Meet Ketevan Meparishvili – Regional Manager of Asia who joined the TWINO family almost five years ago as Business Development and Marketing Head in Georgia. She was later transferred to the TWINO headquarters in Latvia as Group Product Developer Manager and currently oversees the Asian region to lead TWINO with its expansion plans.
Ketevan has over 16 years of work experience under her belt, having held top managerial positions in everything from local fintech startups to Fortune 500 companies. She has graduated from top business schools in Georgia and is also an Associate Professor of Marketing. Ketevan holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration, received in the UK, and Executive MBA, obtained in France.
We recently had a brief chat with Ketevan about how the last year has been for the fintech industry in Asia, how TWINO managed its Asia-Pacific market entry, and what are the plans for 2021. Here’s what she had to share.
Pandemic meets fintech – insights from Asia
Asked for her view of the fintech sector in Asia throughout last year, Ketevan told us that 2020 was a litmus test for the Asian fintech industry, reshaping customer behavior and regulatory changes of the region’s fintech sector. The global pandemic accelerated the fintech industry in Asia bringing millions of new customers and increasing the demand for digital lending tools.
As Ketevan explains, with more tech companies exploring the financial services value chain and developing new solutions for unbanked customers, the competition in the Asian fintech industry has become more intense.
She adds that at the moment, Asia is facing a challenge to advance data gathering and tackle new technologies for adjusting to post-pandemic valuation logics. It’s estimated that in 2021, as other countries start to recover from the pandemic and adapt to the new normal, the Asian fintech industry is likely to face yet another growth spurt.
Entering a new market in 2020 and looking forward to 2021
With a desire to enter the Asia-Pacific market, TWINO joined forces with the VIA SMS Group in 2020, creating a brand – VAMO. The joint venture started issuing loans just before the pandemic when it established its first consumer lending operations in Vietnam.
Ketevan proudly shares that VAMO successfully overcame all early obstacles and adds:
After assessing the yearly results, we were happy to see that we’ve reached our goals. Now we’re looking forward to developing new projects for the Asia-Pacific market.
Asked to share the 2021 plans for TWINO Group in Asia, Ketevan reveals that the Group aims to expand its operations further in the region and is currently conducting market research to determine the best potential target countries for Latvian fintech solutions. Therefore, TWINO Group overlooks its operational facilities not only in consumer lending but also in online business loans and other related products.
Moreover, Ketevan tells us that the TWINO IT Hub in Georgia, which provides software services to Twino Group businesses, recruited new IT talents during the pandemic period in 2020 and actively continues to search for team additions. TWINO’s Asian region management, together with the Georgian IT Hub, is actively developing new projects that will diversify the TWINO Group’s portfolio and provide customers with state-of-the-art fintech solutions.
