Crypto has a new unicorn. The Open Platform, one of the main app developers on the blockchain chosen by the messaging app Telegram, announced Thursday that it had raised a $28.5 million Series A at a $1 billion valuation.
The fintech specialist Ribbit Capital led the round, with participation from the crypto VC Pantera Capital. The raise was for about 5% of equity and did not include allocations of cryptocurrency, The Open Platform founder and CEO Andrew Rogozov told Fortune. The Open Platform, which also refers to itself as TOP, has raised a total of over $70 million across multiple funding rounds, he added.
TOP is one of the key companies working on apps for the blockchain called The Open Network, or TON. And that blockchain is closely associated with Telegram, one of the world’s most popular messaging apps. It’s a complicated mishmash of entities, but the upshot is that TOP is helping spearhead the integration of crypto into an app that boasts more than one billion users, according to Telegram founder Pavel Durov.
That reach has VCs salivating. Investors at Ribbit Capital and Pantera pointed to Telegram’s large user base in statements included in a press release for TOP’s raise. “The opportunity to support groundbreaking tech and financial products that reach one billion people is inspiring,” said Ryan Barney, a partner at Pantera.
And they’re not the only ones who are excited. In March, the TON Foundation, another entity tied to the blockchain, said VCs like Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Ventures, Draper Associates, and, of course, Ribbit had accumulated $400 million of TON’s cryptocurrency.
Wallet in Telegram
Just like the mishmash of entities involved in Telegram’s chosen blockchain, the origins of TOP, TON, and Toncoin are far from simple.
In 2018, Durov raised $1.7 billion after he and Telegram sold a cryptocurrency to support the development of a blockchain called Telegram Open Network, or TON. In 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commision filed to stop what it alleged was an illegal securities offering, and, in 2020, the regulator and Telegram came to a settlement. The messaging app agreed to return more than $1.2 billion to investors and pay an $18.5 million fine.
While Telegram seemed to distance itself from crypto, other developers continued to work on the discarded tech behind the scenes, including Rogozov.
And in 2023, Telegram anointed a new version of TON as its exclusive blockchain of choice. That same year, Rogozov incorporated TOP, according to a business registry in Abu Dhabi, where the company is based.
TOP is the main developer behind TON’s most prominent crypto wallet, aptly called Wallet in Telegram. Outside of the U.S. and Europe, Telegram, the app, has integrated the wallet into its main menu and is available to users in Russia, Asia, and other geographies.
Rogozov plans to use the new injection of capital to expand the wallet into the U.S. and Europe. “We need to support everything related to compliance, operations and stuff, right?” he said. “That’s very expensive to build.”
He and his team also plan to use the money to incubate other TON-based projects, including blockchain games and AI applications.
In TOP’s Series A, Ribbit acquired about 4% of the company, and Pantera netted around 1%, Rogozov said. The company’s early backers are Dubai investment firm Vy Capital and Dmitry Eremeev, a Russian investor. Kingsway Capital and Brevan Howard are also backers, according to the Abu Dhabi business registry.
