which has never raised external funding. In 2022, Playrix generated $2.4 billion in sales, according to filings with Ireland’s corporate register. Revenues were down from record highs set in 2021, as the entire video game industry contracted post-pandemic. Despite this the company paid a $225 million dividend to its shareholders, the Bukhman Brothers, in 2022.
Tax breaks in the United States mean that family philanthropic foundations are popular with Silicon Valley and Wall Street billionaires but have had less traction in the U.K. and Europe. Still, Checkout.com founder Guillaume Pousaz formed education-focused Pousaz Philanthropies last year, joining other European philanthropists like ecommerce billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen and British inventor and billionaire James Dyson in establishing charitable foundations.
