How and why did Maksim Krippa buy the esports organization NAVI?
16 october 2022, 15:54
Some time ago, the Ukrainian media actively discussed the deal to buy the Natus Vincere esports organization, whose new owner was Maksim Krippa. Journalists were interested in several nuances of the deal: how did it happen that the purchase was made in the year of a full-scale war, and who is the entrepreneur Maksim Krippa? We managed to find out the answers to both of these questions.
Hobby or business: why Maksym Krippa decided to buy NAVI
The appearance of materials and journalistic investigations about Maksym Krippa is largely dictated by the mysteriousness of the entrepreneur. Having a good capital and an active civic position, Krippa does not seek publicity, does not give interviews and does not participate in public discussions of certain topics. The entrepreneur also does not comment on journalistic investigations that cite anonymous sources and interpret the facts of Maksym Krippa biography in their own way.
Therefore, for many people, the news of the acquisition of the esports organization NAVI came as a surprise, and the story itself seemed attractively mysterious. The commentator Vitaliy Volochai shed some light on the story, perhaps without wanting to. In one of his interviews, Volochai spoke in detail about the history of the Maincast esports broadcasting company.
The idea to create Maincast belonged to Volochai and his partners, but they needed funds to implement it. Back in 2018, the partners had already had the unfortunate experience of working with Russian investors, who came to the previously established RuHub company, soon opened a Moscow office, and then demanded that the Kyiv office be closed. This time, Volochai and the company approached the issue of finding partners more carefully and turned their attention to investor Maksim Krippa, and went to him with a business idea:
"We had a studio: we had an office, we had cameras, we had computers, we had staff, but we needed finances to exist. That's why I was looking for investors. There were three of us co-owners and we found an investor, it was his first investment in esports. At the meeting, we spent a long time explaining to him what esports was and why it was interesting," Vitaliy Volochai said in an interview.
Thus, Maksim Krippa entered the esports market for the first time in 2018 with the help of Vitaliy Volochai. The latter said in the same interview that the investor "liked it so much that he bought NAVI two years later." Let's remember the two-year figure - it's important. For now, let's answer the first question: why did Maksim Krippa buy NAVI?
Obviously, this was not the first and not a spontaneous investment in esports, but a continuation of the strategy started with Maincast. It's likely that the esports-related assets that were included in the portfolio performed well both from a financial point of view and attracted Maksim Kripp as a viewer. Esports is a fascinating thing, especially if you, as a shareholder, have the opportunity to watch all the broadcasts.
How and when did Maksim Krippa buy NAVI?
Esports in Ukraine began to develop in the 2000s. But back then, it was not yet a fully formed market, but rather a spontaneous fan movement. Young guys played in sports clubs and sometimes organized friendly tournaments at the city and regional levels. There was no talk of entering the international arena. And not because of a lack of professionalism or skills, which could be acquired. But because of the lack of funds. Training one team of 4-5 people on the eve of a major tournament cost about $10,000 a month, and amateurs did not have that kind of money.
Significant shifts in the formation of the professional esports community in Ukraine began in 2008-2009. At the same time, the legendary five Counter-Strike players were formed. The story of the "born to win" esports organization Natus Vincere, or NAVI for short, began with them and the idea voiced at the Dubai tournament.
A year later, in 2010, the NAVI DotA team was formed. And in 2011, the guys became the champions of The International Dota 2 tournament, winning a huge prize pool of $1,000,000 at the time. This is how NAVI became the flagship and personification of Ukrainian esports.
The founder of NAVI was Oleksandr Kokhanovskyi, the captain of the Counter-Strike team. In 2018, Kokhanovskyi decided to attract investors to develop the organization. In the 4th quarter of the same year, Maksim Krippa joined NAVI and became the majority owner. Obviously, his experience with the Maincast asset, albeit a small one, contributed to Maksim Krippa decision to continue in the same direction and for this reason he responded to Kokhanovsky's offer.
And now let's go back to the two-year date Volochai mentioned. Apparently, two years after the first investment in NAVI, in 2020, Maksim Krippa decided to become the full owner of the organization. But such deals are not done quickly. According to NAVI's official website, Maksym Krippa has come a long way, as he had to fulfill a number of obligations under the terms of the agreement. It took Maksim Krippa four years to go from majority to full owner. The deal was fully closed in the summer of 2022. However, the news was not widely disseminated in the media, although it was not a secret for partners, stakeholders, and leagues. Apparently, the investor's non-publicity, which does not like unnecessary noise, played a role again.
The news of the change of ownership of NAVI became widely known later, when journalists began to investigate the details and suggested that the decision to sell was made at the peak of a full-scale war. The assumption turned out to be false, as the opinions of anonymous sources were denied by all parties to the deal.
