Fintech

Ozon to acquire Oney Bank to enhance financial service offerings

April 15, 2021

Ozon, a NASDAQ-listed Russian e-commerce major, announced today an agreement with Sovcombank to acquire Oney Bank. This cash transaction is still subject to regulatory approval; its exact amount , which should “not exceed $10 million,” will be determined at closing, Through this deal, Ozon is acquiring the licenses required to develop its offering of financial services around its marketplace. …

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Russian unmanned retail startup raises millions every few months, targets EU, UK and US markets

April 12, 2021

In late March Moscow startup Briskly raised $3 million from Maxim Poletaev and Gauss Ventures alongside two unnamed new investors. Poletaev, a former Sber executive, and Gauss, a Cayman-based fund with Russian connections, backed Briskly from the very beginning, with a $370,000 injection in 2019.  The deal came just five months after a previous $2 million round — and is preceding a new …

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QIWI teams up with Swedish Digital Alliance to launch SoftPOS-based contactless payment service

April 2, 2021

Swedish fintech player Digital Alliance AB and Russia’s QIWI Group have launched a new solution based on advanced SoftPOS technology. Initially launched in Russia under the brand ‘tap2go,’ the service will be made available on other markets in the course of 2021. The new service enables end users to accept card payments directly on their mobile devices, …

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Two startup entrepreneurs from Russia aim to “revolutionize SME finance” in Germany

March 22, 2021

Earlier this month in Germany, a Russian-founded startup  launched a “4-in-1 finance platform” for SMBs — a solution that automates admin and accounting processes.  The startup, dubbed Monite, also announced the completion of a €1.1 million pre-seed funding round, which involved no less than 10 investors. Among them are Berlin-based signals Venture Capital, Zurich-based Tomahawk VC, Turkish fund InVentures …

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Russian tip automation startup acquired by major bank 18 months after launch

March 17, 2021

Alfa-Bank is in the process of acquiring Netmonet, a startup that uses QR codes to automate tips in restaurants, cafés and beauty salons. In an agreement signed last month, the Russian lender is committed to acquire the company fully for an undisclosed amount.  Forbes Russia has estimated Netmonet’s valuation at approximately $4 million — a sizeable amount …

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Tinkoff launches AI-powered voice assistant on Clubhouse

March 13, 2021

Tinkoff, the Russian digital banking leader, has integrated its AI-powered voice assistant ‘Oleg’ into Clubhouse — claiming to be the first one in the world to do so. The capabilities of the voice assistant as a “a full-fledged Clubhouse user” are described as follows:  ‘Oleg’ can use its text-to-speech and speech-to-text capabilities (Tinkoff VoiceKit) in real time to “help …

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Russian tech giants go into fintech

March 8, 2021

Russian tech giants Yandex, Mail.ru Group, Ozon and Wildberries are developing their own fintech services in an expansion that could put them in stiff competition with the country’s leading banking institutions, Forbes Russia reports. NASDAQ-listed Yandex provides services ranging from music streaming to express grocery delivery. After failing to implement joint projects with Sber and Tinkoff last …

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Russian opposition finds refuge in bitcoin

February 19, 2021

As the value of Bitcoin soared this year, bringing cryptocurrencies back into the global spotlight, Russia’s opposition leader Alexei Navalny saw his team’s crypto wallet fatten.   Public blockchain data shows that a Bitcoin address tied to Navalny received 3.5 Bitcoin ($120,000) at the end of January as supporters rushed to donate to the Kremlin critic …

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Tinkoff launches online-offline payment service

February 18, 2021

Russia’s digital banking leader Tinkoff announced today the launch of an online and offline payment service for legal entities. Dubbed ‘Tinkoff Checkout,’ the service will operate “as a one-stop shop [for] companies to take care of all of their online and offline financial needs in one place.” The service will allow businesses to accept online payments, provide …

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Mail.ru Group, Alipay, USM, MegaFon and RDIF team up to develop payment and financial services

February 16, 2021

On Feb. 12 Alipay owner Ant Group, LSE-listed Mail.ru Group, mobile operator MegaFon, sovereign fund RDIF and Alisher Usmanov’s holding USM signed binding agreements to create a payments joint venture (PJV) and a financial services joint venture (FSJV). The deals, which follow an October 2019 non-binding agreement, are still subject to “a number of conditions including third …

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A challenge to Apple Pay: Yandex reportedly developing contactless payment service

February 11, 2021

Yandex plans to launch a contactless payment service, challenging Apple Pay, the leader on the Russian market in this segment, as reported by VTimes. According to an internal document seen by VTimes, the users of ‘Yandex Pay’ will be able to save their bank details in the system to settle purchases.  In an exchange with …

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Open banking startup secures $1.6 million from Russian-Belarusian state-backed fund

January 12, 2021

An award-winning fintech startup from Moscow, APIBank, has attracted 120 million rubles in Russia (some $1.6 million at the current exchange rate) from the Russian-Belarusian Investment Fund (RBF Ventures). As reported by CNews.ru, this is the first external capital infusion — in the form of a convertible loan — in this startup launched in 2018. The money will be used “to develop products for payment aggregators and marketplaces, and …

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