This time we’re talking with the CEO Zhana Dar who is going to tell us more about startup Fin.do which was launched in Lithuania market last summer. 

So what is Fin.do? How does it work?

Fin.do is a software solution for peer-to-peer, card-to-card money instant transfers, developed by UAB Findo Finansai. Fin.do mobile application enables users to link existing MasterCard cards to the app to send or receive money instantly, using only the recipient’s phone number.

What are your competitors and competitive advantages?

Fin.do reduces payment complexity by enabling near real-time transfers with no bank fees and at competitive exchange rates. Consumers can use the Fin.do mobile application to make domestic and international payments securely and easily.Traditionally, consumers using third party payment services are required to create a new account that needs to be topped up using a credit card or a wire transfer. This leads to processing and transaction delays, as well as additional costs.  At the same time, money can be blocked or withheld in the account for long periods of time, which restricts quick or urgent payments.Unlike other solutions, Fin.do does not hold funds at any point during the transfer process, leveraging the card network infrastructure to issue payments instantly to the recipient. This eliminates the risk of transfers being blocked or withheld pending transaction authorization.

What were the reasons behind coming up with this idea and launching this product?

As an expat myself, I was confronted with this problem when sending money to my family abroad. I realized then that a quick, affordable solution was still lacking. This triggered my interest in researching and analyzing existing services. As I learned more about the payment industry, I realized this type of solution could help many people and I was determined to make it happen.

When exactly did you launch, what were the main challenges before launching?

Fin.do was launched in August 2018. The service is currently available in EU countries, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and Israel. The most challenging part was to actually spread the news about the service, in the sense of educating customers about our innovation; explaining what makes us different from alternative services, and uncovering the huge issue of hidden fees and double currency conversion costs.

What are your target customers? Both in terms of user profile and geography?

Anyone who owns a MasterCard card can use our service. The main use cases are:

-Freelancers who receive payments from clients

-Expats sending money to family or friends

-Currency exchange between different currency cards

-Students receiving support from their parents

The service is available in EU countries, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, and Israel, and will soon be available to users in the USA and Canada.

What are main challenges while working on this product and how are you overcoming them?

One challenge is that not all banks support card to card transactions. We hope they will be open to collaborate and support transactions services from Fin.do, because this can drive growth for banks, as users leverage such infrastructure for higher payment volumes.

How are you funded? Do you seek extra funding?

Fin.do is currently bootstrapped. We initiated talks with potential investors and will be presenting Fin.do project at TechCrunch Berlin later this month, as one of the 5 TechCrunch Top Picks in the fintech section.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/18/announcing-the-tc-top-picks-of-disrupt-berlin-2018/

Please introduce your founders, your core team and your broader team?

The core team:

Zhana Dar – Co-Founder and CEO. Worked for leading Israeli companies as an Asset Manager and Country Manager.

Ofer Dar — Adviser

Oleksandra Tytar — COO

Sergey Panov — Back-end developer

Vitali Obdienko — Front-end developer

Roman Sepielkin — Designer

Fin.do is partnering with Lithuanian legal firms – Ellex and BDO. Fin.do also partners with payments providers and experts from Poland and Israel.

How has business been so far? Could you share some numbers to illustrate this (users, sales, etc)?

Fin.do has put minimum efforts in marketing so far, as the software is undergoing further development to support expansion to more countries. So far, we have seen huge interest from our early users in different parts in Europe, Ukraine and Russia. We have a waiting list for USA-based users, who we plan to serve very soon.

Future plans, ambitions? Simply speaking – what’s next?

Fin.do aims to become a global, trusted service for peer to peer payments, and we are working hard to do just that. We believe in the power of our community, which can drive banks around the world to adopt Fin.do money transfer technology and start supporting card to card money transfers to create more value for their customers.

 Thank you for your answers!