American venture funds became interested in the Ukrainian fintech sector after the bright and unbelievable success of Monobank. In addition, they are also interested in the Ukrainian financial market and fintech startups, so we can expect new announcements and deals in this industry in 2021. All these statements were made during an interview at Voice of America by LeoGaming CEO Alona Shevtsova. Together with the management of the Association of Ukrainian Banks (AUB) she held a number of working meetings in the United States with local companies, financiers, and foundations.
As a result of these meetings, AUB and LeoGaming announced the official launch of the internship program for Ukrainian specialists provided by the Open World Leadership Center (the US Congress), as well as the launch of a separate LeoGaming program together with their American colleagues. More details about the second program will be announced later.
“American venture funds became interested in Ukrainian fintech sector after the success of Monobank. By the end of 2020, the product offered by the bank without classic branches and offices managed to reach 3.2 million customers, while having 66% of active cards. Therefore, the bank plans to achieve the level of 5 million customers in 2021, which looks more than real. Monobank used only the local Ukrainian capital, which is something to be proud of.
In addition, there are many other success stories in different niches of the financial market in Ukraine. For example, iBox, EasySoft, as well as Sistema, and City24 networks are the leaders of the payment terminals market. They not only allow people to pay for different services but participate in the cashless transformation, by creating a unique source of replenishment of bank cards in cash. Another important thing is the active development of mobile money by the three largest mobile carriers, because they provide a non-cash and non-bank alternative for customers,” Alona Shevtsova told Voice of America.
The expert also told the audience about the modern trend. According to her, Ukrainians are massively switching to payments on the Internet, while the payment by using funds from the mobile balance is also steadily growing. Her thoughts are confirmed by the statistics of international payment systems: the growth of online payments reached 45% in 2020. Moreover, the share of card payments in offline stores is also growing. It is worth noting that 46% of all contactless payments in offline stores are made using a smartphone or other payment device.
“Besides, Mastercard and Visa support these trends, which were accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic. They actively work with market participants to develop non-cash payments. This is the main reason why international payment systems have become the main driver of the development of the cashless economy in recent years,” concludes Alona Shevtsova.
We would like to remind the audience that already in November 2020, the CEO of LeoGaming Alona Shevtsova was nominated for the title of fintech expert of the year by PaySpace Magazine Awards 2020.