Last week, as reported by Reuters, TCS Group — the owner of Russian digital banking giant Tinkoff — took control of Swiss crypto service company Aximetria as part of its international expansion strategy.
Founded by Russian serial entrepreneur Alex Axelrod in 2018, this startup has developed a SaaS platform to provide “seamless interconnection for any form of money: fiat, crypto and CBDC.”
The terms of the transaction were not disclosed yet but, according to Russian publication The Bell, TCS’s stake in Aximetria may amount to 83.2%.
Aximetria was previously backed by Digital Horizon, a London-based VC firm founded by former Gazprombank executive Alan Vaksman.
The beginning of this year saw Russian investors, in search of the next Revolut, get involved in several other fintech deals:
- Digital Horizon backed Wealthkernel, a UK-based provider of digital investment services and infrastructure, as part of a $7 million Series A round;
- Top business angel Sergey Dashkov — acting through his Cyprus-based investment firm Joint Journey — invested some $1.1 million in Russian-founded, London-based payment infrastructure provider DigiDoe;
- RTP Global, an international VC firm with Russian management, was among the backers of alternative investment app Koia, also based in London;
- RTP Global and Digital Horizon were also involved in the Series E round of Refyne, a leading Indian earned wage access (EWA) platform.
On the domestic scene, Russian instant payment major Qiwi acquired a 80% stake in Taxi Aggregator, a payment and analytics solution for taxi companies and taxi drivers. Among Taxi Aggregator’s competitors is Jump.Finance, in which Tinkoff bought a controlling stake in November 2021.
