Ard Financial Group JSC (Ard), GrapeCity Mongol LLC (Grape), and MOST Fintech (MOST) signed a strategic partnership agreement in 2017. On June 23, they confirmed this partnership and announced the start of the next stage of cooperation.

Grape, established in 2000, supplies banking software to 12 out of the 13 commercial banks operating in Mongolia. Ten of them use Grape's core banking system. Grape is taking steps to compete internationally.

MOST, Mongolia's first Fintech company, was established in 2008 with a mission to build a nationwide online payment infrastructure. It received the first and only license to operate a payment system network from the Bank of Mongolia. It has been providing Ard App's payment service infrastructure to more than one million users.

As part of the next stage of the partnership, Grape and MOST are looking to become publicly listed companies. Ard and other strategic investors will lead pre-IPO equity rounds, while Ard Securities will work as the primary underwriter of the IPOs. The IPOs will allow the public to own shares in the first publicly-traded IT service company in the Mongolian stock market.

Thus, the partnership of Mongolia's leading banking and payment software company and industry-leading fintech companies will make it easier to provide financial and technological services to customers in a more accessible and straightforward way.

Founder of Grape, Chairman of the Board of Most, and Mongolia's first programmer Mr. Suhdorj Avir founded BSB Group, Mongolia's foremost information technology company in 1991; Grape, a banking and payment software solutions company in 2000; and Incomnet, a satellite communications service provider in 2001. He is a pioneer in Mongolia's telecommunications and has been a driving force in the banking and payment sector. He has implemented several successful projects over the past 40 years, establishing the country's first payment service operator (MOST) in 2008 and launching the MostMoney mobile wallet in 2012.

In terms of assets, Grape accounts for 83 percent of the domestic banking software market. Over 150 NBFIs, SCCs, and microfinance institutions use Grape's POLARIS system for microfinance institutions' accounting. Considering this unique situation, Grape has made the MOST platform publicly available to the public.

Ard Financial Group is a diversified financial services holding company with the overarching goal of increasing its shareholders’ equity through investing in and developing leading financial services and technology companies. Our investment portfolio consists of companies such as Ard Insurance, Ard Credit, Ard Securities, Ard Life, Ard Assets, Ard Management, Ard Bit, TenGer Systems, MEC Partners (ardshop.mn), Mongol Post, Ard Holdings International, Ard Leasing, Ard Properties and Ard Realty. Ard App, Ard Fintech, ArdCoin, Ard Cash, CryptoNation, Digital Assets Exchange and Ard Digital Bazaar are proprietary digital products based on artificial intelligence and blockchain technology.

Source: Ard Financial Group