Digital Sky Technologies Aims $1B Digital War Chest at Asia, Australia and UK

Yuri Milner, Digital Sky Technologies’ CEO, continues to raise successive funds around digital investments, following money into Facebook, Groupon, Zygna and the recent April acquisition of AOL’s ICQ. With a new $1B war chest – or warhead – as its next stage of funding, DST will likely be adding $10-$100M+ to digital companies that do not have the same media cache as digital brands in the States.

Strong in the social space already, expect DST to pursue digital companies who are already profitable, partner well with the Facebook mothership, and scale very well.

Via NYT/Reuters: Russian Internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies, which bought a $300 million stake in Facebook last year, is preparing to buy stakes in dozens of well-known Internet companies, its chief executive said. Yuri Milner told the Sunday Telegraph that DST had built up a war chest of more than $1 billion to fund the next stage of its investment strategy and said it was actively looking at companies in Asia, Australia and Britain. The newspaper said Milner declined to name any of the investment targets but refused to rule out buying a stake in Twitter, the highly popular microblogging site.

In terms of Asia, monetizing social nets has been happening well in advance of the west, which should appeal to DST. With Google on new terms with China, the Asian super-nation, DST may find itself with more opportunities to invest than usual, given Google’s rapid-fire acquisition rate in the States. In addition, it will be very interesting to watch how Zygna and Groupon enter China and India.

For Australia, where I ventured last year for the Auckland XMediaLabs conference, there’s plenty of opportunity and smarts in the games market. Here’s a comprehensive Aussie startup list to get a lay of the land. My main takeaway was that many of the more unique backend/dev companies have yet to experience global growth or sales. Big opportunity for globalization.

In the UK, similar to Australia, opportunities abound yet many startups have a difficult time jumping the pond. However, as London sits at the apex of the Continent’s financial and digital businesses, there’s ample fishing. If DST could get into Spotify, I assume they’ll take the leap and put some relative value in around the music labels’ investments. A little projection, but Facebook, via DST or of its own accord, becomes the entry point for Spotify in the States and other territories. The US definitely needs some “Spotification” soon to check iTunes.

Of interest, the UKTI (UK Trade & Investment Group) does a stellar job at bringing UK digital teams to the US and vice-versa, and Think London is well focused on newco growth; in addition, a few other promising UK sites for startups: The Next Web, Chinwag and The Glasshouse. In sum, DST is diving into lesser known global markets to find values. Expect controlling investments and newer $1B valuations to start hitting the US from other shores in short order.