$1 billion for Ukrainian fintech: why monobank attracted US investors

6 October 20:31

Fintech-IT Group, an IT holding company known primarily as the developer of monobank, has attracted investments from the Ukraine-Moldova American Enterprise Fund (UMAEF) and several private investors from the United States. As a result, the value of the group exceeded $1 billion, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports, citing Forbes.

The holding was created by Oleg Gorokhovsky and Mikhail Rogalsky, former top managers of PrivatBank. It includes:

FintechBand,
Kilobytes1024,
Shake to Pay,
ACDC Processing, and other companies.

The main revenue (over 90% of the total, or UAH 3.7 billion in 2024) comes from FintechBand, a software developer for Universal Bank, on the basis of which monobank operates.

The monobank trademark belongs to Universal Bank (owned by Sergiy Tigipko) and Kilobytes1024, a company founded by Gorokhovsky and Rogalsky. They also have the mono trademark registered through the Cyprus-based Hallstatt.

monobank is a driver of fintech in Ukraine

Over the eight years of its existence, monobank has become one of the largest players in the Ukrainian banking market – more than 10 million customers and UAH 8.5 trillion in transactions in just nine months of 2025.

In addition to banking services, Fintech-IT Group develops its own digital products:

Expirenza – software for restaurants;
market by mono – a marketplace;
Base by mono is a monetization service for bloggers and creators;
Loyalty.ai – a loyalty system.

How the deal was structured

According to YouControl and Cyprus registries, UMAEF’s share in Hallstatt, the company through which the deal was formalized, is 2.9%, which is equivalent to about 1.9% in Fintech Band, the key legal entity of the holding. At a valuation of $1 billion, this amounts to $18.5 million in investment.

UMAEF is an American fund funded by the US government. Its goal is to support small and medium-sized businesses in the region. In total, the fund has invested more than $190 million in 143 companies, with an average check of $1-5 million. In the case of Fintech-IT Group, UMAEF acted not only as an investor but also as a lead company for a consortium of private investors from the United States.

Who is behind the architecture of the agreement

Hallstatt, the legal entity through which the investment was made, has two directors – Iryna Radchenko (monobank product manager) and Vitaliy Pustoviy, who is associated with Horizon Capital. Horizon has historically cooperated with UMAEF and in 2006 received $25 million from it for its first investment fund.

At the same time, Horizon denies having any direct interests in monobank. According to one of Forbes’ sources, “the e-commerce niche is closed for Horizon by Rozetka.”

Why did Fintech-IT Group attract investments?

According to Iryna Starominska, CEO of Universal Bank, the company aims to have 10.7 million retail customers, 18,000 legal entities, and 450,000 individual entrepreneurs by the end of 2026. Such expansion requires significant investments.

The group’s founder, Serhiy Tigipko, also emphasized that monobank “constantly needs investments as it is growing rapidly.”

According to experts, raising funds from UMAEF is primarily a way to protect assets, given the litigation surrounding the former owners of PrivatBank. The Fintech-IT Group’s profit is estimated at about $200 million a year, so the financial motivation for the deal, according to analysts, was not the main one.

What to expect in the future

UMAEF plans to help Fintech-IT Group attract new large US investors and prepare for an IPO on one of the leading US exchanges.

At the same time, Universal Bank, on whose basis monobank operates, is also preparing to enter the international capital markets, tentatively in 2026.

According to Forbes experts, Fintech-IT Group’s valuation of more than $1 billion looks realistic: