Retail Banking Institute | The digitalicious future

The digitalicious future

A big new operator in Mexico is Plata, which has a fascinating backstory. In 2021 we interviewed Nero Tollardo of Tinkoff Bank, which had earned a 4-star rating in the Lafferty Bank Quality Ratings. Nero was VP of Strategy for the bank, which had been founded by billionaire Russian businessman Oleg Tinkov. Tollardo told us that digital bank Tinkoff was composed of data scientists and technologists rather than traditional bankers. In 2022, Tinkoff was among banks put under sanction despite founder Oleg Tinkov's criticism of the Ukraine invasion, and Tinkov was forced to sell his share of the bank to Vladimir Potanin. But, once a digital banker, always a digital banker? Tallardo left Russia but spotted an opportunity in Mexico, where he established Different Technologies along with former Tinkoff CTO Danil Asimov, and David Isakhanian, a software developer and former head of mobile apps at Tinkoff. Different Technologies became Plata, and the fintech-turned-bank is the country's latest Unicorn after a Series A funding round raised $160 million. "The company, which received approval for a banking license from Mexico's regulators in December and focuses on consumer credit products, also disclosed it has one million active credit card users. The round was led by Kora and saw participation from Moore Strategic Ventures LLC and other US and European investors that were not named. The round comes amid a challenging funding environment for Latin American startups as interest rates in the US remain high relative to recent years. Mexico counted eight unicorns -- the term used for startups that reach a valuation above $1 billion -- before Plata's round, and had not seen a new entrant join the club since 2022, when fintech Stori and logistics operator Nowports reached the milestone, according to data from Tracxn." Three other former Tinkoff bankers headed for the Philippines where they created consumer finance business Salmon, which is a BNPL provider.