DST Global

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
DST Global
TypePrivate
IndustryVenture Capital
Private Equity
Founded2009; 12 years ago (2009)
FounderYuri Milner
HeadquartersSilicon Valley, New York, London, Hong Kong, Beijing
ProductsInvestments
Websitewww.dst-global.com

DST Global is a venture capital and private equity firm that primarily invests in late-stage internet companies. Per Preqin,[1] it was the fourth largest venture capital firm in terms of 10-year capital raised (2007-2017).

Background[]

Yuri Milner founded Digital Sky Technologies (now known as Mail.ru Group) in 1999[2] that through acquisitions has become a leading Russian language website in terms of users.[3] In 2010, Digital Sky Technologies changed its name to Mail.ru Group and successfully completed an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange.[4] Although initial investments in American Internet companies were done by Mail.ru, it became clear that a dedicated fund management operation was required to continue investing at scale. As a result, DST Global was set up in 2009 by Yuri Milner as a separate separate fund management company for international investments.[5] In 2012, Milner stepped down from his role as Mail.ru Chairman to fully focus on DST Global.

Since the Mail.ru Group's IPO, DST Global is the sole vehicle for further international investments. The company is now fully independent of Mail.ru Group.[6]

DST Global has offices in Silicon Valley, New York, London, Beijing, and Hong Kong.[7]

Funds[]

Fund[8] Vintage Year Committed Capital ($m)
DST Global I 2008 N/A
DST Global II 2011 USD 1,000
DST Global III 2012 N/A
DST Global IV 2014 USD 1,000
DST Global V 2015 USD 1,700
DST Global VI 2018 N/A
DST Global VII 2019 N/A
DST Global VIII 2021 N/A

Notable Investments[]


Controversies[]

A Kremlin-owned firm, VTB Bank, put $191 million into DST Global, which used it to buy a large share of Twitter in 2011. A subsidiary of the Kremlin-controlled Gazprom funded an investment company that partnered with DST Global to buy shares in Facebook, reaping millions when the social media giant went public in 2012. Twitter similarly went public in 2013. The US government sanctioned VTB in 2014 because of the Russian military intervention in Crimea, but DST Global had sold its stake in Twitter by then. Four days after the Facebook IPO, a DST Global subsidiary sold more than 27 million shares of Facebook for roughly $1 billion.[26] In November 2017, DST Global issued the statement in response to this accusation: “Since 2009, DST Global has invested $7 billion in the consumer internet sector, with a majority being invested in non-U.S. companies — and with less than 5% coming from VTB Bank. VTB Bank was the only Russian government institution that invested in any DST Global funds... Moreover, there were dozens of DST Global investors making up the funds that invested in Facebook and Twitter — ....50 passive investors that invested in Facebook..., and VTB Bank was one of 40 passive investors... that invested in Twitter” [27] Yuri Milner published his own open letter in ReCode magazine stated that “DST Global's investments in Silicon Valley were motivated by pure business logic, based on a decade of experience in Internet technology... when we negotiated the Facebook and Twitter deals we asked for no board seats, and assigned all our votes to their founders, figuring they knew best how to run their companies. At the time, this structure was unusual, but it is core to DST Global's philosophy."[28]

References[]

  1. ^ "Preqin Special Report: The Venture Capital Top 100" (Press release).
  2. ^ Olson, Parmy. "A Q&A With Internet Guru Yuri Milner: Moving On From Russia And The Future Of E-Commerce". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  3. ^ VCCircle.com (2011-11-21). "Facebook investor DST Global eyeing Indian Internet firms". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  4. ^ "Mail.ru prices IPO at US$27.70 per GDR - London Stock Exchange". archive.vn. 2012-09-09. Archived from the original on 2012-09-09. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  5. ^ Olson, Parmy. "A Q&A With Internet Guru Yuri Milner: Moving On From Russia And The Future Of E-Commerce". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  6. ^ Mail.ru Group prospectus "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 March 2012. Retrieved 10 April 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ^ "Yuri Milner: Remote will be the new normal". Globes. 2020-03-25. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  8. ^ News, East-West Digital (2015-08-04). "DST Global raises $1.7 billion to launch fifth fund – without Russian money". Retrieved 2021-03-05.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i "Yuri Milner's schedule for Bloomberg Tech Conference 2016". bloombergtechconference2016.sched.com. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Facebook, Groupon And Zynga Investor Mail.ru (aka, DST) Shoots For $5.7B Valuation In IPO". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  11. ^ Olson, Parmy. "Yuri Milner's Unparalleled Global Tech Gold-Mining Machine". Forbes.
  12. ^ Rusli, Evelyn M. "Silver Lake and DST Begin Tender Offer for Alibaba Shares". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  13. ^ "Chinese video-sharing app Kuaishou raises US$350M from Tencent, reportedly valued at about US$3B now". YahoNews.
  14. ^ "Forbes India Magazine - DST Global pumps $210 million into Flipkart". forbesindia.com.
  15. ^ "Robinhood stock trading app valued at $1.3 billion with big raise from DST". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  16. ^ Munford, Monty. "More Big News For FinTech London As Revolut Raises $250 Million At $1.7 Billion Valuation". Forbes.
  17. ^ "Root Insurance valuation hits $3.65 billion in latest round led by DST Global and Coatue". TechCrunch.
  18. ^ Reuters Staff (26 June 2019). "Sneaker site StockX raises funds, hires eBay executive". Reuters.
  19. ^ "Tencent Lead A $115 Million Funding Round For Challenger Bank Qonto". Finbold. 21 January 2020.
  20. ^ "Online fashion company Farfetch raises $86 million from DST Global, others". Reuters. 4 March 2015.
  21. ^ "Ola Cabs raises fresh funds as it seeks to outrun Uber". Financial Times.
  22. ^ DraftKings. "DraftKings Secures $300MM In Funding From All-Star Lineup". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  23. ^ "Communication software maker Slack raises $160 million". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  24. ^ "Russian Firm DST Quietly Bet on Snapchat at $7 Billion Price". WSJ.
  25. ^ "KLARNA RECEIVES $155 MILLION FINANCING FROM DST GLOBAL AND GENERAL ATLANTIC". Arctic Startup.
  26. ^ Spencer Woodman (5 November 2017). "Kremlin-Owned Firms Linked To Major Investments in Twitter And Facebook: The Russian government quietly held a financial interest in U.S. social media". ICIJ. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  27. ^ "Statement from DST Global". New York Times. NYT. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
  28. ^ "Yuri Milner says he was not working for Russia to turn social media against U.S. democracy". ReCode. Retrieved 5 November 2017.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""