Uzbekistan's Mobile Bank TBC Raises $37 Million to Expand with New AI and Insurance Products

TBC Bank Uzbekistan, the mobile-exclusive bank in Uzbekistan, has raised $37 million in a new funding round to bolster its dominating digital presence in the Central Asian nation. The fresh investment comes just five months after it raised $38.5 million in July.

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A Growing Market for Digital Businesses

Uzbekistan has been an attractive market for digital businesses in recent years, with nearly 90% internet penetration and a young population —60% of its total population is under 30, according to UNICEF. However, a significant share of the country’s banking assets remains with its state banks. TBC Group sees this as a growth opportunity.

TBC Bank Uzbekistan: A Mobile-Exclusive Bank

Started in 2020 under TBC Group Uzbekistan, the bank offers a mobile app through which customers can open bank accounts and access banking services, including cash loans and deposits. It is 60% owned by London’s TBC Group and 20% each by IFC and EBRD.

Recent Developments

The Uzbekistan group recently expanded its financial lineup in the country with its in-house processing center to streamline payment operations and shorten time-to-market for new offerings, and entered strategic partnerships with Visa and Mastercard. Further, it introduced the Salom debit card and Osmon credit card and launched TBC Business, a digital banking service for small and medium Uzbek enterprises.

AI Solutions

In the last few months, TBC Uzbekistan also started building its proprietary AI solutions, including agents to handle payment reminder calls for customers taking loans. Hughes told TechCrunch that those agents attended 42% of all the reminder calls in the third quarter.

Next year, TBC Uzbekistan plans to expand its AI developments by bringing service and sales bots and a dialogue-based mobile service to let customers interact with its app using their voice instead of going through a text-based interface.

"We’re going deeper into the financial life of retail customers across Uzbekistan. So we’re building out vertical by vertical into different products," Oliver Hughes, head of international business at TBC Group, said in an exclusive interview.

Hughes told TechCrunch that the group hired AI experts who built AI assistant Alice for Russia’s Yandex. These experts have built a finance-specific LLM based on Meta’s Llama that understands local nuances and local languages, including Uzbek, the executive said.

Future Plans

While Hughes did not disclose the exact capital the group is specifically putting into its AI effort, he said that "a material portion of the money raised will be going to the AI projects, but still, the overwhelming majority will be for building out our product and customer acquisition."

TBC Uzbekistan plans to use the funding to further expand its digital banking services, including the development of new products and features.

Competition in the Market

The mobile-exclusive bank faces stiff competition from other digital banks in the country. However, TBC Uzbekistan’s unique business model and innovative approach have helped it gain a significant share of the market.

Conclusion

Uzbekistan’s mobile-exclusive bank, TBC Bank Uzbekistan, has raised $37 million to bolster its dominating digital presence in the Central Asian nation. The fresh investment comes just five months after it raised $38.5 million in July. With its unique business model and innovative approach, TBC Uzbekistan is well-positioned to continue leading the market.