We could say that the last few (2-3) years were the years of FinTech companies, right?
According to the CFTE data more than 200 FinTech companies globally are Unicorns… and many more to come.
What makes some fintech companies successful and some of them even successful banks – called neobanks?
I will try to answer this question based on the story of the Tinkoff bank – a Russian neobank with more than 12mln customers!

The main driver for their success is the technology itself because of course, “technology first”. Speaking about the technology we have to mention – API usage, adoption of cloud, Big data, AI.
The existing new technologies allowed the newcomers with fewer resources and experience to overcome the traditional players by renting (infrastructure) or/and outsourcing activities. This allows them to focus on brand building and maintenance of trusted relations with their customers.
But what exactly can customers expect? Let’s see the successful example of Tinkoff:
Apart from technology the successful player has to introduce something new to traditional banking. These are: fast online onboarding (including CA opening, debit card issue, and delivery, and mobile banking), E2E online lending process – without visiting physical branch and signing with Qualified electronic signature.

But something very up-to-date is the lifestyle banking that Tinkoff has pioneered – services like entertainment and travel bookings!

So, let’s see the history of Tinkoff :
2007 – first credit card
2011 – mobile banking introduction
2013 – goes public
2016 Investment banking launch
2017 The Russian Neobank introduced personalized services and lifestyle banking
Personalized services include: Tinkoff Stories (user statistics and advertising), Voice assistant Oleg – AI enabled assistant/ personal finance adviser, Tinkoff messenger (chat) – possible by using data analytics and machine learning Tinkoff provides automated services to their customers.
Lifestyle banking with the following services – mobile network partnership with Tele2 Russia, entertainment – partnership with entertainment service providers, online travel agency – partnership with global distribution systems and travel aggregators and Super App – in 2020 introduction of Supper app ecosystem with all above features/services!
Users have more than million sessions monthly in the Supper app (mobile apps, Tinkoff stories, Tinkoff messenger…)!
Here is some data of Tinkoff:
- established in 2007
- 5.6 billion valuation on London stock Exchange as of December 2021
- around 12 mln customers (0,5 mln out of them business customers) – half of them active monthly
- profitable since the 3rd year of operation which is very difficult (rare) in this industry
The key of success? – not just banking but lifestyle as well (entertainment, travel) on a high technological level!
Sources and additional reading:
https://tinkoffgroup.com/company-info/summary/
https://www.whitesight.net/post/tinkoff-bank-deep-dive
https://www.tinkoff.ru/eng/media/news/09122019-tinkoff-launches-first-russian-super-app-eng/
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6877488316346839040/
That’s an interesting way of banking developed by Russians, but why it’s not present in western countries?