International investor Oleg Boyko is a billionaire, the founder and chairman of the Supervisory board of directors of the Finstar Financial Group. As of 2021, he is ranked 93rd by Forbes Russia with a personal fortune of USD 1.3 billion.

Finstar Financial Group

In 1996 Oleg Boyko and his partners founded Finstar, a private equity company. Despite the fact that financial sector and IT technologies have been and are among Finstar's main investment areas, Oleg Boyko's biography also includes other areas of activity, from FMCG and metallurgy to media and entertainment. The group's assets are currently valued at $2 billion. The company is represented in more than 30 countries.

"Finstar is the most geographically stable company in the world of lending. We are different from others strategically, for example, alliances. The company has invested, bought, developed and sold a great deal over the last 30 years. This is our core business, part of a complex modification that no other similar financial group has", - this is how Oleg Boyko describes Finstar's strategy in his interview with RBC.

In his interviews, Oleg Boyko says that he is a businessman who had several global financial crises in his biography. At the same time, he always managed to come out of crises with dignity. The entrepreneur himself calls stress tolerance the most important trait of a businessman, and believes that real success is impossible without risk.

"To be successful, an entrepreneur needs not only to find investors and partners. He must also have a few certain human qualities. One of them is risk appetite. It is important to feel comfortable in a stressful situation. This is the moment when a businessman shows himself - he needs to make the right decision, right now, under stress", - says Oleg Boyko in an interview with Forbes.

Fintech-business: the most important startups

Now the investor Oleg Boyko has focused on the fintech sphere. As Oleg Boyko admits, his current dream is to build a "global fintech leader". To do this, the businessman is ready to invest up to an additional USD 150 million in promising projects in credit risk management, data processing, and the development of digital payment systems.

"We are creating a new generation of financial intermediaries that will replace today's banking institutions. We are building a mobile ecosystem. It is a well-known global trend; we're just coming at it in our own way."

DFI

Oleg Boyko and Finstar Financial Group's most global fintech project was the 2015 founding of Digital Finance International, which operates in the international digital lending market. The key mission of DFI is an access to financial products and services for customers who are dissatisfied with the current level of banking services. Today, the company successfully operates in 15 countries with more than 20 consumer brands.

"Our target audience is people who are currently excluded from the financial services sector. We create a product for those who either do not pass the bank scoring or are dissatisfied with the level of services quality - underbanked and underserved, as we call them. These needs can be met by modern technology, the main thing is to link them into the right mosaic."

Betting on partnerships

"It is in partnerships that we can bring together talents who sense new trends, see new markets, want to be leaders and create innovative products for global applications."

Oleg Boyko often mentions in his interviews that he makes a key bet on people, who, in his opinion, are far more important than any of the world's resources.

"I believe that people are the only oil. What people have is not contained in any oil. Everything is done by people, all the achievements. And I have always thought about that, and I'm interested in studying emotional intelligence."

Today Boyko is passionate about finding young talent with unconventional ideas capable of transforming life in the near future. Despite the fact that so far the businessman speaks of it more as a hobby, the first real steps have already been taken. In 2021, Finstar became the general partner of the Digital Partnership International Young Leaders Convention. The unprecedented event brought together young scientists and entrepreneurs, students, and IT specialists working (or dreaming of working) on the inevitable digitalization of the world. The convention program included educational events, master classes from experts, a virtual project exhibition, and project team competitions.

"We will definitely support the best in the Fintech track; I personally take part in programs to support young talent. I see this as our social mission."

Oleg Boyko has been involved in philanthropic activities for many years. His notable projects include the creation of the Parasport Paralympic Sports Foundation, which aims to support people with disabilities in their pursuit of an active lifestyle. In October 2015, Oleg Boyko became a member of the IWAS Development Committee. In 2021, Parasport decided to award grants to athletes under 20 years who placed 4th or 5th at the XVI Paralympic Summer Games in Tokyo.