Ex-Owner of Avito's Roomberry Reaches Out-of-Court Settlement after Investor Dispute

July 19, 2023

A lawsuit brought against the ex-owner of Avito subsidiary RoomBerry has been settled out of court amid claims of fraudulent activity.

Mikhail Khaikin, founder of Roomberry, will pay an undisclosed sum to the Russia-based Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF) after the IIDF accused Khaikin of presenting misleading revenue numbers when it divested of its 7% stake in Roomberry last year.

The claim is that Khaikin showed falsified underwhelming results to IIDF to persuade the fund to sell its stake for a discount price before Khaikin then sold his company to Avito—the biggest classifieds site in Russia and one of the biggest in the world—in February this year.

According to the suit, Khaikin told IIDF in June 2022 that he and the other shareholders were planning to shut down Roomberry due to a massive anticipated loss of revenue.

Roomberry relied heavily on traffic coming from Western social media such as Facebook and Instagram which were outlawed in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine and resulting Western sanctions. Local media outlet RBC claimed to have seen a letter from Khaikin to IIDF claiming that as a result of the loss of traffic, a contract worth 80-85% of Roomberry's revenue was due to be discontinued. IIDF relented and divested at a loss of RUB1 Million ($12,000).

IIDF claims to have discovered that in January 2020, Khaikin registered a second legal entity which ran in parallel with Roomberry and was used to conceal around half of the real estate marketplace's revenue. The lawsuit claimed that this was part of a "multi-stage preparation" to encourage IIDF to withdraw its stake in Roomberry with minimal costs to the founders.

Khaikin will now compensate the fund without the lawsuit reaching the courtroom.

July 19, 2023
Harvey is an experienced property journalist and copywriter. He has written about the property industry since 2015, starting at The Property Franchise Group in the UK, before moving to Spain to work for Spotahome. He has blogged for the private rented sector, ghostwritten for UK property experts and written case studies for franchise owners around the UK. Harvey joined Online Marketplaces as a News Editor in 2022.

Subscribe to our mailing list to get the famous, free Friday newsletter!

News and analysis to help build better online marketplace businesses, in your inbox, every Friday

Related News

Cooperrocketacq
Rocket to Acquire Mr Cooper Mortgage Service for $9.4 Billion

Rocket Companies has announced a $9.4 billion all-share deal to acquire Mr. Cooper, the largest mortgage servicer in the United...

Read More
Scout24 German Houses 1
Scout24 Closes Another Data-Focused Acquisition

Germany-based marketplace operator Scout24 has continued its expansion into real estate data with the acquisition of Austrian proptech firm ImmoUnited....

Read More
People Roundup 28Mar 2
People Roundup: Aviv Group, Pisos.com, Kleinanzeigen, REA India, Anjuke

There have been several high profile C-suite moves in this week's People Roundup. We'll start in Europe...   Europe: Aviv...

Read More
Product Update 2025Mar28 3
Product and Services Roundup: Zoopla, ViewIt

This week's Product Roundup starts in the UK, where it's all about Zoopla...   UK: Zoopla's MyHome product is used...

Read More

Editor's Pick