TMT Investments, an LSE-listed fund with Russian backers, is participating in a $5 million round of additional funding for its portfolio company Depositphotos. The round is led by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which is investing via its Venture Capital Investment Programme.
Agreed last month, the transaction will be completed until the end of the year. According to the terms of the deal, the bank will acquire a minority stake in Depositphotos while founder Dmitry Sergeev will retain majority ownership of the company.
“Already among the top five global stock photo marketplaces, Depositphotos will accelerate its successful development with this new investment. The company, which generated just a few dozen thousand dollars in revenues when we initially invested in them, now already makes tens of millions annually,” said Artem Inyutin, Head of Investment at TMT Investments.
With this capital injection, Depositphotos aims to “become a leader in emerging markets while continuing to challenge the market leaders in Western countries.” The funding will also be used to expand Depositphotos’ R&D center in Ukraine.
Founded in 2009 in a basement office in Kiev, Depositphotos is an example of global Ukrainian startup success stories. It now claims 10 million monthly visitors and three million members with leading positions in emerging areas, including Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America.
Depositphotos offers quality content with a variety of tools for customers’ creative workflows. Contained its its library are more than 40 million stock photographs, vector images and video clips.
On the content supply side, Depositphotos claims it has “one of the most attractive royalty offers in the industry,” providing content producers with “unlimited earning opportunities.”
While the better part of its revenue derives evenly from North America, Western Europe and emerging markets, Depositphotos has a low-cost R&D unit in Ukraine. The company has either a sales and marketing office or a country representative in each targeted market.
Founded by Russian businessmen, TMT Investments stands as one of the most active Russian-backed funds operating internationally. The fund, which has raised some $30 million in total since its inception in 2010, has invested in several dozens of companies in Russia and the neighbouring Russian-language countries, as well as in the USA and Western Europe. Thus, just in 2014 TMT Investments invested $4.3 million in 15 companies.
In 2010 TMT was introduced on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange.
