(Petri Anttila/Slush Media)
Just days ago, Russian entrepreneurs Anastasia Mirolyubova and Mikhail Sharonov, along with their startup, Immigram, won $1 million in a competition at a major European tech conference.
On Monday, organizers of the Slush event apologized for the decision and revoked the Slush 100 Pitching Competition prize money, adding to a controversy that centers on the Ukraine war and the founders’ ties to their homeland.
The decision follows reports from Ukrainian publications AIN.Capital and TechUkraine that Immigram was hiring in Moscow and helping Russians migrate to the UK. The news sparked backlash among startups, investors and the tech community.
“In light of new information on the extent of the Slush 100 Pitching Competition winner’s operations in Russia, Slush has decided to revoke their win,” the conference organizers said in a statement. “Slush is sorry for this oversight. We should have reviewed all participants’ operations more closely before letting them enter the competition.”
Founded in 2019 by two Russian citizens, London-based Immigram’s platform helps companies attract and retain international talent by guiding them through the entire relocation process.
By winning Slush 100, the startup was set to receive €1 million (about $1.02 million) from Accel, General Catalyst, Lightspeed, NEA and Northzone.
In the statement, Slush said it has requested that the participating funds pull their investments. Immigram previously raised $500,000 in a round led by Xploration Capital in April, according to reports.
Co-founder Mirolyubova condemned the Russian invasion in a statement to PitchBook. She described Slush’s decision as “sad” and that the decision was purely political, not business.
“Since the announcement of the win we received an enormous amount of hatred, assaults and racist and xenophobic messages,” Mirolyubova said. “Current hatred and discrimination goes against our core values.”
Immigram maintains that it currently has no employees in Russia and does no business there. The company previously stated that if did receive the Slush 100 investment, it would donate $100,000 to nonprofits supporting Ukrainian immigrants and refugees.
“We are tied to Russia only with our citizenship and color of the passport. ... We have rightfully won the competition, having passed four levels of screening and an investment committee with the funds. Immigram deserves this win and we will continue both building the business and supporting Ukraine,” said Mirolyubova.
Representatives of Slush and the VC firms contributing the prize money didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
It is not clear if backlash against Immigram is warranted.
“I think the issue that a lot of people are missing is that Immigram is actually contributing to the brain drain from Russia,” said US-based attorney Leonard Grayver, who represents many Russian-speaking venture capitalists and tech founders. “Every intelligent person who gets a visa and defects Russia is one more nail in the coffin of the [Putin] regime.”
Most US-based startups moved their developers out of Russia following that country’s invasion of Ukraine in February. But Grayver said that he is aware of some VC-backed companies still maintaining operations in Russia, in apparent violation of US sanctions to punish Moscow.
Those companies are, for now, flying under regulators’ radar, but unless there is “some information we don’t know about,” Immigram is not one of them, Grayver said.
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