A Baker’s Dozen of Our Favorite Russian Fintechs

A Baker’s Dozen of Our Favorite Russian Fintechs

News this week that Russia’s Yandex had agreed to acquire the country’s biggest online bank Tinkoff was a reminder of how vibrant fintech is not just in Europe, or even just in Central and Eastern Europe, but in Russia, as well.

As our Senior Research Analyst Julie Muhn noted in her coverage of the news, “This is a pretty big deal, not necessarily because of the size of the transaction, but because of the players involved. Yandex is essentially the Google of Russia– it is a tech giant in the region. And Tinkoff Bank is the world’s largest digital bank in terms of customers, boasting more than 10 million clients.”

With this in mind, we want to send out a shout-out to the many fintech companies based in Russia that have demonstrated their technologies live on the Finovate stage over the years. Here’s a look at our Russia-based alums going back to our first European conference in 2012.

PayReverse – FinovateAsia 2018. Founded in 2017. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers a white label cashback service.

Ak Bars Digital Technologies – FinovateFall 2018. Founded in 2016. Headquartered in Kazan. Offers a payments via face recognition technology, Face2Pay.

Tinkoff – FinovateFall 2018. Founded in 2006. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers a digital ecosystem of financial and lifestyle products and services.

JuicyScore – FinovateMiddleEast 2018. Founded in 2016. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers a digital risk-management-as-a-service solution for the financial industry.

SMART Valley – FinovateEurope 2018. Founded in 2017. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers a distributed innovation platform that enables key players to collaborate effectively.

Speechpro – FinovateSpring 2017. Founded in 1990. Headquartered in St. Petersburg. Offers a voice biometric technology, VoiceKey.FRAUD for use in contact centers. Finovate Best of Show winner. U.S.-based subsidiary of Russia’s STC Group.

Sberbank – FinovateSpring 2016. Founded in 1841. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers banking and financial services as the core bank of an international financial group. One of the largest banks in Russia and Europe.

C24 – FinovateEurope 2015. Founded in 2013. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers a multi-channel platform that enables users to connect and aggregate their accounts with different banks. Became Paysend.

LifePay – FinovateEurope 2015. Founded in 2012. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers payment services as one of the largest mPOS EMV chip and pin companies in Russia.

My Wishboard – FinovateEurope 2014. Founded in 2013. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers a social crowdfunding platform to help users fund their goals along with the help of friends, family, and subscribers.

SoftWear Finance – FinovateEurope 2014. Founded in 2012. Headquartered in St. Petersburg. Offers a platform that enables banks to provide their customers with the best possible user experience regardless of platform or device.

Yandex.Money – FinovateSpring 2013. Founded in 2002. Headquartered in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Offers a fast, reliable way for online businesses to collect payments for Russians and customers in Russian-speaking countries. The solution, since sold to Sberbank, originally was launched by Yandex, the leading IT company and search engine in Europe.

LifePAD – FinovateAsia 2013. Founded in 2012. Headquartered in Moscow. Offers a “personal online bank manager” in a table, providing customer service 24/7.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Bitcoin-based P2P Lending Platform Bitbond Raises $670,000
  • WePay Closes $40 Million Series D Round Led by FTV Capital
  • Misys Launches FusionBanking Essence Islamic

Around the web

  • SEKUR Me debuts Apple Pay for online purchases featuring universal buy-button and one-click mobile payments.
  • Intuit launches Sync with PayPal to help SMBs simplify tasks with QuickBooks online data-integrations.
  • LifePay announces plans to expand into Southeast Asia in wake of ipoxPro acquisition.
  • The Guardian highlights Azimo as a “well-established” alternative to banks regarding money-transfer overseas.
  • NYSE’s new Bitcoin Index is powered by Coinbase.
  • Anheuser-Busch Employees Credit Union to deploy online- and mobile-banking solutions from Digital Insight.
  • Merck Sharp & Dohme Federal Credit Union adds processing and additional solutions from Fiserv.
  • Community Banks and Credit Unions go live with Touch ID in mobile banking through Malauzai Software.
  • Arxan appoints Sam Rehman as chief technology officer.
  • Nerdwallet features Seattle-based Lighter Capital.
  • Bankless Times talks with Brock Blake, Lendio CEO, about the company’s success.
  • PayNearMe to offer its cash payment service to Telinta’s service-provider customers.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Alumni News—February 17, 2015

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgTop Image Systems partners with Hanse Orga to offer capture-enabled accounts receivable payment processing for SAP & ERP.
  • QuantConnect LEAN Engine now 100% open source.
  • JetPay to support WePay’s launch in Canada.
  • LifePay acquires iboxPro, expands into Asian markets.
  • Fast Company names Motif, Likefolio, Fidor Bank, LendUp, Blooom, and LearnVest in the top innovative companies of 2015 in personal finance.
  • PluraVida selects Dwolla to process transactions between media suppliers and buyers.
  • CNBC interviews CEO Michael Carter, BizEquity, on its business-valuation service.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

LifePay Presents its mPOS, EMV, Chip and Pin Technology for SMEs

LifePay_logo_high-res2.jpgThis post is part of our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2015.

LifePay is the largest mPOS EMV chip-and-pin company in Russia specializing in payments technology for SMEs.

We created LifePay to merge all of our products into one ecosystem that will support B2B and B2C financial services through the entire customer journey for both merchants and individuals.

LifePay is rolling out business solutions to new markets in Asia and Europe, including:

  • mPOS
  • Cash Register with LifePad and MDM system
  • Merchant portal with CRM and sales analytics
  • Online acquiring
  • Credits for merchants
  • POS credits for individuals

 

Presenters: CMO Anna Yanchevskaya; Vlad Pyatak, manager of special events; Anna Filatova, marketing specialist

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Product launch: January 2015
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Consumer (B2C), Direct to Business (B2B) through financial institutions
HQ: Moscow, Russia
Metrics: 15,000 merchants; 1,500+ active merchants; 500,000+ end users; $2+ million monthly payment volume

Alumni News—February 6, 2015

  • Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for Finovate-F-Logo.jpgCardFlight releases its mobile POS app, SwipeSimple 2.0.
  • Sky News reports Temasek is investigating a possible purchase of Misys.
  • The Observer features Ripple Labs in its look at the “race to replace bitcoin.”
  • Column on digital money accounting highlights, Mint, Venmo, and Coinbase.
  • Investopedia compares Motif Investing to investing with traditional exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
  • Forbes highlights Betterment, Wealthfront, FutureAdvisor, blooom, Motif Investing, and Personal Capital in a column on roboadvisors.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

FinovateEurope 2015 Sneak Peek: Part 7

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FinovateEurope is less than a week away, and we’ve already surpassed last year’s record-breaking attendance. Soon, we’ll be sitting inOld Billingsgate Market Hall in London, enjoying tea while enjoying the first day of live demos at FinovateEurope.

Want to be a part of the largest FinovateEurope crowd ever? Get your ticket soon before it’s sold out.

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In this final post of our Sneak Peek series, we’re featuring Aire, Akamai Technologies, LifePay, MoneyHub, mydesq, Onlinepay.comSedicii, and Taulia. You can see all the posts here:


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Aire is an alternate credit score for people. Our mission is to help thin-file customers who qualify for essential financial products via this new score.

Features

    • Rescore credit rejections to lend to 15%+ more customers
    • Improve overall cost of acquisition
    • Minimal change to existing risk profile

Why it’s great
Aire can help turn a No to a Yes.

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Presenters

Aneesh Varma, Co-founder
Varma is a serial entrepreneur with a prior startup in enterprise retail tech, he started off in consumer finance at JPMorgan. He’s an engineer with a background in predictive algorithms quantitative finance.
LinkedIn

 

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Jon Bundy, Co-founder
With 14 years across financial technology, Bundy has been building risk and data products with an additional expertise in fraud detection and AML as well. He was previously at RBS, Searchspace and Symbian.
LinkedIn

 


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Akamai Technologies is a leading provider of cloud security services, helping banks provide secure, high-performing user experiences on any device, anywhere.

Features

    • Focus on the source of the request
    • Determine the extent to which that source has sent malicious requests in the past
    • Make predictions regarding how much that source can be trusted in the future

Why it’s great
The Akamai Client Reputation service provides financial institutions the ability to forecast intent and protect applications against web attacks.

Presenters

Ory Segal, Director of Threat Research
LinkedIn

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Nick Coleman (pictured), Web Security Specialist

 

 


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LifePay is an mPOS EMV chip-and-pin solution, allowing SMEs to accept payments by plastic cards via smartphones, and get LifePay Stand and overall sales analytics.

Features

    • LifePay-mPOS chip & pin is a start-point of LifePay ecosystem
    • LifePay offers the LifePay Stand solution with a portable printer and cashbox as a next-gen cash register.
    • Merchant’s portal

Why it’s great
LifePay – inspiring Asia


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MoneyHub puts the user at the center of their financial universe and helps them visualize their future. MoneyHub’s Ecosystem will empower people to connect, share data and collaborate with their financial advisers and institutions like never before.

Why it’s great
Your customers are already using MoneyHub, why not see how you can use it with them?

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Presenters

Toby Hughes, CEO MoneyHub
Hughes, Founder and CEO of MoneyHub, is an entrepreneur with more than 10 years of digital marketing and technological innovation experience in financial services.
LinkedIn

 

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Dave Tonge, CTO
Tonge, CTO at MoneyHub, has a strong technical skill-set and entrepreneurial instincts. Dave specializes in innovative business strategy and agile software architecture.
LinkedIn

 


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mydesq is an iPad-based workbench which combines products, clients, accounts and analytics providing wealth managers the information advantage to work smarter.

Features

    • Work from anywhere, anytime
    • Simplify work
    • Increase Sales & Service

Why it’s great
It revolutionizes and simplifies the way wealth managers work.

Presenter

Milan Vora, CEO & Founder
LinkedIn


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onlinepay.com is a mobile wallet for students. Share, buy and top up!

Features

    • Share your money with your friends
    • Make purchases directly from your mobile phone
    • Top up your gaming accounts  

Why it’s great
onlinepay.com is a mobile wallet, designed for fun and sharing money, convenient mobile shopping and top up of gaming and trading accounts.

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Presenters

Vladimir Kovalevskiy, Director
Kovalevskiy has in-depth experience in the payment and e-commerce fields in Russia and abroad, including projects related to mobile payments.
LinkedIn

 

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Anfisa Chernaya, Marketing Manager
Chernaya is working in marketing field for last 5 years.
LinkedIn

 


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Sedicii eliminates the exposure (storage and transmission) of private data required to authenticate.

Features

    • Sedicii Payments Card Authentication
    • Sedicii Mobile Authentication
    • Sedicii Contact Centre Authentication

Why it’s great
It is innovative technology for more secure authentication and identity verification.

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Presenters

Rob Leslie, CEO
Leslie’s track record includes part of the original management team to establish/grow Dell Japan to $300M TO in 4 years. Leslie also co-founded PTS Japan, sold in 2000, having achieved $33M valuation in 5 years.
LinkedIn

 

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Richard Coady, Commercial Director
Coady has held senior positions with BT, WBT Systems, Prometric. He will work towards the implementation of the International Sales strategy for the Sedicii portfolio of authentication applications.
LinkedIn

 


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Taulia transforms supply chains, enabling organizations to create a healthy relationship between suppliers and buyers.

Features

    • Sets up a SaaS network between a buyer and all its suppliers with eInvoicing
    • Uses network to offer all suppliers an opportunity to get paid early using third-party finance
    • Preserves buyer capital

Why it’s great
Taulia solves the buyer/supplier payment dilemma.

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Presenters

Matthew Stammers, European Marketing Director
Member of the European management team with responsibility for launching Taulia in Europe. Previously worked for Bottomline Technologies and Capita and holds a Henley MBA.
LinkedIn

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Christophe Juvanon, European Solutions Consulting Director
Key member of Taulia’s European team responsible for understanding customer’s requirements and solution fit. Previously employed by OpenText and DHL. Holds a post-grad degree from Napier University.
LinkedIn


 

That concludes our Sneak Peek series. You can catch all 70+ companies as they demo live at FinovateEurope on February 10 and 11. Pick up your ticket here.

Questions? Check out our FAQ.

LifePay Introduces its Financial Ecosystem

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This post is part of our live coverage of FinovateEurope 2014, and has been updated.

Starting us off after the noon break is LifePay from Moscow.

“Today we are talking about our evolution from ordinary mobile card reader solution to the LifePay Ecosystem.
Over 1.5 years of existence, we have connected more than 8,000 companies to LifePay, and also created a complete closed system of inside interaction. The components of LifePay Ecosystem include:
  • Mobile app builder for business apps (iOS and Android)
  • Consumer downloads building app with order delivery via LifePay mPOS (accepts card payment; SMS receipt with LifePay Wallet offer)
The app tracks all transactions and gives the opportunity to pay for further bargains without taking your card out of your pocket. LifePay Stand, a free tablet for business with preinstalled ecosystem software.”
Presenting Vladimir Akimov (COO) and Viacheslav Semenchuk (CEO) and Helena Spirina (customer)

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Product Launch: January 2014
Metrics: Money raised: $2.6 million; number of employees: ~30; revenues: ~200,000 RUR; registered users: over 5,500; readers realized: over 15,000; website traffic: 100,000 DAU
Product distribution strategy: Direct to Business (B2B), through other fintech companies and platforms
HQ: Moscow, Russia
Founded: September 2012
Website: life-pay.ru
Twitter: @LifePay