PRESS: Startup TalkBank to start work with top messengers soon

MOSCOW, May 2 (PRIME) -- Russian startup TalkBank, a developer of the first payment system for messengers, will start working not only in Telegram, but also in Viber and Facebook Messenger shortly, and the company plans to enter Europe, business daily Vedomosti reported on Tuesday citing the startup’s CEO Mikhail Popov.

A user orders a card at a bank, ties it in a chat-bot to an account and can make banking operations in a messenger, Popov said. The startup has partners in the consumer segment, as the banking bot allows users to buy pizza, cinema tickets and the like.

TalkBank received investments from the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF) and business angels, Popov said, adding that the startup is raising seed funding now. A person close to the company said that TalkBank’s board of directors has not made a decision on a new round of investments yet.

The IIDF’s investment manager Pavel Nikonov said TalkBank got a pre-seed contribution of 2.1 million rubles in 2016.

TalkBank was one of the 12 winners of the international stage of startup competition Seedstars World in early April.

(56.9838 rubles – U.S. $1)

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