All сrypto-friendly neobanks: 8 ICO-backed new players

NEW ICO-BACKED CRYPTO-FRIENDLY
NEOBANKS VS «CLASSIC» FINTECH NEOBANKS:
REINVENTING THE WHEEL
- in development
Anna
MyBank
Qonto
Soldo
Ferst Digital
Fidor Bank
BABB
2getherbank
Change Bank
Polybius Bank
Narbonne
FIINU
Bankera
- live
Nubank
Loot
Koho
Pepper
Morning
Lintel Bank
Chime
buddybank LunarWay
Starling bank
neat
Canvas
Osper
Bankaaol
WeBank
Bank Mobile
Compte Nickel
DoPay
Coconut
Final
ImaginBank
Pockit
QapitalSoon
Jibuan
GoBank
AlboNeon
Hello Bank
Monese
Tandem
KAKAOBANK
Revolut
Tide
SECCO
Tochka
Tangerine
Crypterium
- live with banking license
Сrypto-friendly
for Retail2
3
4 Classic ﬁat
for Retail
N26
Banco Original
Monzo
Atom
Holvi
CivilizedBank
Classic ﬁat
for SME
1 Сrypto-friendly
for SME
on Nov 8.
stand #A 728
See you at
in the Fintech
Exhibition Area

02
NEW ICO-BACKED CRYPTO-FRIENDLY NEOBANKS
VS «CLASSIC» FINTECH NEOBANKS: REINVENTING THE WHEEL
The overview covers 8 crypto-friendly neobanks (2 have already held ICOs, 6 are in the process). They
have already raised more than $45 million in cash, and are going to raise about $150 million in aggre-
gate. This is about half of the investment attracted in 2016 by “traditional” fintech neobanks, which are
higher in number and at a later growth stage!
None has gone live - at best, they have implemented a registration module for the future neobank
(digital KYC). But even these solutions in the field of blockchain-based digital KYC, judging by the
information available, have not been accredited by the central banks or data protection authorities.
Meaning that these startups just have it.
All are going to serve retail customers – no one is focusing on small and medium business. Whereas
in the context of major problems with traditional banks and the existing (not in the future but current)
needs for crypto-friendly neobanks, it is the SMEs that are now the most mature target audience: about
500 startups that have already held ICOs (raising over $3 billion which they can’t freely use), crypto-ex-
changes themselves, crypto-payment startups, and other community members. Moreover, these SMEs
are now bringing greater number of retail customers (their employees, partners and customers) than
those predicted in the future by new crypto-friendly neobanks.
They are all being established by those who have launched startups before (in some cases fintech
startups, but not Class A names), but not banking startups (lacking the experience of communicating
with the regulator), neobankschallenger banks. For example, one of the startups had successfully raised
money through the ICO, but when they have applied for a license, they have discovered that the
regulator was not ready to accept phiath in the bank's capital after the conversion of the crypt raised
from the ICO. Considering that almost all of them are going to apply for their own licenses, but none of
them have ever done it before, the question arises: there is no doubt that they know how to make cool
applications, but do they have enough experience to launch and run a regulated bank?
One crypto-friendly bank has made a pretty strange move claiming: we accept crypto to establish a
crypto-friendly bank, but "in the beginning we will not work with crypt, in order to obtain a license first."
It sounds like "we are opening a gay-friendly bar, but we won’t serve gays for the time being, and, just to
be on the safe side, we will participate in gay-bashing because the society requires such behavior." Am I
wrong?
They all reincarnate “card + app to manage your account” – exactly what has been done a long time ago
by the previous and current generations of "traditional" fintech neobanks. That is, instead of taking into
account their best practices and adding blockchain / crypto component - they are really reinventing
the wheel. “I want to give rise to a new style of verses but I would like to start with reinvention of the
English language”. If you are a blockchain expert who is well aware of the current needs of the crypto
world, shouldn’t you add your knowledge and functionality (and licenses) to existing neobanks, actively
building partnerships with them rather than cannibalize the immature market?
The Bubble generation isn’t accepted by traditional
banks (even by fintech-neobanks). Bitcoin’s capitaliza-
tion is around $100 billion, ether’s capitalization is
around $30 billion, the total funds raised through ICOs –
more than $3 billion. No one is waiting for you.
Banks have "little or no appetite" to get involved with
bitcoin and cryptocurrencies due to fears of a bubble
and illicit activity associated with it, the chief executive
of Credit Suisse said. The chief financial officer of ING
also weighed in on cryptocurrency worries, saying that,
although digital assets are an effective means of
exchange, the bank was not advising clients to in invest
in them.
Almost all major banks refuse to accept money after the
conversion of the cryptocurrency. Let's call things by
their own names - traditional banks hate the crypto. But
this hatred is stemming from the lack of understand-
ing, fear of uncertainty and laziness rather than anger.
The money that bank receives after the conversion of
the cryptocurrency goes through compliance depart-
ment where forty-fifty year old “experienced” employees
simply do not understand what it is and where it came
from. And here is the most stupid thing: if they spend
time to sort out the issue, nobody will praise them for
that (therefore they lack motivation), but if they make a
mistake, they will be fired.
If you convert crypto into fiat and transfer to your bank
account less than $50,000, most likely, everything will
go smoothly, and you will tell the market that there are
no problems and everything works without failures. If
you convert from $100K to $300K, the situation is
5050. But if more than $500K, you will definitely have to
talk to your bank's compliance. KYC, AML, source of
funds… It would even be good that they ask all these
questions if they were more tech-savvy (quick and
convenient), and if they really wanted to figure it out. But
no one wants to sort out your issues; therefore, you get
your "account freeze" and "notification of the need to
close within 30 days."
The Problem: Making
digital money tangible

03
Why does bank compliance is not willing to understand
your issues? First, they already have a large and understand-
able business (with which they are familiar), and they are not
interested in a new and small (albeit fast-growing) business
because its profitability is still small, the risk of losing the
current big business is big, and there are many issues they
will have to deal with. Second, imagine a specialist in
compliance. He/she is 40/50 years old, not highly paid,
without any career perspectives. Their mindset is built on
the past (instead of the future) and their decisions are
conditioned "how to avoid something bad to happen”
(instead of "how to help something good to grow easier
and more convenient"). They see a lot of transactions daily
and finally they see some odd transaction after the conver-
sion of the crypt, and … they block it. Why? Not because
they are bad people. Simply because they don’t know
anything about blockchain, cryptocurrencies and ICO - and
in their world "everything that is odd is forbidden". They
could even address the matter and the client, but it would
take too much time and no one would give them a premi-
um for this. But if they make a mistake, they will be fired.
Therefore, they send a page or two of dreary questions, and
then simply block the account.
Are there any "workarounds"?? For sure. In return to one or
two pages of questions provide ten to twenty pages of
meticulous and detailed answers, thus, “starving the bank
out.” However, you need substantial capital for this purpose
as you will have to spend money on your back office
(lawyers and accountants) in order to collect and accurately
store all papers, electronic statements and screenshots of
all transactions on mining, receiving, buying and selling of
the cryptocurrency; to be able to quickly reply with
exhaustive explanations (with schemes and conclusions)
about blockchain, cryptocurrencies and ICO; describe how
you and your contractors underwent KYC, AML, source of
funds procedures; provide full review and conclusion on
your partner exchanges. You should better hire a large audit
company (such as Deloitte or E&Y) $30-50K, which
regulatory verifies what kind of business you do, who you
cooperate with and how, where your crypto comes from
and how you spend fiat money. You will also need to come
up with different purposes of payments from your bank
because the "receiving bank" will have questions about the
origin of funds, and regular similar transactions with the
same justifications will raise questions.
Alternatively, you can find some shitty bank in a third
world country that will not ask you questions. But in
practice the questions will not disappear anywhere and will
arise each time you make a payment outside your shitty
bank. Let’s assume you have found a shitty bank that is
friendly to this type of operations, or have armed yourself
with an army of lawyers / accountants / auditors and
defeated your clear and large traditional bank. The
problems will still be there. If you make transactions in US
dollars (and most transactions are sooner or later
transferred to dollars at some stage), then you face the
"problem of correspondent banks" in the SWIFT system.
Your bank should have a correspondent bank in the United
States, so that its transactions are conducted around the
world through such "superfluous intermediaries". If suddenly
your bank "gets on the radar" (will raise questions) of the
correspondent bank (and sooner or later, especially with the
growth of such transactions, questions arise), then your
friendly bank will get to know who it should (not) be friends
with. And this is the point when you need to make your
choice whether you want to be as inconspicuous as
possible in order not to attract attention, and be constantly
hiding and avoiding questions. Or you have legally earned
your money and want to build new services and a new
economy, and do not want to waste time and resources on
any political and bureaucratic nonsense?
Why the existing cryptocurrency wallets and cards can’t
solve this problem? Since these are half-hearted
solutions (it's like gluing more and more plasters on the
arm affected by gangrene). You depend on your partner
bank. And if you reach some large amounts within its cash
flows (in fact the business strategy of such partner banks
that agree to such an additional risk is to "drown" your
transactions in their core business so that they are not
noticed, and receive additional income for the risk), the risks
that this bank will be approached by senior bankers
(regulators and correspondent banks) and asked to stop
working with you are not eliminated but simply deferred to
a later date. Check the spending limits for these kinds of
cards - though it's great that such cards do exist, - but the
limits allow you to painlessly buy coffee and t-shirts, while
such limits will not work for larger purchases or full-fledged
business. They work only for retail customers. What shall
SMEs or freelance entrepreneurs do?
BABB Yes 2016Plan $50 mn (ICO)UK
Everyone is a
bank
Retail
Polybius Bank Yes 2017$30 mn (ICO)Estonia
Regulated bank for the
digital generation
Retail
Fiinu Yes 2017Plan $75 mn (ICO)UK
Blockchain-friendly
British bank
Retail
Bankera Yes 2017Plan $30 mn (ICO)Lithuania
Digital bank for the
blockchain era
Retail
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Crypto-friendly neobanks
Name
Plan to apply for
a license
Funding FoundedCountry Motto/Idea Primary focus
Change Bank 2016$15 mn (ICO)Estonia
The future of
finance
Retail No
Narbonne 2017Plan $10 mn (ICO)Switzerland
Bank for crypto
miners
Retail No
2getherbank 2017Plan ICOSpain
The first collaborative
bank
Retail No
YesCrypterium 2017Plan ICOEstonia
The JP Morgan of
Cryptobanks
Retail
8
Analysis provided by:

04
The growth in digital banking is showing no signs of
slowing down. Convenience, speed and security aren’t
just extra benefits in consumers’ minds anymore. As a
rule, traditional bank institutions struggle to build a loyal
customer base, while the newly emerging digital-only
banks, like Monzo or Tandem, have all the attributes of a
strong brand and can keep customers both happy and
engaged with their product.
There’s no doubt that mobile banking is one of the most
fundamental parts of digital banking. In the future, we’ll
see even more payment solutions that take advantage of
the Internet of Things and consumers’ state of connect-
edness. Has the future of digital banking already begun?
Several fintech experts argue that what we see today is
not digital banking but simply digitized banking.
Hundreds year old financial products are being adapted
to the digital era and distributed via smartphones and
the Internet. Many believe that the real innovation will
sprout once the legacy banks and fintech startups
move away from modernizing the digital experience
and plunge themselves into launching new digital
capabilities.
One direction that is shaping up to be an extraordinary
one is blockchain banking. It’s a much faster, more
efficient and less prone to error process than the
traditional automatic clearinghouse (ACH) banking,
which can save money and time for banks and make
payments almost instantaneous for consumers. Smart
contracts allow consumers to exchange money, shares,
property or anything of value in a secure, conflict-free
way without anyone in the middle to take a cut. Thanks
to the transparency of smart contracts, buyers can easily
check merchants’ reviews and previous ratings before
buying as well as rate them themselves after receiving
the item. The rise of cryptocurrencies, or simply digital
money, has created a demand for a blockchain-based
bank. It wouldn’t be outrageous to suggest that most
of the future banks will be digital banks with tradition-
al banking services, supporting both crypto and
regular currencies.
It’s difficult to gauge what lies ahead, mostly due to yet
untapped potential of the blockchain technology. But
with the legacy banks jumping on the trend and new
blockchain-based startups exploring innovative use
cases of decentralized financial solutions, we can expect
the future of digital banking to unfold in many unexpect-
ed ways. Once we move away from digitizing traditional
banking services to inventing digital banking services
that suit the blockchain era, we will experience
increased accessibility and trust, cheaper and faster
services and a significantly more automated banking
industry.
- in development
Anna
MyBank
Qonto
Soldo
Ferst Digital
Fidor Bank
BABB
2getherbank
Change Bank
Polybius Bank
Narbonne
FIINU
Bankera
- live
Nubank
Loot
Koho
Pepper
Morning
Lintel Bank
Chime
buddybank LunarWay
Starling bank
neat
Canvas
Osper
Bankaaol
WeBank
Bank Mobile
Compte Nickel
DoPay
Coconut
Final
ImaginBank
Pockit
QapitalSoon
Jibuan
GoBank
AlboNeon
Hello Bank
Monese
Tandem
KAKAOBANK
Revolut
Tide
SECCO
Tochka
Tangerine
Crypterium
- live with banking license
Сrypto-friendly
for Retail
Overview of neobanks’ universe
2
1
3
4 Classic fiat
for Retail
N26
Banco Original
Monzo
Atom
Holvi
CivilizedBank
Сrypto-friendly
for SME
Classic fiat
for SME
Analysis provided by:

Change was founded in early 2016 in Singapore. Shortly after, angel investors backed the proposition with over
$200k in early investment. Since the beginning Change CEO vision was to combine innovative companies in
investment, e- wallets, remittance, credit and insurance to create a global fintech bank. Change aimed at simplify-
ing banking in Southeast Asia. The team focus all efforts in creating a simpler and more innovative financial
proposition, making use of blockchain technology to link independent high-performing fintech companies
around the globe.
To accomplish this goal, it has launched an ICO campaign, which ended on October 16 and has raised over $15
mn.
Change mobile application starts with the e-KYC platform. It can on-board users from anywhere in the world, in
record-time and requesting no more than what is needed automatically validating the users’ transactions with
other third-party service providers through Tokenised KYC Information Sharing. The quest towards finance
without borders starts here, designing a modern bank that is global from day one.
Launching in December 2017 Change's crypto wallet with simple sign-up with minimal information required
to store & send cryptocurrencies is being tested by beta testers. Change’s Wallet facilitates the storage of all
major cryptocurrencies, easy management of crypto portfolios, simple transfers of funds between peers, and a
multitude of other functionalities.
05
CHANGE BANK

Change’s crypto wallet is secured by applying the
highest industry standards. Change works together with
a leading wallet security provider in the industry to
ensure the safety of funds. The funds are also secured by
a combination of hot and cold storage solutions, which
provides further security. The ID of the multi-asset wallet
is user's e-mail address and/or phone number. User
registration automatically creates a blockchain wallet.
Access to your wallet is locked by a 6-digit pin-code and
any transfers out from your wallet is also secured by a 2
Factor Authentication (2FA) to provide an additional layer
of security.
Every crypto investor faces the same problem: opportu-
nities to exchange digital coins for goods and services in
our everyday lives are very limited. Buying with crypto-
currencies should be as easy as buying with dollars,
euros, or yen. Change Card is a card that intends to
solve this issue, allowing users to spend their cryptocur-
rencies in millions of online and offline locations
worldwide. Cryptocurrencies held within the Change
wallet and will only be converted into fiat currencies in
real time at the point of payment transaction. With
cryptocurrency spending card Change brings cryptocur-
rencies to offline use. The first 500 cards (cards are not
exist yet) are given to the first token sale contributors. In
addition, card holders will be earning rewards by paying
with Change Tokens.
Change issue cards using industry leader in crypto
payments processing. The issuer is a principal member
of leading payment gateways such as Visa and Master-
card in Europe and has strong security protocols,
including real-time updates to electronic verification
solutions & fraud. Change’s card systems allow for
industry leading dynamic CVV functionality that gener-
ates a unique CVV for every transaction. Change Card
holders can use the cryptos they stored on their Change
wallets to pay for services and products at all Mastercard
merchants around the world. The company plans to
start sending out the first cards in December 2017,
shortly after the launch of Change App.
In 2018, Change has set to launch the global financial
technology marketplace on blockchain which will
aggregate the best ways to invest, insure or lend and will
let you use these services from a single interface &
wallet. Change vision goes beyond just using cryptocur-
rencies for payments. “It is time that you could also use
your cryptos to invest in stocks, P2P loans, real-estate or
anything else you can imagine. It is time that you could
buy travel or car insurance instantly with your Ether or
take a loan in bitcoin. Not We just believe in de-central-
ized data but also in the power of de-centralized
services. Think of Change as an "AppStore" for special-
ized financial service companies that outperform your
bank, while removing the need to sign up or deposit
funds to these services individually. Invest in a diversified
stock portfolio or real estate, finance loans, sign travel
insurance - all from one interface with complete
transparency and zero delay.”
"We live in a time where for almost every single service a
bank offers, there is a fintech company that utilizes
state-of-the-art technology and a lean & mean team to
provide a better, faster and cheaper service. This isn't a
forecast, this is today," says Kristjan Kangro, CEO of
Change. The company focuses on nailing one specific
service, be it transfers (Transferwise), payments (Stripe),
investing (Smartly) or insurance (Oscar). In order for the
marketplace to be regulatory compliant, Change is
building a multi-tiered standardized KYC
(Know-Your-Customer) utility. Users won't need to
present extensive information to simply sign up for the
app and get a crypto payment card. However, "to use
regulated fintech services, you'll need to verify your
identity" says Kangro. Estonia's e-Residency conducts a
thorough background check, while also having a very
strong potential customer-base to offer services to.
The API library will be open to all developers that wish
to be part of our financial ecosystem. By opening our
data, functionality and services to third-party develop-
ers, they can integrate their systems and Change can
expand its list of innovative services.
06
CHANGE BANK

Change marketplace integration allows various KYC
information to flow within the Change financial ecosys-
tem. This means that one digital identity will be applied
across all partners that have integrated. As Change's
platform becomes the standard of the industry for
shared KYC and easy integration, it will create a network
effect to pull more and more fintechs in to the ecosys-
tem. This is aimed to create a diverse financial ecosys-
tem that collaborates, innovates and thrives. Change has
partnered with the e-Residency project by the govern-
ment of Estonia, the most advanced digital society in the
world and it will be available to every of projected 10
million e-Residents. "Digital Identity is one of the keys to
solving financial inclusion so we are delighted that
Change is using our secure government-backed digital
identities to help solve this issue and develop their
business." - Kaspar Korjus, Managing Director of e-Resi-
dency.
Vision of the all-in-one platform for financial services is
not geographically bound by borders. Today’s technol-
ogy and regulation allows us to create a de-centralized
third-party marketplace that brings you the leading
financial technology products. ANYONE can use the
most suitable service provided from ANYWHERE. In 18
months, the Change API will be opened to credit and
insurance.
Change enables the allocation of funds to financial
services based in foreign countries, avoiding the
bureaucracy of traditional banks, bringing to life the
concept of truly borderless finance. Fintech companies
benefit from joining the Change Marketplace as they are
able to present their products to users of the crypto
bank, with no geographical restrictions. Local compa-
nies, expanding their user base, reaching millions. The
Change Marketplace is self- regulating, meaning that
while initial approval is decided by the Change team, a
fintech can only remain in the marketplace if it is popular
and satisfactory the services will be rated and usage
rates published.
Users will be rewarded for using the Change Card and
other third party services on the platform - online or
offline - receiving part of the transaction back in the
form of Change Tokens. Any time a user makes an online
or offline payment using Change Card, he or she will
receive a 0.05% rebate in the form of Change Token.
The rebate will double if the user pays using Change
Token. This incentive benefits token users and holders,
as it ensures that the currency is constantly being traded,
making it more desirable and valuable. For example, a
user that spends 3000 Change Token on a brand new
laptop will receive a rebate of 3 Change Token.
Third-Party Service Providers (TPSPs) share 20% of their
revenues generated from Change users with Change.
This 20% is distributed between Marketplace investors
and holders of Change token in a 1:5 ratio. With 16.67%
going to marketplace investors and 83.33% being
distributed to Change Token holders.
The Change has a team of 10:
Kristjan Kangro, CEO – Serial entrepreneur.
Previously CFO of Expara and CEO of SwingBy.
Artur Luhaaar, Partner – Serial entrepreneur.
Current CEO of Smartly (Singapore-based robo
advisor) and former analyst at an investment firm.
Gustav Liblik, Partner – Serial entrepreneur.
Current CEO of Catapult, former CEO of Wastes-
canner.
Edgars Simanovskis, CTO – Also the current CTO
of Danabijak. Previously an iOS developer for
various companies.
Change has a team of advisors, including Roger Crook,
ex-CEO of DHL Global Forwarding, Rob Findlay, Founder
of Next Money, and Miguel Soriano, Professor at the
National University of Singapore. Change has conducted
regular meetings with companies across the fintech and
cryptocurrency space.
07
CHANGE BANK

Narbonne will be a fully automatic bank without people
and offices. Narbonne - a crypto bank for users and
corporations. You will be able to spend your cryptocur-
rency around the world, using Narbonne debit cards.
It will use extensive experience in the field of online
micro-lending, peer to peer lending and traditional bank
lending. Narbonne team has experience in creating from
the scratch financial institutions in the field of
micro-lending in Spain, Germany and Russia. The
company’s head office will be in Switzerland.
Narbonne Services:
For Deposits in crypto-currencies - Narbonne
Wallet Safe
For any Settlement accounts for business -
Narbonne Wallet Enterprise
Globally accepted Debit cards
Pledged and unsecured loans
Technology Implementation will include Application of
smart bots with AI elements; Voice Control of online
banking system; Face recognition system determining
age and gender of person; A system made to handle
online applications of lending and deposits.
Tech developed by Narbonne team has already become
quite popular in the crypto community and is being used
by over 40 fiat money organizations. These include
banks and other famous micro-lending companies that
are based all around the globe.
Overall it will have debit cards, automated lending,
marketplace, private accounts safe wallets, secured
currency, deposit derivatives and smart contracts.
Narbonne will use the system of initial coin financing for
the Narbonne project. For this purpose, Narbonne will
issue a token: the Narbonne Credit Coin (NCC). The
token is acceptable by all Narbonne services. NCC token
can be used to make loan repayments to Narbonne.
There will be two groups to which tokens will be
distributed namely, Narbonne's debtors and partner's
lending institutions whose borrowers will use NCC. A
total of 1000 million of tokens will be issued for this
purpose. The token functionality issued initially is of
ERC20 standard.
08
NARBONNE

This year, NCC will be used by most of the lending
organizations dealing in cryptocurrencies. Over the next
year, the demand for NCC on exchanges can outgrow
its original volume by a factor of 25, which would lead to
an exponential growth of its value. From this point
onwards, the currency will be founded on the loans
made by Narbonne and loans that users have taken from
other banks around the world. The following steps will
be taken to create credit support for NCC: (1) Narbonne
issues Narbonne Credit Coin (NCC). As a result of the
ICO, a proportion of the tokens (35%) will be distributed
among banks and lending institutions around the world.
(2) As a condition for receiving these shares, these banks
will have to agree to accept loan repayments in NCC.
Why is Narbonne a crypto bank project? Banks have
long existed as centralized organizations for saving cash.
Bitcoin destroys cash. Therefore, we have preserved the
property of an organized bank: the technology for
lending. We have re-invented the approach of banks of
the past to create a decentralized crypto bank with a
marketplace that will now operate globally without
restrictions for all people. And our automated systems
will help in this.
It can be said that some innovations spur other innova-
tions, accelerating the emergence of newer and more
advanced technologies. Innovations now are emerging
so fast that that they become a part of our life almost
without us noticing, because more agile companies are
all trying to inspire customers to use their services.
Narbonne Team:
The founder and CEO of Narbonne is Maxim
Elsner. He founded AFCOM.TECH, currently one
of Europe's leading companies specializing in
software development for microfinance and
banking. He won the Microsoft Research Faculty
Fellowship Award.
The Chief Operating Officer of Narbonne is
Garcia Y. Maria. She has experience of work in
Unicredit Bank. She Has a PhD Finance.
The Chief Technology officer of Narbonne is
Vasily Nesterov. He has experience of leading
teams over 15 years in various technological
projects. He also worked in Microsoft Azure.
The developer team of Narbonne has developed
software for 40 banks and microlending compa-
nies.
09
NARBONNE

BABB (or Bank Account Based Blockchain) is the World
Bank for the Micro-Economy, a decentralized banking
platform that leverages blockchain, AI, and biometrics
technologies to offer anyone in the world access to a
UK bank account for peer-to-peer financial services. In
June 2016 BABB raised seed funding and was accepted
into the Level39 Accelerator Space in Canary Wharf. As
of October 2017 the company plans to do an ICO
planning to raise up to $50 mln.
“I believe BABB’s plan to bring banking services to
everyone, through the blockchain and the latest mobile
technology, will both provide new features not seen in
the high street banks and include many who have been
excluded from the traditional financial system,” said
Guido Branca, CEO of BABB. The company doesn’t
consider itself as a challenger bank but rather as an
enabler helping existing banks and financial institu-
tions to innovate.
The platform will allow users to “leverage their social
connectivity and their money in new ways” with more
control and greater transparency. It will connect users
to each other, allowing peer-to-peer transactions over
the network. Beneficiaries and senders will be connect-
ed directly, without resorting to unnecessary middlemen
or middle-layers of technologies.
In March BABB announced that it has entered into an
agreement with Contis Group Ltd to use their white-la-
bel license and Contis’ banking services infrastructure
to provide UK bank accounts, transfer and card payment
services. The first stage of this relationship will cover
integrating BABB’s core blockchain banking platform
with Contis’ banking services and payments infrastruc-
ture.
BABB plans to soft launch its blockchain-based banking
platform in 2017. The company is currently applying for
a full banking license and is seeking to enter the UK’s
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) sandbox. The compa-
ny is building a banking platform based on a “permis-
sioned” ethereum blockchain implementation of a
distributed ledger using smart contracts technology. The
platform is based on a decentralized information model
to minimize costs while maximizing data fidelity and
security. Using biometrics to facilitate client onboarding
and transaction authentication, with big data analytics to
optimize match-making and control risk and with
AI-based customer self-service intended to provide
banking services for all.
10
BABB

“This is why we say: “Everyone is a Bank” irrespective of
their income level”. Every user downloads the app,
provides a selfie and a voice print, and gets a UK based
account upon activation. With the BABB app, you can
open a UK bank account from anywhere in the world by
taking a selfie and saying a passphrase. Once you’ve
entered the BABB ecosystem, you become your own
bank. Anyone with a smartphone and an internet
connection can participate in BABB’s global market-
place. “You can send money to any other BABB user
anywhere in the world instantly and for almost no
charge. Simply choose the amount you want to send
and the person you want to send it to, and confirm the
transfer using your digital identity.” As a bank, you can
exchange currencies directly without any middlemen.
It’s cheaper, faster and easier than doing it any other
way.
A multi-sided platform, BABB is designed to provide
banking and other financial services to individuals and
small businesses. Customer data will be encrypted and
stored security on the blockchain where the permissions
for who can access or use that will be entirely controlled
directly by the customer.
The Black Card bridges the divide between the digital
world and the physical world. It is a secure payment card
that links directly with your BABB bank account via a
secure QR code or NFC tag. It allows both a debit-like
functionality, and can also be issued as a pre-paid card
for your friends and family. Retailers can accept payment
using the BABB card by simply downloading the BABB
app and scanning the QR code or via NFC. Payment is
made instantly into the retailer's bank account and the
funds can be used immediately. With the Black Card you
are able to spend your BAX in shops and peer-to-peer.
Payments can be made instantaneously, anywhere in
the world or for online shopping.
No personal information is stored on the card itself. If
you lose your card, you can easily disconnect it from
your bank account, preventing anyone else from using it
– all from your smartphone. If you find the card again,
simply scan the QR code via your BABB app and it
reconnects to your BABB bank account. New cards will
be available very cheaply in shops and from major online
retailers with next day delivery. Alternatively, pick up a
spare from a friend, scan the QR code with your BABB
app and you are good to go.
Social KYC: “Vouch for anyone you know, and give them
access to a UK bank account using only a smartphone.
BABB’s platform promotes trust. Therefore, on our
network, other users’ trust is enough to open an account
with core functionalities. Our innovative ‘Social KYC’
process allows anyone who is fully KYC-ed, with
validated documentation, to vouch for other users and
onboard them to the platform. In this way, we will
extend our services to millions of people without
requiring them to provide ID documentation. Our Social
KYC mechanism will promote exponential growth of our
user base. This is particularly useful for onboarding the
unbanked in emerging markets, seeing as one of the
main barriers they face is lack of documentation. As
BABB’s value is proportional to the number of users on
the network, there is a strong incentive for early adop-
ters to encourage their peers to get on board.
Removing barriers to access. To open a UK bank
account, the new member simply needs to download
the app, take a selfie and say a passphrase. By utilizing
biometrics and digital identity technologies, we can
remove barriers to access and create a frictionless
onboarding process. There is no need for documenta-
tion or face-to-face meetings with a bank managers.
The whole process will be at your fingertips.”
Social KYC is a key part of our strategy to create fully
banked communities and promote financial, economic,
11
BABB

and social integration. It will include those who cannot
provide relevant documentation such as low-income
employees, refugees, and asylum seekers. People are
stronger when they work together, and social KYC will
enable communities to become fully connected.
It is an Open Platform. Any business can accept support-
ed currencies, fully compliant, anywhere in the world.
BABB will empower the microeconomy, improving lives
and livelihoods and creating new opportunities for
individuals and businesses across the world. Businesses
and developers can create applications to plug seam-
lessly into the BABB platform. From freelancers
employed in the gig economy to global corporations,
BABB’s borderless integrated payment systems can
reduce the cost of doing business.
Despite building its banking platform on top of block-
chain technology, BABB has decided to stick with fiat
currency as opposed to developing a pure digital
currency–based banking platform. “Crypto is still a
challenge,” BABB CEO Guido Branca told Bitcoin
Magazine. “It will play a role, but we need to transition to
that new landscape. Stakeholders (central banks,
regulators and the banking community) are still evaluat-
ing [the use of digital currencies in the financial system].
We think the underlying technologies of blockchain,
smart contracts, tokens and distributed ledgers have a
role to play in easing this transition but we must walk
before we run.” “We are specifically targeting the
micro-economy/market while [other mobile banks] are
doing more or less the same services (but branchless) as
the established high street banks. We believe that the
financial market is so huge that many different [mobile
banking] models will coexist.”
Andrew Downin, innovation director at Filene Research
Institute speaking during the 2017 CU Direct DRIVE
conference in Las Vegas, said that BABB’s offering is an
“intriguing development.” BABB cautious in that it is
using a fiat currency [a government-based currency
such as dollars, Euro or pounds] as opposed to develop-
ing a pure digital currency-based banking platform.
Downin said this was a smart move. “We continue to see
valuation risk in digital currencies such as bitcoin, and
acceptance of these digital-only currencies is still
nascent,” he said.
The BAX token is the native currency of the BABB
platform. Token sale participants can buy and hold this
currency and benefit from the value of the platform.
The BABB team is a diverse group of visionaries span-
ning an exceptionally broad range of experience,
knowledge and cultures from across the globe:
CEO, Rushd Averroes is founder of BABB, leading
a diverse team of industry veterans to make his
vision a reality. He is a financial inclusion special-
ist and has an MA from University of Greenwich
in Microfinance and Financial Inclusion. Before
that, he attended the Ecole Polytechnique de
Lausanne and was awarded an IT Science Degree
in 2006. Rushd has managed a highly successful
Authorised Payment Institution (API) in the UK -
Wowpaymobi.
CTO, Jorge Pereira is an entrepreneur and
technologist, with extensive experience in
developing technology projects in a variety of
areas, for local and global markets. He founded
Seegno in 2008, a world-class web application
development firm, where he remains as an
advisor.
In 2013 he joined Uphold, where as CTO he was
responsible for the design and architecture of the
whole technology stack, as well as UI and UX of
its products. Ever since, Jorge has focused
intensively on fintech, developing products and
technology around Cryptocurrencies, Distributed
Ledgers, Regulatory Compliance, KYC/AML,
Fraud Prevention, Risk Mitigation, Trading,
Hedging, Bank Integrations and other areas
related to fintech platforms and applications.
COO, Adam Haeems is responsible for the daily
operations of BABB. He has a Master of Finance
from Cambridge University (Judge Business
School) and joins BABB fresh from an accom-
plished trading career at Bank of America Merrill
Lynch and a $1bn global macro hedge fund
(QCM). He is passionate about financial inclusion
and improving market efficiency within the
microeconomy.
12
BABB

Polybius Foundation, a financial services company
established this year and registered in Estonia, is building
a fully digital bank for businesses and individuals and the
“first bank in the world to specialize in financial services
for cryptocurrency startups and blockchain projects.” In
February 2017 Polybius Foundation announced the
opening of the Polybius Bank — the first European bank
specializing in financial services for companies dealing
with cryptocurrencies and blockchain worldwide.
Polybius Bank will combine features of modern banking,
IoT, Big Data and blockchain-based technologies while
also meeting security and UX requirements. Polybius
financial services will be fully interconnected with
international systems to respond to the transaction
needs of our customers worldwide. Polybius Bank will
operate on the principles of an Open API, employing
reputable innovations and service within the framework
of payment and data processing industry.
Polybius Bank will offer a traditional selection of financial
services such as deposits, credit financing and bank card
issuance, but also services especially targeted at
blockchain startups and projects such as credits
secured by cryptocurrencies as well as the ability to
create of investment portfolios based on cryptocurren-
cies.
Polybius Bank intends to apply for a EU financial
institution license. The concept is similar to BABB App
Ltd., a London-based startup that’s building a banking
platform using Ethereum smart contracts. But according
to our data, the European regulator has prohibited
Polybius from using funds received from the ICO to
fund capital requirements necessary to obtain a
banking license. Not clear how the startup is going to
deal with the issue.
The Digital Pass technology, developed by HashCoins
and implemented into Polybius Bank, will serve as an
automation and digitalization ecosystem, allowing us to
not only integrate single companies, but entire industries
enabling access to financial and industrial services in the
same Pass, at a click’s hand. Digital Pass is an independ-
ent environment as a service, which will serve as a
storage for encrypted individual information. The
security of access to the information will be enabled by
SSL certificates, dynamic PINs and, to some extent, by
biometrical data.
Polybius Foundation, signed a memorandum of under-
standing (MoU) with Ukrainian startup Attic Lab in April,
will be using Attic’s OpenBankIT blockchain platform to
provide payments. The other startups involved in the
digital bank’s foundation include CryptoPay, a crypto-
currency payments firm, HashCoins, a developer of
blockchain solutions, and AmbiSafe, a developer of
Ethereum smart contracts.
13
POLYBIUS

According to Ivan Turygin, co-founder and chairman of
Polybius Foundation, the company has big dreams for its
digital bank as it aims “to build the ultimate financial
infrastructure, sort of a ‘financial Google.'”
By providing the infrastructure for system-to-system
communications, Polybius Foundation will act as a
Trustee service and will be responsible for the control
and execution of compliance-related directives.
Designed to comprehend a variety of networks, the
infrastructure of Polybius Foundation features a
multi-segment decentralized data storage for personal
data, cryptographic encryption of all entries and secure
mechanisms of identification, authentication and
authorization of individuals and companies by means of
the interconnected instruments.
The data will be driven from all the channels related to
services of Polybius Bank, Digital Pass and its trusted
entities for further processing and analysis. Due to the
sensitive nature of the information and to ensure the
scalability in processing capacities, the evaluation of
data will be automated by means of applied AI
algorithms.
Polybius token - Polybius blockchain Share - repre-
sents the right to receive a part of company's profit. All
token holders are eligible for obtaining dividends
according to their stakes. Any number of tokens (100％)
sold at the end of ICO have right to receive 20％ of
company's profits. According to the company bylaws, at
the end of a financial year 20％ of the company's profit
is transferred to an ETH wallet. The ETH is then redistrib-
uted to all holders of Polybius Tokens according to smart
contract conditions.
While starting off as primarily a financial institution, the
Polybius project is meant to grow into your daily servicer
and companion ecosystem. Among other planned
features are scoring and sensitivity systems for credit
and insurance businesses, asset and currency trading
systems, seed & VC investment tools, eID and Trust
services and other features described in this Prospectus.
The Polybius ICO ended on 5th July, immediately
ranking among the top five largest ICOs of 2017,
raising $31 mn with 27,000 participants.
ICO proceeds are intended to be spent mainly, but not
exclusively on acquisition of licenses, building out the
systems, hiring the team and marketing. Polybius Bank
will rely on a set of public and private licenses instru-
mental to comply with many regulations, existing in the
financial field. Among them are the public EMI and
banking licenses, the participation in Card Schemes, the
creation of regulation-compliant identification mecha-
nisms and other technical conditions to meet. Every
milestone step is an advancement to a broader set of
services at Polybius customers' disposal.
During the initial step for a viable Polybius operation, a
set of conditions needs to be met. Among the minimal
requirements are licenses (small Electronic Money
Institution (sEMI) or Payment Institution (P.I.) licenses)
and mechanisms to comply with the law and financial
regulations, Combating Financing of Terrorism (CFT),
etc). At this step, instead of the sEMI license, Polybius,
will apply for a license for the Authorized Payment
Institution (A.P.I.) for the sake of lowering the initial
investment requirement. A.P.I. license is required to store
clients’ money and organize payment processes. The
time required to acquire the license is 3-9 months.
Polybius A.P.I., will be legally considered a non-banking
financial institution (NBFI-ND) and will not take deposits
until acquisition of the banking license.
SWIFT membership is also required as one of the key
elements for banking procedures. Joining the SWIFT
network enables a bank to receive a Business Identifier
Code (BIC), and to be able to communicate with other
financial organizations via SWIFT messages for electron-
ic money transactions. It may take up to 3 months for
the application to pass through.
Polybius Payment Institution will adhere to the EPC
Rulebooks to use them in the European payment and
messaging network for the Euro zone. The EPC
Rulebooks define principles of money transfer in Euro
according to the European Union Regulatory Frame-
work. The time required to join and to operate the EPC
Rulebook network is expected to be 6 months. Compli-
ance with specific rules, laws and regulations is of utter
importance in banking environment. A banking institu-
tion is obliged to set and follow high standards of
operations in order to protect its stakeholders. Besides
that, the reputation of a bank can also be severely
damaged by poor processes including KYC and
AML/CFT techniques and software. We will use existing
tested technologies to comply with the standards and
the requirements.
P2P loans are a new model in credit systems, which
allow organizations to establish a platform that links
those looking for loans with those looking for small
investments and profit. Such systems are a great way for
financial institutions that match the lenders with the
borrowers to generate a capital-efficient, credit risk free
revenue stream on processing (e.g. platform mainte-
nance, customer due diligence, scoring). We see a
particular opportunity in cross-border P2P lending while
most of today’s platforms are locked into a single
jurisdiction.
The Polybius project is driven by a number of expert
groups of with common vision everyone actively
involved in the key strategic decisions, project planning
and development. The team is regularly drawing on the
expertise of the deep bench of the advisors affiliated
with the project. Additional tech and finance profession-
als have committed to join the project.
The core team includes:
Ivan Turygin (Founder and Chairman at Hash-
Coins OÜ).
Sergei Potapenko (Founder and CEO, HashCoins
OÜ).
Nikolay Pavlovskiy (Blockchain Engineer and CTO
at HashCoins OÜ).
Vitali Pavlov (Production Management and Chief
Product Officer at HashCoins OÜ).
14
POLYBIUS

The rise of cryptocurrencies, or simply digital money,
has created a demand for a blockchain-based bank.
Bankera is a startup that’s catering to that demand. It
supports both fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies and
provides a good range of services like any traditional
bank, including payment processing, debit cards, loans
and low-cost investment products. The catch here is
that although Bankera acts like a traditional bank, it is
crypto first by nature, pioneering innovative services like
taking crypto assets as collaterals for loans. Launched in
2017, Bankera is an operating subsidiary of the popular
cryptocurrency exchange, e-wallet, debit card and
payment processor — SpectroCoin. SpectroCoin team
has which developed bank-like infrastructure releasing
Bankera to leverage regulatory and IT infrastructure to
develop a bank for the blockchain era. Bankera as a
proper bank will offer payments, investments, and loan
and deposit solutions. Later on, it is planning to develop
new types of money, such as inflation linked baskets.
Payments including payment accounts with personal
IBAN, debit cards, interbank foreign exchange rates and
payment processing. All services will support both
traditional fiat currencies as well as cryptocurrencies
such as bitcoin, Ethereum, DASH, NEM, ERC20 compli-
ant tokens and others. It will make Bankera one of the
first crypto-friendly regulated banks in the market. In the
long term, Bankera will implement innovative solutions
such as gross-domestic-product (GDP) linked currencies
and the use of exchange traded funds as a substitute for
money.
The required IT infrastructure to facilitate payment
processing and issue personal IBANs or payment cards
have already been developed and are available as a
minimal viable product (MVP) in the form of Spectro-
Coin. Support of full P2P transfers, mobile wallets and
the start of membership application of the major
payment networks such as card schemes and remit-
tance networks will be implemented in wallet. The
company plans to apply for a banking license after
ICO. This will allow Bankera to offer loans and deposit
services to the clients. Loans and deposits will be a key
competitive edge as well as core service of Bankera.
Current deposits will receive interest just as savings do.
All Bankera clients will be able to benefit from higher
interest rates due to proprietary information about
borrowers' cash flow, as most loans will be given to
business clients who use the payment processing
solution.
15
BANKERA

Investments will consist of low-cost investment prod-
ucts such as exchange traded funds (ETFs), crypto-funds
(a portfolio of various cryptocurrencies and crypto
tokens) as well as roboadvisory solutions for wealth
management. Eventually, Bankera will offer investment
banking services including financing corporate strate-
gies of our business clients.
Bankera launching an initial coin offering (ICO) to issue
Bankera tokens on the public blockchain. After raising 25
million Euros during one of the biggest pre-ICO sales to
date, Bankera, a blockchain based banking service, has
announced it is going to hold its ICO sale on November
27.
The tokens called Bankers (BNK) issued during the
pre-ICO and ICO. Each holder of Banker (BNK) tokens
will be entitled to a referral commission, paid weekly;
this will be constituted of 20% of Bankera and Spectro-
Coin net transaction revenue. This will be implemented
by taking 20% of Bankera's and SpectroCoin's net
revenues and sending them to the smart contract. For
example, if net revenues of Bankera for a week are
10,000,000 EUR, 2,000,000 EUR as referral commission
will be sent to the smart contract.
Bankera will offer businesses instant payment settle-
ments using advanced proprietary know-your-client
(KYC) and fraud detection solutions to collect informa-
tion about the incoming payments and automatically
settle transactions which otherwise could take weeks.
Advanced technologies will also allow Bankera to
estimate clients' economic power and thus offer them a
better loan and deposit rates.
At this point, Bankera has the necessary regulatory and
IT arrangements and has put together a strong team and
advisory board, including Lon Wong, president of the
NEM.io foundation, as well as Antanas Guoga, a member
of the European Parliament, also known as Tony G – a
famous poker player. Guoga is actively endorsing
blockchain technology and cryptocurrency at the
European Parliament and beyond.
Bankera’s founding team already owns and operates a
successful cryptocurrency exchange, e-wallet, debit
card provider and payment processor. The aim of the
ICO is not to test a speculative idea, but to provide the
capital to enable Bankera as a product to expand its
existing services to compete with existing banks as an
equal across all areas of operation including payments,
lending, currency exchange, and investments.
The contribution of SpectroCoin to Bankera will be not
only IT and regulatory infrastructure, but also an
introduction of Bankera services to 400,000+ existing
clients of SpectroCoin and share of a SpectroCoin’s
talent pool of 50+ blockchain specialists. Most impor-
tantly, SpectroCoin will be entitling Bankera token
holders 20% from its net transaction revenue from the
first week after start of pre-ICO.
Bankera recognizes that cash is still the predominate
form of payment and Bankera will be active in the cash
market. One issue is that Bankera will not have physical
branches like traditional bricks and mortar banks. As
such, Bankera has a three-pronged attack to remain
competitive in cash. Partnerships with existing providers
for cash deposits and withdrawals. Bankera will partner
with retail providers who currently distribute cash
deposit and withdrawal services.
Network of agents. In developing countries where
infrastructure to handle deposits and withdrawals is not
established (such as South America), Bankera will offer
relevant retailers (such as newsagents or gas stations) the
ability to be agents for Bankera to handle deposits and
withdrawals. Each of these agents will have an account with
Bankera to facilitate this. As Bankera will be issuing payment
cards, they could be used as an option for withdrawals at
most ATMs available globally when cash is needed.
Bankera will offer money wallets in 22 fiat currencies
initially, covering all the major currencies such as USD, EUR
and GBP. In addition, Bankera will also support emerging
digital currencies such as bitcoin, Ethereum, DASH, NEM
and others ensuring that Bankera will be at the forefront of
the emerging cryptocurrency ecosystem.
One of the key challenges for fast growing businesses
accepting non-cash payments is capital immobilization.
Bankera will create short-term finance products to bridge
this cash flow gap for businesses. As a payment processor,
Bankera will have an advantage over banks because
Bankera will collect live information about expected
incoming payments. This will facilitate Bankera offering
credit for businesses secured against expected future cash
flows.
Bankera will not only become a regulated European bank,
but also will seek to become authorised issuer and
acquirer of payment cards and obtain banking licenses in
key jurisdictions to avoid dependency on the corre-
spondent bank services, which are extremely fragile
nowadays as identified by the World Bank when they
concluded that correspondent banking relationships (CBRs)
are declining1 due to several factors including AML risk or
reduction of risk. Having multiple licenses will allow Bankera
to offer instant cross-border transactions as well as having
access to a low currency exchange rates due to direct
access to financial markets in multiple jurisdictions because
of having these licenses.
Bankera has assembled an expert management team with a
diverse range of skills:
Vytautas Karalevičius (CEO) is currently completing a
PhD in cryptocurrencies at KU Leuven University in
Belgium. Prior to that, he received a MPhil degree in
Finance from Cambridge University and BA degree in
Business Finance from Durham University. He is
currently conducting research on the potential of
blockchain technology for securities transaction
lifecycle for the SWIFT institute. Previously, he has
worked at Bloomberg (London office) in management
consulting.
Mantas Mockevičius (CCO) has more than eight years’
experience in managing operations and compliance
for an electronic and digital money exchanges. He
holds a bachelor degree in economics and master
degree in finance.
Justas Dobiliauskas (CTO) has nine years’ experience
in developing software for medium and large financial
institutions as well as five years’ experience working
with blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. He
is an expert in P2P technologies and holds a Masters
Degree in Information Systems Security.
16
BANKERA

Crypterium which is headquartered in Estonia builds a
cryptobank focusing on three main services: giving
individuals the ability to use cryptocurrencies to make
payments in their day-to-day lives, establishing an
innovative infrastructure that gives businesses new
opportunities for cryptocurrency acquiring (and makes it
easy for vendors to receive cryptocurrency payments as
fiat money), and cryptolending, which it is attempting to
streamline. Doing all this requires a multidisciplinary
team that brings in specialists in finance, banking,
cryptocurrency, financial IT, strategic development, and
investment.
The Crypterium goal is to create first full-fledged
cryptobank of its kind, which will address everyday tasks
associated with the use of money, for example using
cryptocurrency, like in an ordinary mobile banking app,
to pay for mobile services, utilities, and taxes, to make
transfers, pay at a café or restaurant, take out loans, and
other services that are currently offered by legacy banks.
“In contrast to ordinary banks, Crypterium is regulated
not by the ordinary regulatory authorities, but by the
blockchain infrastructure. In addition, many banks
operate locally; we plan to offer services worldwide.
Banks restrict withdrawals and transfers; we have
virtually no restrictions. In fact, the differences are much,
much greater, but that’s a whole other conversation.”
Crypterium’s Early Sale started on October 31, 2017, and
will run until November 6, 2017. The Early Sale offers
four tiers of bonuses depending on the number of
purchased tokens. The next stage of the sale, which will
commence on November 7 and will go on until Novem-
ber 27, will offer lower bonus amounts. The no-bonus
sale will start on November 28, 2017, and end on
January 13, 2018.
Crypterium managed to attract already an impressive
$7.5 million from its supporters. All the funds collected
via the ICO will be directed to building a complete
vertically integrated service that encompasses the best
blockchain technology capabilities to solve the complex
issues of using cryptocurrencies in the real world. “$7.5
million in CRPT token early sales gives Crypterium’s
business model a firm vote of confidence from the
blockchain community,” says Steven Polyak, Managing
Director and Crypterium co-founder. “Right now,
cryptocurrencies are not the financial instrument of
choice for paying for the most routine purchases. The
platform we are developing will offer the market a
powerful and secure solution through which clients will
be able to use cryptocurrency in the same scenarios in
which they’re accustomed to using ordinary money,” he
concludes.
The project advisors, among whom are such renowned
blockchain personalities as the TechCrunch co-founder
Keith Teare and ICOBox co-founder Mike Raitsyn, are
excited about the early results. “The project’s soft cap
was set at 500 BTC. We are very pleased that it was
reached right in the first day of Crypterium ICO,” says
Keith Teare. Teare, a grizzled veteran of the international
technology sector, is perhaps most famous as the
co-founder of the TechCrunch tech news website, but
has a long list of projects under his belt stretching back
decades, among them Accelerated Digital Ventures,
Minds and Machines Inc., MedCo, just.me, Archimedes
Labs, Easynet, and RealNames. The latter two had
valuations that hit $1 billion.
Steven Polyak, commented on token sale: “Our token
will perform two functions. The first will be similar to the
‘gas’ used in Ethereum. In our case it will be used to
support and develop Crypterium. There will be a 0.5%
charge on each transaction performed on our platform,
which will be used to purchase tokens from the
exchange that will be burned during the performance of
operations. This will ensure stable demand and, accord-
ingly, a growth in the value of token. The second
function involves the formation of a token fund called
the Monthly Cashback Fund, which will receive 30% of
our economic benefit obtained from the fee paid by a
business for the use of our platform.”
Crypterium core team includes:
Steven Polyak (Managing Director, Co-founder).
Steven is highly experienced investment banker
with a focus of interest on capital markets in the
USA and Russia.
Austin Kimm (IR Director, Co-founder). Financial
services CEO, Austin Kimm is an international
strategist for established and start-up companies.
Gleb Markov (COO, Co-founder). Fintech,
banking and cryptocurrency professional with
over 10 years of experience in the industry.
Vladimir Gorbunov (CCO, Co-founder). Entrepre-
neur with more than 10 successful new ventures
and a particular focus on simplifying real-world
issues through technology.
17
CRYPTERIUM

Fiinu, a UK-based tech-driven bank, has recently
launched a pre-sale, ahead of its full ICO in November.
The bank wants to be the UK’s first blockchain-friendly
bank to also offer retail banking services and products
for those currently under-served by the incumbent
banks. Users of crypto-currency will benefit from a
single account for both sterling and crypto-currency
use, and will be able to drawdown crypto-currencies
into sterling (and other currencies) for a fraction of the
current market rate.
Additionally, customers currently being under-served by
the incumbent bank’s archaic credit rating system will
finally be able to access services designed to lower the
cost of banking and improve the quality of financial
products. One of the key parts of Fiinu is its Finnuscore
credit rating system. This credit rating system promises
to “lend responsibly to consumers and small businesses
against crypto-based assets and help their short-term
credit needs with overdrafts whilst encouraging financial
resiliency.”
The company is undertaking positive discussions with
regulators whilst applying for a full UK banking
license. Upon receiving its banking license (scheduled
for the end of 2018) and becoming profitable, investors
will receive highly competitive returns on their invest-
ments, compared to investing in the shares of incum-
bent banks. In addition, Fiinu Coin (FNU) will offer a
number of highly beneficial privileges:
33% of retained profit will be distributed to FNU
holders every year;
FNU can be borrowed against. Once authorized,
Fiinu will grant credit in sterling, for up to 75%
LTV against FNU, starting with UK-residents;
Services will include innovative smart credit
products and budgeting tools.
Fiinu will use up to 10% of the raised funds as working
capital, while the remaining invested funds will be
protected in an escrow arrangement until Fiinu receives
its banking license. If the banking license application is
unsuccessful, all Ether (ETH) in escrow will be returned
to investors, with a minimum 90% money-back guaran-
tee.
Commenting ahead of the pre-sale, Fiinu Founder and
CEO Marko Sjoblom said: “This is an exciting opportuni-
ty, not just for Fiinu and its investors, but for the wider
banking industry. Upon launch, Fiinu has a number of
exciting products and services which will help those
who have been ignored by their banks for too long. This
includes lending against an individual’s crypto-based
assets, as well as the world’s first Bank Independent
Overdraft. We have one simple aim, making your money
work for you. Investors in our ICO will become part of
Fiinu’s story that sees the power of technology used to
tackle failures in the market and provide better banking
services to all customers.”
Fiinu's founders have worked together for nearly ten
years and their successes include building and managing
a UK-based FinTech company that has lent and recov-
ered over 4.5 million overdraft-style loans with a trade
value exceeding £1 billion. Under their management, at
its height, the company would have been in the Top 10
of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 fastest growing
technology companies in the world with nearly 35,000%
revenue growth over a five-year period.
Fiinu's core team has gone through the full UK-bank
license authorization process once before, for a well-es-
tablished family office, and have built a digital banking
platform from scratch. Combined, they have a wide
range of dedicated skills, experience and understanding
of what it takes to earn a UK-bank license.
Founded by Marko Sjoblom, who previously led payday
lending alternative Myjar, the firm is currently applying
for a full UK banking license. As it gets ready to launch, it
has brought onboard Andy Briscoe, chair of The Money
Advice Service, the government-sponsored organisation
dedicated to improving the financial resilience of the UK
public, as chairman. In addition, Bank of England and
Santander veteran David Hopton has been named a
non-executive director.
18
FIINU

2getherbank aims to become a global collaborative
Marketplace Banking Platform based on Big Data,
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Blockchain
that allows users and companies, in a high security
environment, to exchange any kind of real asset,
manage programmatically and automatically their
economy and access, in a marketplace, all financial
products and services provided for Fitntech and Banks
from around the world using an unique user interface.
2gether is using the latest technologies and promoting
collaboration among users and innovators to build the
most fair, global and competitive financial ecosystem in
the world.
No white paper is publicly but company says that ICO is
coming soon. It will be public and will be launched
along with the Private Beta. The company claims that
they have been working in building a true operational
banking service, built on Blockchain technology, for
over 18 months and don’t want to launch a Token Sale
without proof that they have a real working product and
get some feedback from the community. Currently, only
for the institutional and professional investors window is
open.
The company is founded and run by Salvador Casquero
whose professional career was deeply related to fintech.
Working for financial industry leaders from JPMorgan to
banking entities such as BBVA, La Caixa and Banco
Sabadell have been mixed with new technological skills
acquired in tech companies such as Eresmás or Wana-
doo and self-learning skills from his continuous explora-
tion and testing of new technologies such as blockchain,
artificial intelligence, predictive and matching
algorithms, machine learning, internet of things, big data
or natural language processing tools. As a result,
Salvador has acquired sufficient qualification to launch
2getherbank a new project where it aims to comple-
ment all the previous factors with the human one in
order to achieve an ambitious and efficient distribution
of resources, goods and services.
19
2GETHERBANK

Unfortunately, current crypto-friendly wallets cards
and a new wave of ICO-placed neobanks are not able to
solve the fundamental problem of rejection of the
crypto ICO community by the traditional banking
system. The main reasons are:
They are hosted on very traditional banks, which
is a time bomb. They are allowed to work within
the framework until the volume of their business
interferes with the core business of these players
(which will happen sooner or later). While
traditional banks are not ready to advocate for
new players - they are ready to "allow them to
exist" only until there are any risks on the horizon
(which they will not be ready to bear).
Some of them are going to obtain their banking
license - but so far none have received it.
Looking back on the experience of teams that
develop such projects, then they had no previous
experience in buying/selling banks and commu-
nicating with regulators since they are represent-
atives of the techno-blockchain community.
There is no doubt that we need crypto-friendly banks.
We need separate banks with their licenses that are
not dependent on current players and are focused
only on crypto-currencies and ICO-backed startups.
The banks that will completely change and focus all
business processes and technologies on this type of
customers. The banks that are constantly communicat-
ing with regulators of different countries: explaining
what they do and how, how they work with clients, what
types of risk appear and how it can be solved, develop-
ing new technologies for this.
In most jurisdictions, it’s easier to buy a bank than to
obtain a new license as most regulators are determined
to reduce the number of bank licenses in the market.
Interestingly, all current projects are designed to receive
licenses in Europe or the UK, i. e. to work with the euro
or the pound as a currency, whereas according to
statistics, most of the payments after the crypto conver-
sion are converted into the US dollar at the first, second
or third step. In addition, the American regulator
constantly sets the "mood in the market" with its views
on cryptocurrencies and ICO. Therefore, the question
arises: why does one run away from the problem,
instead of coming to its source? There are many small
banks in the US – worth from $5 to $50 million –
available for purchase. We believe that soon someone
will decide to buy such a bank in the US, completely
clear its balance from the current business (to avoid
the conflict of interest), focus exclusively on the needs
of blockchain / ICO world, and will change the team
and business processes for such requirements.
20
The Bubble Generation on
the way to the first
Bubble Bank

For sure we need more than one such a bank, we need
them in different jurisdictions, not only in the US as
soon as the customers are located in different countries
that have different regulation, which each time is
optimal only for solving a number of issues of a certain
range of clients; have their own currencies (and custom-
ers want and should freely operate all major currencies).
The bank’s business should be cleared from all non-core
businesses and focused only on the blockchaincryp-
toICO with all technologies, processes, business logic
focused exclusively on a new class of assets and
customers. We should also build an open dialogue with
the regulator instead of playing dumb and talking about
traditional business in meetings while making innova-
tions under the table. We should declare that we do this
and nothing else, we understand this, we are fully
responsible for everything that we do and with whom
we do it, we are in a constant dialogue/educating you,
we disclose everything in detail and when we see
something incomprehensible or a failure - we search
how we can solve it at the level of technologies and
processes.
Most likely, the operations of such a bank/banks will be
sabotaged by SWIFT - the main interbank transfer
system (which always defends the interests of the
largest correspondent banks and the dominance of the
US currency) – therefore, these banks are likely to be
linked to some new system of interbank transfers. For
example, Ripple. So far, there is no way to avoid restric-
tions imposed by geographic boundaries and there is no
jurisdiction optimal for the whole world. One can start
with two or three major jurisdictions (US - for the dollar,
a European country - for the euro, Britain - for the
pound), make a network, and then connect new players
as partners. It is necessary to understand beforehand
that this is not a struggle for one and only universal bank
in the world (and you will never become one), but simply
for the first practical full-fledged example/standard (not
monopoly) to which people/banks will connect.
Currently everyone understands that this kind of bank
should have an open-architecture - a set of open APIs
integrated into its own BaaS-platform. It will allow to:
quickly launch products and partner with
third-party developers for the customers’ sake;
effectively integrate in one network your banks
and any other banks (both traditional and
neobanks that have raised or are raising ICO
rounds in order to get their own banking license
in their own countries), which want to join the
community of crypto-friendly banks;
to land any other fintech, blockchain,
crypto-startups: to create, in fact, the first
fintech-bank in the world allowing them to
launch faster and cheaper as well as to scale to
other countries. There is no need to reinvent all
fintech services once again – too many people
have been doing this for the past five year! You
simply need to help them to move to new rails,
integrate them among themselves on the basis of
your open architecture and business processes
tailored for a new type of customers;
one of the key APIs should be blockchain-based
digital KYC. It allows very fast complete legal
verification (of both individuals and businesses)
for any financial service performed online from
any country. There will be no need to register
and verify again in all other partner services. For
partner startups it will reduce time and costs for
development of their registration and compli-
ance processes. In the future, based on these
digital passports, as you accumulate data about
your behavior in other services (only if you want
to share this data! and only with those you
choose!), you will receive your online score,
which will make it easier for you to get loans
from existing lending fintech startups and
emerging blockchain startups;
why are these 8 banks going to obtain 8 licenses
in two countries? Seven licenses in eight coun-
tries – cool, but licenses + backends won’t give
you a competitive advantage. You can rent them
to other players. It’s important and difficult to do
it for the first time. But it’s silly to do it for 3,4,5,10
times. People need new services, not new
licenses.
21
Bubble Bank

As mentioned before, a big shortcoming of existing
projects (not yet launched but planning the launch): is
their focus on retail customers instead of small and
medium business. Whereas there about 500 customers
(which have raised over $3 billion through ICO) on the
market. This type of customers is very homogeneous,
fast-growing, and absolutely no one is ready to serve
them now. In the second approximation, there are other
very clear clients with similar problems: crypto-exchang-
es, exchangers, wallets, money transfer services, etc.
The "Blue Ocean" are, of course, the representatives of
the GIG-economy: freelancers, independent contrac-
tors, makers and doers. They should work with SMEs first
(and not second or third) as they are the driver of the
new economy. While retailers - their employees,
partners and customers - will come after them.
Clayton M. Christensen, who coined the term ‘disruptive
innovations’, in The Innovator's Dilemma analyzes how
large and successful corporations continue to be
successful and innovative (this is the "innovator's
dilemma" - the lack of motivation to disrupt yourself if
you are already big and successful) and concludes that
the only way is to completely separate your new
business from the old one. The new business should
have its own goals and objectives (not overlapping with
the old business), its people and corporate culture, even
its own separate buildings and uniform. The same story
is with blockchain, cryptocurrencies and ICO - trying to
shove them into the old framework, processes,
approaches and regulation, you stumble upon the fact
that they are rejected and do not take root, they die and
damage the "old body".
It is only possible to give life to a new economy by giving
it a certain degree of freedom (the opportunity to take
risks, try, make mistakes and not be punished - the
fear of making mistakes destroys any innovations: this
is a long-proven axiom). We must admit that the old
rules and regulations do not work if we really want to
grow something new and useful for society. While the
new ones are non-existent, they just have to be created.
Therefore, the regulator should regulate with caution:
not as a judge, but as a mentor. Regulators are able to
kill anything, but no regulator is able to create
something - this is the destiny of entrepreneurs. Given
that rules are only being formed, players should not be
punished for what was committed before their introduc-
tion. You shouldn’t regulate too harshly what has not yet
appeared and formed - you can only kill it this way. We
are for the fact that if regulation comes into conflict with
logic, progress and benefit for clients - such regulation
should be changed. Rules are not the Bible, they were
invented looking up the past (instead of the future). They
are created to help achieve some goal, and if the goal is
changing, then the rules should change! If something is
not clear, it does not mean that it is something bad. This
is something that challenges us to study it, to help it
grow.
22
Bubble Bank

The new report by Life.SREDA
https://goo.gl/ztyovn
A lot of hype, but almost
nothing inside
OVERVIEW OF CRYPTO-
FRIENDLY CARDS

G
G
K
from Money Of The Future 2H'2016
fintech&blockchain report

25
Traditional brick-and-mortar banks
are often skeptical about challenger
and neobanks and think they can eas-
ily copy all the perks of newcomers,
thereby staying on top of the market.
This is not quite right. The difference is
the same as between a traditional car
stuffed with an electric engine and Tesla.
First, innovational solutions are built in
a mobile-first paradigm – not branch-
first. This implies a fundamentally differ-
ent user experience. Second, newcom-
ers focus on newyoung clients – not the
existing ones – which critically changes
their brand positioning, language and
perception. Generally, these new clients
have never been served by traditional
banks – either because they are young
or from underbanked regions. Third,
the level of servicing is entirely different
– with neobanks you can ask any ques-
tions in any form through a messenger
(as if you asked your friend) and get an
answer immediately. Therefore, it is fun-
damentallywrong to treat neobanks as
just another channel of service delivery.
Neo and challenger banks are comple-
mentary to a variety of fintech sectors
(e-wallets, P2P and online lending,
PFM/PFP, mPOS-acquiring), which
creates a wide range of opportunities
for M&A, partnerships ad synergies.
E-wallets generally have poor function-
ality (ApplePay, SamsungPay, Android-
Pay) and difficulties with customer
retention and scalability (AliPay, Paytm).
Direct banks (CapitalOne, MetroBank,
SBI, etc.) are slightly outdated techno-
logically and need a boost, also being
geographically limited. P2P and online
lending platforms are strong in terms
of margin and growth, but they experi-
ence ever-increasing costs of customer
acquisition. They need financial info
about prospective clients in advance
in order to decrease credit risks, and
about existing clients – to retain them.
Neobanks can help them here. PFM/PFP
services do not get as much attention
as neobanks. However, they could
provide these banks with differentiating
products and a better understanding of
clients’ needs. mPOS-acquiring solu-
tions (Square, SumUp, iZettle) collect
large databases of merchants and their
customers (purchases, cards, con-
tacts), which they could use to deliver
value to these customers (except for
a raw Square.cash product, they have
not used these opportunities yet).
There is a lot of debate on the emer-
gence of fintech-banks. While up to
today traditional banks accounted for
the majority of acquisitions of fin-
tech companies, today the functional
diversity of fintechs is wide enough
to build a fully-fintech bank with a large
enough customer base to compete with
incumbents. The main question about
these fintech-banks is what will play
the role of a nexus of all these sepa-
rate services. From the technological
point of view, BaaS-platform is a clear
winning solution. And a user interface is
where neobanks come upon the stage.
Neobanks have already started to feel
their way in this field. The majority of
newcomers (Tandem, Monzo, Star-
ling, N26) announced they have been
working on open API. mPOS-acquiring
German startup SumUp integrated with
neobanks Fidor (Germany) and Holvi
(Finland). American Moven integrated
with Commonbond, a student on-
line lending service. Neobanks N26
(Germany) and Monese (UK) – with
online remittance services Transfer-
wise and CurrencyCloud accordingly.
Another new trend for modern banks
is crowdinvesting (equity crowd-
funding). During the last half year two
British challenger banks, Tandem and
Monzo, crowdfunded £1M each from
their own perspective clients on Seedrs
and Croudcube platforms according-
ly. The market perceived these cases
very positively because they imply that
Tandem and Monzo had not just got a
one million financing, but that they in-
fected prospective clients by the idea so
much that those were ready to risk their
own money to help build the product.
The growing competition and atten-
tion to the sector is evidenced by a
number of acquisitions (Rocketbank by
Russian Otkritie, Fidor by French BPCE,
Holvi by Spanish BBVA) and launches of
proprietary products (GSbank by Gold-
man Sachs, Indian Digibank by Singa-
porean DBS, JP Morgan’s activity in
Indonesia), though these products have
not shown yet any advantages over neo
and challenger banks.

26
Audience-targeted neobanks are
another interesting trend: Monese
for London’s expats, Danish Ernit and
Singaporean Yololite for families,
British Loot and Hong Kong's Neat for
students. There are great opportunities
for online banks for SME, for example,
existing Holvi (BBVA), Tochka (Otkritie)
and new players Anna, Tide and Civi-
lized bank (all from the UK).
Client communications are also sub-
ject to innovation. Despite well-known
messengers and video calls, neobanks
start using chat-bots (Tochka, Digibank)
and integrate with artificial intelligence
applications (Siri – N26, Monzo, Alexa –
CapitalOne).
Generally speaking, the most mobile
banking activity is focused on the in-
tersection of two segments: the youth
(18-29 old) and emerging markets (es-
pecially unbanked ones). Geographical-
ly, there is a number of interesting cases
in the USA and Canada. The demand in
Brazil is high. There is little neobanking
activity in Asia, which spurs Asian banks
and investors into looking for solutions
abroad and thinking about how to bring
these solutions into the region. Europe
is a leading region with the UK being a
clear world leader in the sector, thanks
to Monese (55K mobile app downloads
and £41M in transactions), Tandem
(got a financing of £22M with valuation
of £65M), Monzo (35K clients on the
waiting list), Starling (finished a $70M
financing round), Atom (acquired a de-
sign bureau Grasp and now in process
of raising £100M for mortgage services).
Atom, Tandem, Monzo and Starling
have already received a special new
license. Scandinavia also offers interest-
ing projects, such as Danish Lunarway
and Ernit, Swedish Tink (raised $10M
from SEB Ventures, has 300K users,
planning to expand into Europe), and
Finnish Holvi (reportedly, sold to BBVA
for $80M; is planning to expand, too).
German N26 (200K users in eight coun-
tries, banking license) raised $40M from
a pool of investors led by Hong Kong’s
Horizon Ventures. However, there has
been a growing number of negative
responses on their client support. In
the USAwe have VaroMoney ($27M in
financing and promising PFM function-
ality) and ZeroFinancial. The boost of
fintech activity in Canada is noticeable,
including neobanks (Koho with 7K
clients on the waiting list and EQbank).
Asia has little to show: Neat, Yololite,
Vietnamese Momo and Timo, Russian
Tochka and Rocketbank, Pakistani Fin-
ja. As already said, Brazil is the most in-
teresting market today. After the success
of NUbank ($52M and $80M rounds in
2016, $500M valuation, 1M clients on a
waiting list and 300K in the process of
verification) new players emerge, such
as Neon.
In terms of launching activities, we see
an even stronger dynamics compared
to the last year, now new digital banks
are more concentrated and focused on
launching banking services for specific
audience by geo or demographic fac-
tors, like Hong Kong-based students and
millennial or immigrants and unbanked
workers in the UK or digitally covered
the Internet and 4G users in Pakistan and
Brazil.
Some cases mentioned below during
the year truly overcame our expec-
tations and thoughts on the sector
and despite the fact that retail banking
remains in the top banking sectors,
which provide a relatively positive
experience, some consumers continue
to actively consider their choices. And
2016 has really become a powerful
year that enjoyed another taken stake
from banking profits. While banks
have always been looking to control the
financial services industry, with the rise
of new incumbents the situation has
changed drastically. This year banks and
banking institutions looked at how they
could collaborate with new incumbents
so as not to lose the links in the value
chains that make them so powerful.
Socio – demographic
changes
Starting from the foundation, this year
we saw a continued growth of share of
mobile banking users among mobile
phone users with almost 300% growth
in mobile banking users from 2009
to 2016 and continued expansion of
usage with almost doubled amount of
users from groups of 30 – 60+ years old
during the same period of time.
(figures below)
THE SHARE OF MOBILE BANKING USERS
AMONG MOBILE PHONE OWNERS IN THE
UNITED STATES FROM 2009 TO 2016.
The statistics below represent almost
300% growth in mobile banking users amount
from 2009 to 2016.

27
Once again, the distribution of mobile
banking users continued to grow, and
now, there is almost a doubled amount
of users in categories 30-44, 45-59, 60+
compared to 2012.
Consumers in 2016 continued to rely
on multiple channels when prospect-
ing, with the corporate website and
online comparison sites most relied on.
More than last year, 58 percent of bank
customers use mobile devices often
when prospecting or seeking support.
Out of the average 17 interactions per
month made by a customer with its
main bank, seven are through on-line
banking and three are through mobile/
tablet. Emerging markets, where the
average of total monthly interactions
is 21, display an even higher propensity
to use digital channels.
The appeal of virtual banks – which
represented the largest net migration
in the US and the second largest in
Canada – reflects consumer’s value
focus. Neobanks and challengers target
customers whose top banking intention
is simple and seamless transactions with
lower fees.
What is interesting here, the tendency
of major fintech banking start-ups to go
with financial institutions that are able
to facilitate or substitute certain services
in their value chain in a more cost-ef-
fective manner was a success and a big
thing this year. 
  
NUbank (Brazil)
Nubank a financial technology start-up
based in San Paulo, one of the most
notable banks from Brazil in 2016
received a $52M financing round led
by Mr. Thiel’s VC firm - Founders Fund.
The new investment valued Nubank at
approximately $500 million, significant
for a company less than three years old.
Nubank, which was founded by a former
Sequoia Capital partner, David Velez,
and provides a digital credit card for
smartphones, is trying to take custom-
ers away from Brazil’s highly profit-
able banks, which have long seemed
untouchable. More than one million
Brazilians have applied for the card and
approximately 300,000 are on a waiting
list while their credit history is examined.
The popularity is linked with the
current deepening recession in Brazil
and fact that the average annual credit
card interest rates in Brazil have risen
in 10 of the last 11 months, reaching 99
percent in November, but Nubank has
not changed its 7.75 monthly interest
rate in over a year. It also hopes that
being digital both reduces overhead
and results in better customer ser-
vice. Banks, after telecommunications
companies, usually generate the most
customer complaints in Brazil. That has
helped its popularity here grow.
Neon (Brazil)
In July 2016, Neon Bank was launched
in Brazil[2]
, an app-based banking service
that promised to let young Brazilians
leave behind the frustrations of branch-
es, bureaucracy and hidden fees.
The bank’s iOS and Android app uses
biometric facial recognition technology
from US vendor Daon so that customers
can ditch usernames and passwords
and log in and authenticate transactions
by taking selfies with their phones.
The app has usual features associated
with mobile banking, allowing users to
check their balance, make
DISTRIBUTION OF MOBILE BANKING USERS IN THE US
FROM 2012 TO 2016, BYAGE GROUP.
The Statistics below shows the usage of mobile banking services in the United States
from 2012 to 2016, by age group. We see almost doubled number of users
from the roups of 30 – 60+ which certainly represents a market growth.
INTERACTIONS BY CHANNELS
How many times do you usually interact/get in touch with your main bank,
on monthly basis using the methods listed? (numbers of interactions)
*Base = 9,000 (Total retail banking respondents in12 key markets: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France,
Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, UK, US **Other Digital Channels = Video chat and Instant messaging
is certainly represents a market growth.

28
 
transfers, pay bills, receive payments,
categorize their spending habits, and
create financial goals. As it aims to sign
up 100,000 users across Brazil in its
first year, Neon is also stressing that the
bank is bidding to help customers with
their finances by charging no monthly
or annual fees, flat rates for interbank
transfer transactions, and offering no
lines of credit.
Neon also became the first bank in
Brazil to partner with Gemalto the
world leader in digital security, to de-
liver innovative Visa Quick Read debit
cards to its customers. This innovative
card design groups together important
information, including account num-
ber, expiration date and security code,
simplifying online payment with one
unique entry. Neon is the first to issue
a card with this new, friendly format
in Brazil.  
Monese (UK)
In July, Monese, the UK banking app for
immigrants and expats, finally landed
on iOS. A Monese account provides a
fully-fledged ‘current account’ interface
(including a bank account number),
low-cost international money transfers,
and a Visa debit card. You’re also able to
make cash deposits and withdrawals,
and store money in multiple currencies.
What’s especially interesting about this
milestone, isn’t that iOS demand has
been strong, but how far Monese has
been able to get to without support for
Apple’s iPhone. According to some
press releases, 55,000 people have
installed the Android app since its
launch late last year, moving £41 million
through Monese. To put the latter figure
into context, £12 million was transacted
this July, with the startup growing 30 per
cent month-on-month.
Leaping ahead, we should note that
in January 2017 Monese raised $4.2M
in a seed round and $10M in Series A
(Anthemis Exponential Ventures, Korea
Investment Partners, Seedcamp among
investors).   
Monzo (UK)
For startups as Mondo, this year was
particularly memorable. At the begin-
ning and end of the year, it landed two
funding rounds. At the beginning of
2016, Monzo received almost £10M in
funding from Passion capital and an-gel
group of investors, at a valuation of
£50M. With a huge success of their beta
launch, that gave a start to sending out
1000 cards to people at the front of its
52000-strong waiting list, this financial
support should definitely help Monzo
continue to grow and keep up with their
overwhelming demand.
Later the same year, Mondo raised
£1 million in a record one minute and
36 seconds on crowdfunding plat-
form Crowdcube. Mondo was forced
to suspend its initial launch date for the
crowdfunding after a rush of applicants
from eager investors overwhelmed
Crowdcube servers. Up to 6000 peo-
ple had registered to take part in the
raise, announced last month as part of
a £6 million funding round. On a day,
1861 people invested an average of
£542 and will share 3.33% equity in the
soon-to-be bank.
But the biggest achievement was the
fact that Monzo finally has been granted
a UK banking license ‘with restrictions’
by the UK regulators FCA and PRA. This
means that its beta testers can now, in
theory, begin switching to a Monzo cur-
rent account and use the startup to do a
lot more of their banking as the compa-
ny readies for a full banking launch early
next year. Despite the fact, that Monzo
is the latest of the four UK challenger
banks - Starling, Atom, Tandem, that
received a license, still, Monzo – is the
youngest company, at 18 months old,
ever to be granted a banking license.
Finally, in October, Monzo, as well as
N26, released an Apple Pay and Siri
integration on iOS10 to make it easier to
send and receive money. According to
Monzo, once users authorize Siri to ac-
cess their Monzo data, there are multiple
command users can use to send money
to contacts already on Monzo.
  
Starling (UK)
This year, Starling made 3 big things
that are strong enough and show solid
traction of strategic activities taken
seriously. At first, Starling raised $70
million from Harald McPike, the
founder of Bahamas-based quantita-
tive investment manager QuantRes.
At second, Starling recruited a number
of industry heavyweights, like Victoria
Raffé, Marcus Traill and Craig Mawdsley
who joined as non-executive directors,
alongside with Mark Winlow and Steve
Colsell, who were appointed earlier
in 2015. Ms. Raffé spent two decades
at the Financial Conduct Authority after
holding a number of senior positions at
Fidelity, Prudential and KPMG. Mr. Traill
has held a number of senior positions
at QuantRes, alongside Mr. Mawdsley.
Mr. Colsell has served as Chief Finan-
cial Officer within divisions of Lloyds
Banking Group.
At third, Starling Bank was finally grant-
ed a banking license bythe Prudential
RegulatoryAuthority (PRA) and the
Financial ConductAuthority and was
inviting prospective customers to sign up
ahead of a formal launch in January 2017.
The bank unveiled a new brand identity
and Website and a promise to stream-
line the way consumers manage their
money.
Atom (UK)
Atom Bank this year concentrated on
other businesses compared to rivals.
Atom is one of the first challengers,
which obtained a license, and this year
was more into operational projects.
The mobile-first bank made its iOS app
available to users who pre-registered
their interest. However, this is still a very
limited launch, restricted to a single
product: a fixed term savings account
offering an albeit fairly competitive
interest rate.
But the big news is that Atom an-
nounced its first acquisition: Grasp,

All сrypto-friendly neobanks: 8 ICO-backed new players

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