Criteria for Expanding into New Markets

In today's episode, ⁠Ryan Zauk⁠ sits down with global fintech legend Oliver Hughes, Chief International Growth Officer at TBC Bank Group, a London-listed financial + banking services provider in Georgia in Uzbekistan.

Before TBC, Oliver was the CEO of Tinkoff and Head of Russia for Visa. He is also on the Board of Tabby, a leading shopping and financial services player in the Middle East that is allegedly eyeing an IPO after a $160M Series E.

After 25 years at the cutting edge of international fintech, Oliver is taking on what he hopes is his final fintech chapter - scaling TBC Bank Group internationally, starting with Uzbekistan.

I'm sure many of our readers + listeners may be scratching their heads...a fintech pioneer who could choose anywhere in the world to work...chose to dedicate the next decade of his life to TBC Bank Group and Central Asia?

However, as shown throughout his career, Oliver can spot and act on massive trends early. So what does he see here?

TBC Bank Group's momentum in recent years has been remarkable, and the market opportunity in Uzbekistan is much larger than it appears from afar.

Let's take a brief look at the company before getting to the episode:

TBC is the parent co of TBC Bank Georgia and TBC Uzbekistan (where Oliver focuses). 

In Georgia, TBC is the leading financial services group, with almost 40% market share for customer loans and deposits.

Kind of like the traditional bank that helps fund the Uzbekistan story...

Uzbekistan is where the fintech story emerges. In just ~2 years since launch, TBC Uz has reached:

• 50% of the Uzbekistan population
• >100% loan portfolio growth for 2 straight years
• Strong profitability with $41M(!) in net income in 2 years (nearly unbelievable for US fintech)
• A rich product ecosystem (debit card, credit card, MSME banking, etc.)
• Eyes on a third market in the future
• Is fresh off a $37 million raise to continue its push into AI and new product development. The investment came just months after it raised $38.5 million in July

The profitable growth is stellar - one that you don't see replicated elsewhere.

What really interested me was a crude TAM comparison to another notable fintech in the region, Kaspi, which had a major US IPO on the NASDAQ in 2024.

Kaspi is a superapp from Kazakhstan and in 2024 produced roughly $4Bn in revenue growing 30% YoY with 40% net income margin. Those are numbers and scale few companies in the world can manage...and Kazakhstan is a country of only 20 million people.

Uzbekistan's population is nearly 40M people, and Georgia's around 11M - when combined are well over double Kazakhstan's.

As Oliver points out in the episode:

“I'm someone who believes in the thesis that there are overlooked, underloved countries that deserve a lot more attention - You can build viable, scalable businesses with the right execution. It's all down to execution. It's not down to the number of people in the country.”

I think the stage is set...I'll let Oliver share the rest.

Episode Highlights

3:48 Oliver's background and path from Visa to Tinkoff to TBC

6:41 The problems Tinkoff was solving, why it got so large, and the key lessons he learned from scaling it

8:50 An overview of TBC Bank Group: What it does, how it operates, and its key products

13:51 Why Uzbekistan has probably the greatest open banking system in the world, and a fun fact about Uzbekistan's most popular messaging app

20:19 The complementary nature of the 2 Uzbekistani apps: TBC Uz and PayMe

24:20 The near-unbelievably high NPV his team uses to underwrite projects and why it's so effective

27:03 His thoughts on the new wave of mobile sim card efforts / MVNOs by firms like Nubank and Revolut, and infrastructure players like Gigs

31:20 The "Fintech Perplexity" idea and other creative ways his team is experimenting with + deploying in AI

34:17 What their 3rd market might be, and what's ahead for his great team

37:15 Rapid fire round