It is worth noting that the fintech sector in Ukraine is one of the most rapidly growing and developing sectors with companies fighting for customers and opening new horizons even despite the pandemic.
In this article, Ukrainian journalists gathered the Top-21 businesswomen of the financial technology industry in the Ukrainian market. You have a chance to meet the most successful of them. These ladies have successful businesses as at the local, as well as at international level.
Alona Shevtsova is the founder and CEO of the LeoGaming international processing company, the LEO international payment system, as well as the director of the LeoGaming Pay financial company, a shareholder of the iBox bank, and a philanthropist.
Alona Shevtsova can be easily called a trendsetter in the Ukrainian fintech ecosystem. She is also one of the leaders and the pioneers of the financial technology market in the country since her company was one of the first to develop a domestic non-bank payment processing under the LeoGaming brand. Today, the company holds a leading position in the development of integrated payment solutions for businesses.
“Fintech, e-commerce, and non-cash payments are the field of real innovations in business and real tangible changes for customers. In this area, you need not only to create innovative and commercially successful products but also benefit people, make their lives better and more convenient,” says Alona Shevtsova.
The Ukrainian Association of Fintech and Innovative Companies has included Alona Shevtsova in the list of the top 50 most influential women of the Ukrainian fintech sector. In addition, she is nominated as the most effective CEO of the financial sector at the prestigious FinAwards 2021.
Vera Platonova is a Senior Vice President and the Director of Regional division in the CIS and South-Eastern Europe at Visa. She is responsible for the activities of the payment system operator in the markets of 17 countries, including Ukraine. According to Vera herself, the Ukrainian market is the largest in the entire region.
Under Platonova’s leadership, Visa in Ukraine is developing a new global strategy, i.e., the integration of all market participants through payment technology solutions.
Inga Andreeva is the CEO of Mastercard in Ukraine and Moldova. Inga Andreeva is a banker with 16 years of experience in financial technology. She considers cash to be Mastercard’s main competitor.
The company ranks first in Ukraine among payment systems, while its market share is over 70%. The key attention of the company is paid to the development of NFC transactions with Mastercard cards and the tokenization of payments.
Jaanika Merilo is an expert in the field of IT technologies and e-governance, an advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mikhail Fedorov.
Yanika is a world-recognized expert in the field of IT solutions for business and the public sector. She is an ideologist and lobbyist of the State in a Smartphone concept offered by the team of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Alyona Suvorova holds the position of director of the department of mobile financial services at KyivStar. She is also an e-commerce expert.
Under her leadership, Kyivstar develops mobile commerce solutions under the “Smart-Groshi” brand. In fact, it is a mobile wallet that allows you to make payments and money transfers in real-time.
Alena Andronikova is an executive director of the Ukrainian Moneyveo fintech company. In addition, she is a financier and business consultant.
First of all, Moneyveo is a service platform that provides online loans. It is worth noting that the innovative development strategy proposed by Alena Andronikova, has brought the company to the international level. Today, Moneyveo holds a leading position in the Ukrainian market of non-banking e-lending according to the Ukrainian E-Commerce Expert research.
Svitlana Golyak from IBOX Bank is the Acting Head of the Management Board of IBOX Bank, and a banker with 20 years of experience in senior positions in Ukrainian commercial banks. For the last 7 years, she has specialized in financial monitoring in the banking sector.
Under the leadership of Svetlana, IBOX Bank is following the strategy of transformation into a full-cycle transactional bank. In 2020, they offered a new large-scale product, i.e., Internet acquiring for business. The bank was awarded the Milestone Achievement award at Mastercard Day 2020.
“Our priorities in 2021 are the launch of the first version of the mobile app for individual customers, as well as the development of Internet acquiring solutions for businesses. The first involves a lot of work to attract customers (after the final release) to existing and new products. We also need to develop a personal account for businesses with the ability to customize their acquiring, analytics, data uploading, and other services,” says Svetlana Golyak.
In 2020, IBOX Bank was recognized as the Best Transactional Bank of 2020 by the experts of the “Bankir” international financial club. At the beginning of 2021, IBOX Bank received the Bank of the Year 2021 award in the “Savings Bank for Business” category from the Financial Club.
Irina Tsybulnik is the head of the Development Department at the Ukrainian LeoGaming fintech company. She is a specialist with 11 years of experience in the telecommunications business. She is the key expert in the field of the development of payment services in terminals and on the Internet. Currently, she holds the position of Head of the Department for the development of services at the LEO international payment system.
“Currently, 21 participants have been registered in the LEO International Payment System, including 3 banks and 18 financial companies. Within our payment system, the participants, such as banks and financial companies become true partners who exchange services, thereby increasing their turnover and income,” Irina Tsybulnik
Mariam Matiashvili is the Head of Business Development at LeoGaming. It is a fintech company that specializes in bringing innovative online products to the market. She is the Project Manager of the LeoWallet e-wallet (e-money wallet for mobile devices).
“Anonymity of payment is one of the advantages of our wallet, but it is not the key feature for the main audience. The main value is in favorable payment terms and cashback,” says Mariam Matiashvili from LeoGaming
While holding the role of the CBDO at LeoGaming in 2020, Mariam improved the payment solution for business. The company updated the PCI DSS certificate to the highest version 3.2.1 and also implemented Apple Pay and Google Pay solutions for the company’s partners, which provided an average turnover growth of 45% across the entire range of LeoGaming services.
Galina Heylo is a banker, and a Vice-President of the Association of Ukrainian Banks, and a founder of the “Transformation” financial and analytical center.
“Fintech played a huge role in the lockdown period. I have no idea about how we would have overcome 2020 in case if this sector wouldn’t face the most rapid development in its history,” says Galina Heylo
Galina has 19 years of experience in the banking sector.
Also included in the Top-21 businesswomen of the financial technology industry in the Ukrainian market: Kate Scheglova, Irina Tsyganok, Larisa Ivchenko, Svetlana Obolenskaya, Anna Tigipko, Lydia Eremenko and Nadezhda Gladkevich.
Read more:
iBox bank shareholder Alona Shevtsova is among Top-5 female fintech leaders in Ukraine