Fintech company Xsolla has responded to accusations of ties to Russia, after Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov called on representatives of the game development industry and payment operators to refuse cooperation with it.
This is reported by VentureBeat, referring to the comments of Xsolla CEO Chris Huvish to Axios.
How Xsolla responded to the investigation by AIN.UA and AIN.Capital
In September 2023, AIN.Capital and AIN.UA journalists conducted an investigation, establishing that Xsolla not only did not close the Russian office, but also continued to hire people there.
According to Huvish, the announcement to liquidate the Russian “subsidiary” of Xsolla Russia Holding LLC with an office in Perm never meant closing the office , but simply a reduced presence (“reduced presence” means 240 employees as of September 2023). Huvish refused to respond to the fact that the company's employees and Xsolla itself continue to pay taxes to the terrorist regime of Russia. According to him: “These are taxes that are directed to what the government of this country decides to use them for. This question is quite slippery when you start to dive into it. Xsolla also did not comment on the status of an “enterprise of special importance” in the Russian Federation, which the company could have acquired thanks to close ties in the Kremlin. And in response to Fedorov's call, the company says that no client has canceled a contract with it , referring to the fact that “most international companies operating in Russia have not completely left there.”
However, according to AIN.UA, at least one company from Xsolla's portfolio stopped cooperating with it. In addition, the editors know that the global payment processing company Mastercard has blocked the accounts of the legal entity Xsolla in the Russian Federation.
