By Alexander Marrow
(Reuters) – Cybersecurity company Group-IB has finalised its exit from Russia, the group said on Thursday, cutting ties with its original market in an effort to spur its global expansion ambitions.
Punitive Western sanctions against Moscow since it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, including restrictions on technology exports to Russia, and the departure of many foreign brands from the country are driving Russia further away from long-term technological success, industry analysts say.
Group-IB was once a feted symbol of Russia’s home-grown tech industry and President Vladimir Putin awarded co-founder Ilya Sachkov with a business prize for young entrepreneurs in 2019. Its departure could be viewed as a sign of Russia’s tech sector losing global competitiveness.
“Everything was fine, until the moment when the war started last year. Since that time it was really hard to actually explain why we still had Russian assets,” Group-IB co-founder and CEO Dmitry Volkov told Reuters.
Already harbouring global ambitions, Group-IB moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2019. Staff who have left Russia since February last year have moved there as well as to Dubai and Thailand, where the company recently launched a technical hub.
Volkov has sold his 10% stake in the Russian company, Group-IB said in a statement. The stand-alone Russian business has been sold to local management and will be operating under the new brand F.A.C.C.T.
“All of Group-IB’s research and development processes, along with the company’s full stack of technologies and products, will be withdrawn from Russia,” the group said.
“This process marks the completion of the second stage of the regional business diversification announced by Group-IB in July 2022 … and the final withdrawal of the Group-IB brand from the Russian market,” it said.
Volkov said Group-IB was now solely focused on non-Russian markets.
“It was definitely hurting business because we had to explain,” Volkov said. “International clients were asking the same questions: ‘Why do you have these Russian assets? Where are your technical experts?'”
His co-founder Sachkov was arrested on treason charges in 2021. He denies the charges and is awaiting trial. Group-IB said Sachkov had sold his 37.5% stake in the Singapore entity to members of top management there.
“The valuation of both transactions will remain undisclosed,” Group-IB said.
Volkov and Konstantin Chigirev from the senior management team now own 60% in Group-IB, with the remainder distributed between two venture funds from Singapore and Cyprus. Sachkov is F.A.C.C.T.’s major shareholder.
(Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
