Serbian fintech surprise

Eastern Europe, Balkan state, ex-Yugoslavia — this is how I used to describe Serbia when talking to people on other continents. Now, ‘Serbia’ has become well known in the closed circle of IT people. As a technology-savvy outsource and cheap developer heaven. And by mere historical chance, as a WHO-approved vaccination enabler for the Russians.

Serbia appears as not only a cheap workforce ground for many rich European and American software companies but also a nice hub for the Russian-speaking crypto and gambling start-ups. But does anything interesting going on in the local fintech or IT space? 

Yep. You would never guess what that is.  

Foreign currency exchange kiosks. You heard me right. Foreign currency exchange usually happens in the bank branches, at the cashier. Well, not here. Here in Serbia, foreign currency exchange or ‘menjacnice’ is made by the commercial companies that took up more functions on themselves than you would think. 

In those places, you can exchange currency, send a money transfer to another person locally or overseas, buy a gift card, place a sporting bet, withdraw cash from your card (instead of ATM), cash gold, pay for utilities, taxes, fines, tuition fees, get a loan, open a wallet, etc. What supermarkets are doing for people in Latin America, or super apps in Asia, here surprisingly enough — the foreign currency exchange operators.

What happened with the banks, you would ask. Local banks are as simple as it gets, most of them not even having standard mobile apps. Those that do will not let you indulge. No money transfers to another person’s card or phone number, less a utility bill payment variety. Not dreaming of analytics, or any lifestyle features that spoil people in some other countries. 

Local bank cards can be limited for online purchases, especially on international marketplaces and services. Even though ApplePay and Google Pay are pretty widespread, cash is still the major way of payment for the Serbians. So progress finds its way, lurking through the weirdest places.

It is mulled over that Western European neobanks, the likes of Revolut, are coming soon. It sounds even more interesting knowing that Serbian companies and competent IT people en masse are moving to Western Europe — to the UK, Germany, Portugal, to build IT start-ups and neobanks there. But not inside their own country. That is a common fate for small Eastern European countries. Being too small to appeal to international businesses. Too different to be consumed by American global tech giants. Too weak to have everything of its own. Too desirable for talent to get them stolen away. 

To be frank, in the last couple of years a stream of foreign IT companies came flooding in, boosting the market and opening a road for local competitors: Russian Yandex.Taxi, Finnish Wolt, and Spanish Glovo food deliveries to name a few. So maybe things are looking up?

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What the Money is a lifestyle channel about fintech, e-commerce, business and innovations by Anna Kuzmina, CBDO at 131. From Russia. With love. Follow Anna on Medium, Telegram или на VC.ru.