Uzbek mobile bank TBC has secured $37 million to expand into new AI and insurance products
Exclusive Mobile Bank of Uzbekistan, TBC Bank Uzbekistanhas raised $37 million in a new funding round to strengthen its dominant digital presence in the Central Asian country by developing new AI and technology products and attracting more tech-savvy clients.
The new investment, made by TBC Group, the bank’s London-based parent company, comes just five months later It raised $38.5 million In July. The parent company also led the latest round, which included the participation of its shareholders, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank.
Uzbekistan has been an attractive market for digital businesses in recent years, with an internet penetration rate of nearly 90% and a young population – 60% of its total population is under the age of thirtyAccording to UNICEF. However, a significant share of the country’s banking assets remains in government banks. TBC Group sees this as an opportunity for growth.
Started in 2020 under TBC Group Uzbekistan, the bank offers a mobile application through which customers can open bank accounts and access banking services, including cash loans and deposits.
The Uzbekistan group, 60% owned by London’s TBC Group and 20% each by the International Finance Corporation and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, has expanded its financial portfolio in the country with its own in-house processing center to simplify payments and shorten the time to market for new products. offers, and entered into strategic partnerships with Visa and Mastercard. Furthermore, it introduced the Salom debit card and Osmon credit card and launched TBC Business, a digital banking service for Uzbek SMEs.
In the past few months, TBC Uzbekistan has also begun building its own AI solutions, including agents to handle payment reminder calls for customers taking out loans. Hughes told TechCrunch that these agents attended 42% of all reminder calls in the third quarter.
Next year, TBC Uzbekistan plans to expand its AI developments by bringing in dialogue-based service, sales and mobile service bots to allow customers to interact with its app using their voice rather than going through a text interface.
“We are delving deeper into the financial lives of retail customers across Uzbekistan. So we are building different products vertically after another,” Oliver Hughes, head of international business at TBC Group, said in an exclusive interview.
Hughes told TechCrunch that the group hired AI experts who built the AI assistant Alice for Russian company Yandex. These experts have built a finance-specific MBA based on Meta’s Llama that understands local nuances and local languages, including Uzbek, the executive said.
While Hughes did not disclose what capital the group was specifically putting into its AI efforts, he did say that “a material portion of the funds raised will go toward AI projects, but even so, the vast majority will go toward AI projects.” To build and expand. Its business and consumer products.
One of them would be insurance.
TBC Uzbekistan currently offers insurance through a third-party provider, but plans to become an insurer in the country next year. It also plans a buy now, pay later solution and an SME lending product. Likewise, the mobile bank will enhance its Salom debit card with new benefits and offers to attract more customers.
Uzbekistan has not yet been a very competitive market for a banking entity. However, the country’s growing digital base and young population have attracted the interest of foreign players. Hungry OTP Bank and South Korean Development Bank They have already set up their stores in the country. Similarly, French bank Société Générale, Kaspii Kazakhand American Citibank They are exploring entering the country.
“It’s not very competitive today, but it’s definitely going to get more competitive as we move forward in the next few years,” Hughes said.
TBC Uzbekistan, which also runs digital payments app Payme and sharia-compliant credit company Payme Nasiya, has a user base of 16.9 million as of September, up from 13.2 million in December 2023. It also has 4.9 million monthly active users and has been profitable Net of $27 million for the first nine months of the year, up from $23 million in fiscal 2023. Additionally, The company expects to achieve net profits of $75 million in 2025.
