Telegram jumps to $540 million profit despite founders facing legal risks

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Telegram jumped to $540 million last year. This is because messaging apps have grown rapidly despite the ongoing threat to leadership from French legal process to founder Pavel Doloff.

According to a company presentation seen by the Financial Times, the Dubai-based group told investors that revenue in 2024 reached $1.4 billion, up from $343 million a year ago. The company also made its first annual profit from a loss of $173 million in 2023.

According to those familiar with the issue, Bumper’s revenues were shared with potential supporters before launching a bond offering of about $1.5 billion before Telegram to buy back existing debts. Debt sales, which began Tuesday, were able to close as early as next week.

The results suggest that Telegram is partly boosted by a surge in payments and profits from alliances related to the cryptocurrency they have established.

Growth occurs despite doubts about the group’s future, following the detention of the founder by French authorities in Paris last August.

Durov, born in Russia but now with citizenship in France and the United Arab Emirates, faces alleged app charges that he failed to address criminality, including child abuse and terrorism, on the platform. This case could result in a prison sentence.

More recently, Doloff attacked authorities in the incident. On Monday, he wrote that while the French intelligence agency had indicated that the fight against child sexual abuse was an excuse for his detention, “their main focus is always geopolitical.”

Durov previously claimed that he had rejected a request from French intelligence agency Nicholas Lerner, and rejected a request to ban Romania’s conservative voices prior to the country’s election. “It’s manipulation tactics that Telegram accidentally did nothing to remove child pornography,” he wrote to X. The French intelligence agency rejected Doloff’s claim.

Telegram currently has over 1 billion active users each month around the world, run by a small team of around 60 staff, outsources most of its contractors.

According to several people familiar with calling with potential investors in the contract, Telegram’s chief investment officer, John Heyman, said a potential early public offering would be possible if the company hits all its financial milestones and the market became more friendly.

The company also acknowledged that the French investigation could be a barrier to IPOs, but noted that this year could be resolved as soon as possible, one of the people said.

The new bond offering, which is ringing at a 9% yield, gives investors the option to buy stocks at a 20% discount at future IPOs, reflecting the terms of previous bond sales.

According to investor documents, about half of Telegram’s 2024 revenue, half of $1.4 billion worth of revenue came from what was labelled “partnerships and ecosystem,” while about $250 million came from $292 million from advertising and its premium subscriptions.

Partnerships and ecosystem businesses are primarily due to developers building their own so-called “mini apps” directly into telegrams in areas such as commerce and gaming.

The platform is supported by the Ton blockchain, originally developed by Telegram, but is now maintained by the open source community. Toncoin Cryptocurrency is deeply integrated into the app and is used to pay for mini apps or buy ads for Telegram.

Previous applications seen by the Financial Times show that they were profiting from transactions with third parties related to Toncoin last year, and from the sale of their own cryptocurrency holdings.

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According to investor documents, Telegram aims to earn $2 billion in revenue in 2025, up 46% year-on-year. It also aims to achieve a profit of $702 million next year. As of February 2025, the group had approximately $530 million in cash. This is a number that does not include cryptocurrency assets.

According to the documents, Telegram, which is entirely owned by Durov, has issued about $2.4 billion in bonds over the past four years. It repurchased $375 million in outstanding bonds between September and December 2024, the document said.

In the presentation, Telegram also pointed out opportunities around artificial intelligence, saying it is becoming the biggest open platform for “conversation AI.”

We highlighted Elon Musk’s new partnership with AI group Xai. Without revealing details, the messaging group said it had integrated Xai’s Grok chatbot into Telegram “with a plan to promote within the platform and split the resulting revenue.”

The partnership marks Grok’s first major expansion to a new social media service beyond Musk’s X platform.

Durov and Musk are also lined up by their stance on freedom of speech. On Sunday, the X owner shared Durov’s post about French intelligence news request on Romania with 220mn followers who wrote “Amazing.”

Telegram declined to comment.