Russian-Belarusian venture investment Fund invested 120 million roubles in APIBank

The money will be used to further develop a platform that allows any business to provide banking services within its own services.

APIBank was created in 2018 by Alexey Petrov, the co-founder of the Internet accounting Department “My business”, with the support of the venture Builder Digital Horizon. The Russian-Belarusian venture investment Fund, established with the participation of RVC capital, became the first external investor of APIBank. As a result of the transaction, which was carried out in the form of a convertible loan, the startup received 120 million rubles.

APIBank creates embedded financial instruments, responding to business demand for comprehensive, hybrid banking products of the new generation. Aggregators of services, for example, need not only to open an account for the performers, but also to register them as self-employed and ensure a safe transaction between them and the customer — all this in the personal account. And marketplaces and retailers want to optimize settlements between suppliers and customers, simplify and accelerate the accrual of cashback, create their own payment service.

APIBank standardizes the process of data exchange between banks and non-financial companies. In essence, the platform becomes a “single window” through which not only a Bank can work with different companies, but also companies with different banks through a single interface. In just two years, the platform's partners have been Visa international payment system, Gazprombank group, AK bars Bank, Alfa-Bank, and Rosselkhozbank. On the basis of the platform, “Simply | Bank” for small business, a virtual Bank of the LetyShops cashback service, a service for the self-employed, which Alfa-Bank provides to its corporate clients, and other projects were created.

Mikhail Fedotov, Director of InfraFund RVC — managing partner of The Russian-Belarusian venture investment Fund: "Open Banking is a promising area, it is expected that the share of services based on open banking standards in the total revenue of banks will increase by a multiple. Foreign platforms have already attracted significant investments, according to expert forecasts, the revenue of this segment in 2022 will exceed $ 9 billion. I am sure that the Russian open banking market is now on the threshold of explosive growth. This is largely facilitated by the initiatives of the regulator and the financial community.
Despite the restrictions affecting the speed of making investment decisions this year, we with our Belarusian colleagues have successfully completed the transaction with APIBank and plan to close several more transactions in the near future".

Alexey Petrov, co-founder and CEO of APIBank platform: "We are very pleased that we have a partner who shares our view on the development prospects of Banking-as-a-Service. The funds raised will be used for the development of products for aggregator companies and marketplaces, promotion of ready-made solutions for banks".