Three years ago, Max Faldin, a Stanford MBA graduate and former co-founder of Russia's largest eCommerce company, Wikimart (called "the Amazon of Russia" by Silicon Valley VCs), launched a fintech startup, Silverbird, together with Georgy Babilashvili behind Silverbird's global growth.
Today, the company already serves over 1,000 global merchants and has more than 15,000 account applications pending from new customers. Silverbird employs more than 100 staff members, was named a finalist in the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, and won SME News' 2023 award for Best SME Digital Payments Platform in the UK.
Faldin, who is currently renouncing his Russian citizenship following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine and increasing freedom crackdown in the country, is a strong advocate of the freedom of cross-border trade for SMEs and international businesses. Together with Georgy Babilashvili, he aims to revolutionize the existing financial system by fostering freedom in global trade and promoting financial inclusion for small businesses.
"Our goal is to become a verticalized banking provider for millions of exporting SMEs worldwide. We believe that, in seven years, we will be a ten-billion-dollar company," says Faldin.
Speaking about what sets Silverbird apart, Babilashvili explains, "In the past, traditional banks hesitated to cater to this crucial segment, rejecting a staggering 80-90% of applications from SMEs engaged in cross-border trade. In stark contrast, Silverbird stands as a beacon of empowerment for these businesses, actively nurturing their growth and playing a pivotal role in spurring economic development".
Verticalized digital bank with a focus on international trade
Silverbird's competitive advantage stems from its vertical focus.
The company develops a data-enabled compliance solution and builds a data-driven
compliance machine. As a result, they provide a superior customer experience in cross-border wholesale transactions. They onboard customers from more than 180 countries and offer a suite of financial products tailored for international trade.
Finally, Silverbird uses third-party transactional data - so-called bill-of-lading data - to onboard customers and support their cross-border trade - something global banks are unable and unwilling to do, and local banks don't have the product for.
Silverbird's business model has been exceptionally successful so far. The market is presenting Silverbird with tremendous opportunities, not only in the realm of payments but also in related product offerings.
At the same time, the primary constraint Silverbird encounters is the rate at which its team can expand to seize these opportunities, says Silverbird's co-founder Georgy Babilashvili.
Organizational theory underscores the importance of allowing sufficient time for the organization to assimilate new hires, emphasizing that companies should proceed at a deliberate pace to ensure sustainable growth. Consequently, Silvebrird adheres to this principle in its strategic approach. Babilashvili believes that, without this natural constraint, Silverbird would have grown much faster.
Speaking about overcoming the operational challenges, Silverbird's Head of Organizational Development, Cristina Munteanu, points out the necessity to maintain the quality of service as the number of customers grows: "At Silverbird, we are customer obsessed, which means we set certain standards for ourselves when it comes to the service our customers receive. Due to constrained resources, it's not always possible to grow the team proportionally to customer growth. Our route to solving this challenge was developing a really strong collaboration between product and operations to introduce automation into our workflows. Knowing which areas to automate and where human interaction is required is a balancing act in itself."
Innovative compliance system
"Silverbird has forged a truly innovative approach to enhance KYC/AML profiling for market participants," says Georgy Babilashvili. "This groundbreaking method allows us to extend our services to a broader client base, particularly benefiting underbanked SMEs engaged in cross-border trade," he continues.
Babilashvili explains that central to this approach is Silverbird's reliance on extensive datasets encompassing trade information, corporate data, client interactions on various platforms, and social media insights. Silverbird leverages digital analytical tools, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence, which sets them apart from many traditional banks that still rely on cumbersome client requests and manual data collection processes. Their method is more accurate and significantly faster, improving their ability to combat financial crime while streamlining onboarding for legitimate clients.
Silverbird's innovative compliance approach enhances security and empowers international SMEs, fostering their growth and contributing to economic development.
As Babilashvili points out, compliance is just one "invisible" facet of Silverbird's product. On the client-facing side, Silverbird has built a robust payment infrastructure designed to support transactions in over 200 countries and accommodate more than 35 currencies, effectively covering 99% of its clients' needs.
Infinite market potential and vast geography
6 million merchants currently don't have access to global banking services, and their number is constantly rising, which makes Silverbird's target market almost infinite.
Who are Silverbird's customers?
These are traditional businesses exporting from their home countries.
They have revenue between 1 and 20 million dollars annually, their main business is wholesale, and they operate in all kinds of consumer goods and unregulated commodities.
The customers come from countries such as India, China, Turkey, Vietnam, several African
countries such as South Africa and Nigeria, and many Eastern European countries. Most of them have international entities in jurisdictions such as the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, and the EU. They congregate around these five jurisdictions, but their business geographies are much broader.
According to Georgy Babilashvili, depending on the business geography, each customer case is unique. For example, some countries impose strict requirements for making export payments, necessitating extensive paperwork. Silverbird aims to make online banking accessible to all, even in the most complicated cases.
Best-in-class remote-first team
Upon Silverbird's debut in May 2020, the initial strides were taken into an uncharted realm of remote work, marking a pioneering era. Financial constraints and the pervasive London lockdown rendered office space an unattainable luxury, resulting in the need for digital interfaces for interpersonal exchanges. Fast-forwarding to 2023, the wingspan of Silverbird has expanded across the globe.
With a workforce exceeding 150 individuals, including contractors, and spanning seven distinct time zones, this journey has been an odyssey of education and adaptation for Silverbird. The evolution of Silverbird has consistently posed challenges to preconceived notions about the management and expansion of a remotely operating entity, prompting a continual reassessment and reformation of the company's strategies.
According to Georgy Babilashvili, Silverbird has immensely benefited from high-caliber talent at lower-cost locations thanks to remote working. Currently, Silverbird operates with multiple remote teams spanning various locations worldwide, with a specific focus on Europe. Notably, there are two primary teams: one located in London, composed of approximately 30 individuals, and another consisting of around 40 members based in Moldova.
The team consists of best-in-class professionals. For example, Silverbird's CPO, with a previous career record in Currencycloud, is said to be the best CPO in the market for cross-border payments. Its COO is from Onfido, the market leader for KYB services. Silverbird's Head of Compliance is an ex-head of financial crime at Wise. The CTO has experience managing more than 150 engineers in his previous venture, and the CRO has recently sold his SaaS company, where he was a founding CEO.
Continuous global development
Already with a physical office in London, Silverbird has recently opened a branch in Moldova.
This development signifies a notable achievement within the Silverbird Experience Branch, carrying the potential to enhance the team's professional journey and facilitate remarkable accomplishments.
"We decided to localize our center for engineering and back-office operations in Moldova over two years ago. After carefully evaluating options across various European countries, we found a unique blend of geographical proximity, cost-effectiveness, and availability of skilled expertise in Moldova. The country is experiencing a rapid surge in the ICT sector, supported by initiatives such as the Moldova IT Park's favorable tax framework," says Head of Organizational Development Cristina Munteanu.
"As I'm originally from Moldova, my personal network and understanding of the market and local language helped Silverbird hit the ground running in the opening of the new office. Sharing many cultural and legal aspects with other European nations makes business compatibility easy in Moldova. The country has immense potential, and I take great pride in Silverbird's ongoing investments in Moldova as we grow our presence in the market," she continues.
Silverbird's co-founder Georgy Babilashvili says that Silverbird continues its global expansion by establishing international partnerships with major payment platforms, such as Currencycloud (part of Visa), and developing new relationships with global Tier-1 and local leading banking institutions in the UK and EU, USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, and other parts of the world.
Ambitious future plans
Within seven years, Silverbird aims to become the primary global provider of payments and banking for exporters and importers worldwide.
As a guiding force and visionary of Silverbird, Max Faldin envisions a future where the worldwide financial system will prioritize inclusivity and integrate data-centric strategies. He believes that B2B banks will pivot towards a more enterprise-focused perspective, enhancing client interactions and propelling corporate advancement.
Looking ahead, Georgy Babilashvili, co-founder of Silverbird, affirms the company's commitment to ambitious plans. The strategic focus includes expanding the utilization of ML and AI to assess the risk profiles of potential clients and oversee payments. In terms of the payment infrastructure, Silverbird aims to identify new partners to introduce more product features. These may include FX forwards to hedge currency exposure for clients, essential trade finance services for export and import businesses, and more. The ultimate objective is to become a comprehensive one-stop-shop for all financial services required in international trade.
The metamorphosis is already underway,as Silverbird is paving the future for seamless cross-border supply chains, culminating in smoother product deliveries and more economically efficient global transactions.
A look back into history reveals that when trade transcends boundaries and operates in an unfettered manner, societal progress flourishes. Silverbird's co-founders Max Faldin and Georgy Babilshvili are unwaveringly committed to facilitating the realization of this aspiration together with their team.
