Telegram is a popular, global, cloud-based instant messaging, videotelephone and voice-over service company. Particularly popular with crypto-enthusiasts, at the end of 2017, Telegram came up with a plan to raise funds to support the development of a new crypto asset, dubbed Gram, and a network originally planned as the Telegraph Open Network. Proceeds would also fund further expansion of the messaging service that had previously been funded by the founders.
Telegram set out to fundraise in two distinct stages. The first involved the sale of contractual rights to acquire Grams if and when they were successfully launched. The second stage would be to release the Grams themselves. This process is widely known as the SAFT — an acronym for Simple Agreement for Future Tokens — although the contracts issued by Telegram did not actually use that particular label.