Veon
“Can a multi-market emerging-market telecom convert 212 million mobile subscribers into embedded financial services customers to drive a second growth curve?”
VEON began as a Russian mobile telecom operator (VimpelCom) and rebranded in 2017 to reflect its expansion across emerging markets including Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The company has been steadily pivoting toward embedded financial services layered on top of its connectivity base — leveraging its 212+ million mobile subscribers to offer digital wallets, payment cards, and mobile financial services in markets with low financial inclusion. The 2021 launch of the 'Simply' digital payment card in Kazakhstan, along with the Mastercard partnership, signals a deliberate strategy to become the financial services OS for its telecoms customers rather than purely a connectivity provider.