Robocash chief reveals expansion plans
Robocash Group is eyeing new markets and is still planning to go public, according to its chief executive Natalya Ischenko.
In an interview with the French blog Investisseur nomade, published in English on Robocash Group’s blog page, Ischenko said that the alternative finance group is planning to launch a new company in Uzbekistan and to expand into Latin America this year.
“Private finance plays an important role in helping to develop a more mature and sustainable financial ecosystem,” she said. “This role becomes even more important with rising inflationary pressures in emerging countries. Our strategic goal as a holding is to expand our services and products in emerging markets and become one of the top fintech companies in our field.”
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Ischenko said that different countries are currently under consideration for Robocash Group’s expansion plans. In Latin America, she said Mexico is the most likely target, while in Africa it will probably be Tanzania and Nigeria.
“We primarily consider regions that have broad prospects for developing access to financial services,” she said. “Further, based on this, we analyse whether this or that direction is suitable for our financial model.”
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Robocash Group owns the Robo.cash peer-to-peer lending platform which is based in Europe, and operates across a number of countries in Asia. It set up in Sri Lanka just before the political situation deteroriated.
Ischenko said that it has restructured its operations in the country and plans to develop its business “slowly but steadily”. It is not placing any new loans from Sri Lanka on the platform to ensure the safety of investors’ funds.
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Robocash Group has been vocal about its ambitions for an initial public offering since 2020. Ischenko said that this was still a part of the group’s plans.
“Lately the holding has had enough liquidity to expand and grow off its own revenues and other sources of funding such as the P2P platform, among others,” she said. “However, the group has not given up on the plans to go public, and we are taking our time to prepare for it.”
Last month, Robo.cash, the P2P platform, revealed that it had attracted €63m (£55m) of investments since launching in February 2017.