Investment firm LetterOne Group launched LetterOne Technology (L1T), a London-based vehicle focused on investment in global telecoms and technology businesses.

L1T, formerly LetterOne Telecom, manages a 47.85% voting stake in leading Russian operator Vimpelcom and 13.22% in Turkcell, Turkey’s main network, and is seeking to grow its portfolio of mobile businesses, whilst adding digital services that complement its existing networks.

The company has a $16billion fund and is targeting three main areas for new acquisitions:

Existing mobile telecoms businesses – turnaround of distressed and/or underperforming assets.

Adjacencies in infrastructure – complementary forms of network infrastructure such as data centres and signal towers.

Adjacencies in digital – internet-based companies such as apps and streaming services, which can join forces with L1T’s existing mobile assets and benefit from its substantial user base.

Alexey Reznikovich, CEO and Managing Partner of LetterOne Technology, said: "the launch of LetterOne Technology is a reflection of the company’s expansion into digital systems which are already revolutionising global telecoms business. New acquisitions will benefit from our significant expertise in these markets, and will gain access to our existing customer base, which numbers over 200million across existing networks."

L1T also announced the addition of a number of leading industry names to its esteemed advisory board. These include Osama Bedier, Founder and Chief Executive of Poynt, a wirelessly-connected, open-platform payments terminal that works with existing registers. Osama was formerly Vice President of Wallet and Payments at Google, and held the position of Vice President of Product
Development at PayPal from 2002 to 2011.

Brent Hoberman is chairman/co-founder of made.com, a direct-from-factory consumer crowd-sourced homewares retailer in the UK. Brent also co-founded lastminute.com in April 1998 and was CEO from its inception.

Sir Julian Horn-Smith was a member of the founding management team of Vodafone Group Plc and is considered to be one of the principal architects in the development of Vodafone’s International Strategy. He retired from the Vodafone Board in July 2006, when he held the title Deputy Chief Executive Officer.

Denis O’Brien founded Esat Telecom Group, which established itself as the number two telecommunications company across the full spectrum of telecommunications services. He founded Digicel in 2000.

Russ Shaw is currently a non-executive director Dialog, a publicly traded semiconductor company.