In 2023, Telegram reported an operating loss of $108 million, which increased to $173 million after taxes. Revenue amounted to $342 million, according to Financial Times (FT).
Journalists noted that as a private company wholly owned by Pavel Durov, Telegram is not obliged to disclose its financial statements.
The platform partially offset its 2023 losses by revaluing digital assets on its balance sheet. According to FT, in 2024, the company sold Toncoin (TON) tokens from a supported blockchain project for $244 million.
The price of the coins dropped by approximately 20% following Durov’s arrest in France on August 24.
Sources cited by the publication suggest that the financial results, combined with the charges against the messenger’s founder, cast doubt on the considered plans for an IPO valued at $30 billion.
The company has raised a total of $2.4 billion in debt financing, which must be repaid by 2026.
This sum includes a $1 billion bond issuance in 2021 with participation from Abu Dhabi state funds. In March 2024, Telegram sold similar bonds for $330 million. According to Durov, the round was oversubscribed.
In 2023, he personally purchased at least $64 million worth of the company’s bonds. Previously, the entrepreneur stated that he had invested “hundreds of millions of dollars” in the platform’s development.
Telegram’s debt securities fell by nearly 10% following Durov’s arrest and are trading at $0.87 compared to $0.96 before his arrival in Paris.
FT noted that it remains unclear how the entrepreneur will continue to manage the platform.
According to Durov, Telegram’s staff consists of approximately 50 employees, 30 of whom are “competitively selected programmers,” mainly from Ukraine.
The publication described the company’s workers as “super-young” Eastern European individuals with annual salaries of half a million dollars, who soon after hiring post “photos of their Porsches” on social media.
“We have virtually zero turnover. They share the same values and believe in the company’s mission,” FT quotes Durov.
He emphasized that he is the main decision-maker for the platform’s development but positions himself more as a product leader rather than an owner or “someone else.”
“No functionality has been launched without my deep involvement,” the entrepreneur added.
According to Alexander Urman, a researcher at the University of Zurich, such a centralized management style raises questions about whether “Telegram will survive without Pavel.”
French authorities issued arrest warrants for the entrepreneur and his brother Nikolai Durov back in March, according to Politico.