Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has reportedly invested $63 million in a series of European startups through his association with London-based venture firm Target Global. This information was revealed in a collection of documents reviewed by Forbes. The venture capital fund, which has raised over $3.2 billion of capital and backed at least 15 European tech unicorns including fintech Revolut and car marketplace Cazoo, relied on Abramovich as a co-investor and limited partner from 2015 to 2021. The oligarch was later sanctioned by the U.K. in March 2022 due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The investments, previously unreported, were found in leaked documents from Meritservus, a Cyprus-based offshore service provider. These documents were anonymously shared with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and its partners, including Forbes. They expose the inner workings of Abramovich’s relationship with Target Global, which was co-founded by the son of another now-sanctioned oligarch, Aleksandr Frolov.
The documents reveal that Abramovich invested over $63 million either as a limited partner or through specific companies that Target Global introduced for investments between 2015 and 2021. In 2018, Abramovich invested $25 million as an “anchor” limited partner in one of Target’s earliest funds, Target Global Mobility 2.0. This investment accounted for around a fifth of the total assets of the $132 million fund.
Abramovich’s funds were used for Target’s investments in European scooter company Circ in 2019, which was acquired in 2020 by American startup Bird, and German secondhand car unicorn Auto1 in 2015. Another Abramovich shell company, Ervington, was a shareholder of Auto1 and gave Target Global power of attorney to vote on corporate affairs like remuneration packages for new executives.
Auto1, which confirmed Target and Ervington’s investments, listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange for $2.2 billion in February 2021. However, Abramovich’s stake in the company through Target and Ervington was not disclosed to investors in its January 2021 public listing prospectus. Abramovich sold part of his stake in Auto1 to a Target special purpose vehicle via a private sale in September 2021.
The leaked documents also show that Abramovich and his holding companies loaned tens of millions of dollars to Target special purpose companies to indirectly buy stakes in startups. For instance, between 2020 and 2021, Abramovich provided Target Global with a series of loans totaling $23.5 million to invest in female health app Flo. In May 2017, he lent Target’s Helium special purpose vehicle $10 million to buy a stake in Berlin-based Delivery Hero, a food delivery startup now with a market cap of $7.1 billion on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Abramovich’s family office also drafted an unsigned contract for the now London-based fund to manage his personal investment into British semiconductor company Compound Photonics. Target Global stood to earn 4% from the proceeds of the sale of these direct investments, according to a December 2021 advisory agreement between Abramovich and Target Global’s parent company Hyde Park Special Opportunities. Target Global partner Valler went on to serve as a director of Compound Photonics, which has since collapsed.
This News Article was automatically generated by Bob the Bot (AI)
| Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Geography | Europe |
| Countries | 🇨🇾 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 |
| Sentiment | neutral |
| Relevance Score | 1 |
| People | Mike Lobanov, Roman Abramovich, Iain Martin, Aleksandr Frolov |
| Companies | British government, Impulse VC, Target Global, The Alternative, Meritservus, Evraz, European Union, Altair Capital, Forbes |
| Currencies | None |
| Securities | None |
