Former Sberbank employee to tap Europe with challenger Intruder

Written by Ruby Hinchliffe
19th May 2020

Former employee of Sberbank Technologies, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned Sberbank, has revealed his plans to launch a neobank for Europe’s self-employed.

Anton Nikonorov told Rusbase that the venture, which is called Intruder, will target Generation Z, especially streamers, influencers and bloggers.

Europe has already seen great success from one Russian founder: Nikolay Storonsky, CEO of Revolut

The fintech will offer a mobile app, but it will also be able to work in messenger apps via a bot so users can pay and receive receipts through social media.

Nikonorov describes the platform using the example of a blogger selling master classes. “They have to track everyone who has made a payment or donation. For that, the blogger needs to communicate with the buyers, keep an Excel sheet for payments, and hire assistants. The bot in Intruder collects all necessary information about the buyers and submits it to the user.”

The founder left Sberbank Technologies in 2015, and has since founded a series of start-ups, most recently including DLF, a payment processing system with Euro stable coin and fiat gateway.

He says Intruder’s creators have invested €400,000 of their own funds in the project, and have received €80,000 from one angel investment.

The start-up already has a managing vice president, and will look for investors to fund its application for a European financial services licence. It plans on raising no less than €500,000 in funding.

Europe has already seen success from one Russian founder: Nikolay Storonsky, CEO of Revolut.

But last year, Storonsky’s fintech did hit temporary roadblocks because of its Russian roots during its Lithuania banking licence application. The country’s politicians voted to investigate the start-up for any Kremlin links which posed a threat to national security, but a licence was eventually obtained.

Another Russian venture looking to take on Europe was created in February by Tinkoff managers Artyam Yamanov and Alexander Yemeshev. Tinkoff Bank’s parent company TCS Group Holding is understood to be investing up to €25 million over the course of the next year, and will be the controlling shareholder in the company.