"Among Telegram's investors were Russians David Yakobashvili and Roman Abramovich. The former is under Ukrainian sanctions, while Abramovich is on the sanctions lists of the European Union, the United States, Switzerland, Canada, Ukraine and other countries. They are both believed to have close ties to the Kremlin."
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/articles/2023/10/1/7422200/
Who is funding Telegram? How a decade of unprofitability hasn't stopped the messenger app from growing
Why Telegram’s staggering growth remains a failure from a business perspective, and who the investors are that funded the app despite it only recently showing signs of generating revenue.Ukrainska Pravda