WeChat Pay, the payment system of the popular Chinese instant messenger, is making its debut in Russia. In late October Russian Standard announced to be the first Russian bank to support such payments, with the Novotel Moscow Center hotel as the first participant in the program. “In the near future, other Russian Standard partners will …
Chinese WeChat Pay comes to Russia, Russian Mir goes global Read More
In what is perhaps a world’s first, Yandex.Checkout, the B2B branch of Yandex.Money, and Sberbank, the number one banking institution in Russia, have launched “B2B Payments,” a service intended for companies to accept online payments from corporate clients as easily as from individuals. The service (which can be activated only via Yandex.Checkout) automates invoice generation and makes online …
Russian companies can now receive B2B payments online in minutes Read More
Last week UnionPay, the Chinese bank card giant, signed collaboration agreements with four financial institutions from Russia, Georgia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The signing ceremony took place in Tbilissi, Georgia, with participation from the Chinese ambassador to Georgia, the vice-president of the Central Bank of Georgia, and the CEO of UnionPay International, Mr. Cai Jianbo. In Russia, …
UnionPay expands reach in Russia, Georgia, Central Asia Read More
Sistema Asia Capital, one of the corporate venturing vehicles of the Russian conglomerate AFK Sistema, is one of the main investors in a $30 million funding round for Indian e-credit startup Kissht. Singapore’s Vertex Ventures SEA (Temasek Holdings) has co-led the round, which also involved existing investors, Indian funds VenturEast and Endiya Partners, and China’s Fosun RZ Capital. Founded …
Sistema’s venture arm invests in Indian credit startup Read More
SimpleFinance, a Russian online micro-lending platform targeting small and medium-sized businesses, has agreed a $15 million equity investment deal with the Japanese fund SBI FinTech Business Innovation Fund LPS. The fund’s total capital commitment to SimpleFinance now stands at nearly $50 million, taking into account a first round of funding just one year ago. Launched in 2015, SimpleFinance offers …
Russia’s SimpleFinance secures $15 million from Japanese fund SBI Read More
Tinkoff Bank, a pioneer in P2P money transfers using a mobile number, has made available this service to Sberbank customers – expanding its potential audience to millions of customers of Russia’s leading savings bank. This service, which Tinkoff describes as being one of its most popular payment methods, will be made available to all Sberbank customers …
Sberbank customers can now transfer money using just a mobile number Read More
Tezis.io, a Russian startup that helps its users invest in stocks from Russian and US companies, has just secured some $1 million from Target Global Fintech Opportunities Fund (TGFOF) with participation from business angel Nikita Mikhin. Launched in 2016, Tezis currently claims to serve 6,000 individuals and as well as two Russian brokerage companies, Aton and …
Russian fintech startup Tezis.io secures $1 million, prepares for international expansion Read More
CardsMobile, a developer of contactless payment solutions, including mobile app ‘The Wallet,’ has raised an undisclosed amount in investment from Alfa Bank, a leading Russian commercial bank, in exchange for a 25% stake. The funding will be used to develop further the app, which allows consumers to save all their loyalty, bank and transport cards in …
Alfa Bank invests in CardsMobile to “fully correspond to the digital future” Read More
On February 9, Tinkoff Bank, the Russian digital lending giant, announced the launch of an R&D center at Skolkovo, the international tech hub under completion on the outskirts of Moscow. The new center will focus on Blockchain-based solutions and cryptoeconomics research in order to boost the Tinkoff’s financial ecosystem. “The ideas and prototypes developed at …
Tinkoff Bank now valued at $4 billion, launches R&D center at Skolkovo Read More
A previously unknown ring of Russian-speaking hackers has stolen as much as $10 million from U.S. and Russian banks in the last 18 months, according to a Moscow-based cyber-security firm that runs the largest computer forensics laboratory in eastern Europe. The MoneyTaker group broke into 20 systems, which includes 15 U.S. lenders, targeting ATMs with “mules” …
Hackers linked to Russians target banks from Moscow to Utah Read More
Fintech is exploding in Russia, albeit from a very low base. bne IntelliNews editor-in-chief Ben Aris sat down with Campbell Bethwaite, the managing partner of Redstone Capital (recently renamed from Finteca) to talk about the sector and its prospects. Redstone is a holding company that has set up a number of fintech businesses in Russia that are seeing exponential …
Yesterday Sberbank, the national savings banks, announced the completion of “the first-ever pilot blockchain payment transaction in the Russian banking industry.” The transaction used the IBM Blockchain Platform on the basis of HyperLedger Fabric. Sberbank’s partners and participants in the pilot were mobile operator MegaFon and its R&D unit MegaLabs, Alfa-Bank, and IBM. Sberbank CIB, …
Sberbank carries out Russia’s first payment transaction using blockchain technology Read More
