Business career Yuri Milner

1 business career

1.1 russian internet investor
1.2 international internet investor
1.3 selected investments

business career

milner started business career selling grey market dos computers in soviet union, displeased father. when national government collapsed, stopped selling computers enroll @ wharton school earn mba.

after graduating, milner spent first half of 1990s @ world bank in washington, d.c., russian banking specialist focused on development of private sector banking. has described time @ world bank lost years , due watching afar privatization of government holdings during presidency of boris yeltsin. in spring of 1995, milner appointed ceo of alliance-menatep, investment brokerage company belonging oligarch mikhail khodorkovsky. in december 1996 milner worked vice president , head of investment management of menatep bank. february 1997 december 2000, milner deputy chairman , head of investment division of menatep bank. @ time, market makers described him well-known professional, bring bank valuable experience in international financial institutions , transactions in russian investment market . however, due risky investments , excessive share of gko-ofz obligations in portfolio (the russian government defaulted on gko bonds in 1998), menatep ceased fulfill obligations depositors , went bankrupt. depositors lost part of money. bank management transferred assets bank similar name (menatep spb) , key staff got money further investments.

russian internet investor

in 1999, after reading review morgan stanley analyst mary meeker on prospects online businesses, milner decided create internet company. sought funding friend menatep days gregory finger, @ time led russian branch of investment fund new century holding. fund agreed invest $4.5 million proviso milner , finger each invest $750,000. milner, finger, , nch created new company, netbridge. in 2000, milner became president of netbridzh services ltd (netbridge) – company created internet incubator , investment fund . netbridge succeeded in transferring variety of u.s.-pioneered internet business models russia, creating companies including portal list.ru, online auction site molotok.ru (based on ebay), free web-hosting boom.ru (based on geocities), , online shop 24×7, using formula of amazon.com.

in february 2001, netbridge , port.ru (which owned mail.ru) announced merger. milner became ceo of new company named mail.ru (though legal name port.ru retained).

from january 2003 december 2004, milner ceo of neftyanoi , owned igor linshits.

in 2005, nch shifted focus russian internet projects , milner founded investment fund digital sky technologies (dst), becoming chairman in 2006. meeting through mutual friends resulted in alisher usmanov becoming shareholder of mail.ru group in 2008.

in 2010 mail.ru group completed successful initial public offering on london stock exchange market valuation of $5.6 billion.

in march 2012, milner stepped down role of chairman of mail.ru , board of directors. dmitry grishin elected board , appointed chairman while retaining ceo position. there no other changes management or board.

post mail.ru group’s ipo, dst sole vehicle further international investments. company independent of mail.ru group.

from may 2009 january 2012 milner member of commission on modernization established dmitry medvedev, russian president 2008 2012.

international internet investor

in january 2009, while in palo alto, milner became acquainted facebook founder mark zuckerberg. meeting led agreement on 26 may 2009 under dst bought 1.96% stake in facebook $200 million.

on 16 september 2010, digital sky technologies (dst) changed name mail.ru group . group s portfolio included mail.ru, odnoklassniki.ru, icq, minority stake in social network vkontakte (russian facebook equivalent), online payments service osmp.ru, e‑port, other russian assets. milner s commercial interests in facebook, zynga, , groupon transferred dst global. milner became ceo of dst global , chairman of board of directors of mail.ru group. in november 2010, mail.ru group held offering on london stock exchange. in march 2012, milner stepped down role of chairman of mail.ru , board of directors. milner focused on international internet investments.

dst global became 1 of world’s leading technology investors , portfolio has included of world s prominent internet companies, such facebook, twitter, whatsapp, snapchat, airbnb, spotify, alibaba, , others.

on november 5, 2017, new york times reported milner had strong kremlin backing investments in facebook , twitter. milner denied allegations in open letter published in recode

selected investments

on 29 january 2011, milner announced invest $150,000 each of start‑up program participants selected incubator y combinator.

on 2 august 2011, dst global invested $800 million in twitter.

in september 2011, dst global silver lake launched $1.6 billion tender offer shares in alibaba group.

dst global invested $125 million in whatsapp.

in february 2014, announced milner had led round of funding cloud-graphics company, otoy.

in may 2014, flipkart raised $210 million in financing round led dst global.

in march 2015, british online luxury fashion company farfetch said raised $86 million investment firm dst global , existing shareholders, valuing company @ $1 billion.

according press reports, in april 2015 olacabs raised $315 million dst global , existing investors.

in april 2016, online mortgage broker platform habito launched backing milner, amongst other fintech investors.