“For the first few weeks, The Credit Thing got the same number of clients as Koto for months.” Mykhailo Rogalskiy talks about rebranding
In December 2021, the fintech startup Koto from London, launched by monobank founders, has made rebranding and relaunched its product. Now it is The Credit Thing, and it looks even more similar to mono.
An AIN.UA editor had a chat with The Credit Thing’s co-founder Mykhailo Rogalskiy about the changes they made, why they did this, and how it influenced the business.
Why did you rebrand?
First of all, the product has been changed. We reforged our essential credit product.
The original idea of Koto was to make a credit product with the same function as a credit card but different. We wanted to create a product that is distinguishable from existing credit card market players. Since the United Kingdom is a large and modern market, we didn’t want to compete with Capital One directly. So, we created the Koto concept with two credit products with fixed fees instead of interest.
But after we introduced and promoted Koto, we made two conclusions. First, if you sell a new product the clients don’t know from their experience, you need to break through the wall of misunderstanding to let customers have the vision you have in your mind.
For example, talking with journalists and potential customers, I have spent 20-30 seconds explaining what Koto is. At the same time, if you would say “a credit card,” they would already know it and how it works.
Second, I studied how the banks that issue credit cards work in Great Britain and learned that this has a lot of potential for improvement. So we don’t need to be shy to play against them on their field.
That is how The Credit Thing product arose. It is a credit card that “lives” in your smartphone, works with Apple Pay or Google Pay, has a limit of up to 1,500 pounds with a floating interest rate from 27% per annum (which is 2% less than at Capital One and 7% less than at Oneplus Bank — they are our main competitors in the UK).
We made a big step away from the initial Koto concept, but it was worth rebranding. However, we created a new brand — The Credit Thing — and relaunched the product under this name.
What’s changed?
Koto had two credit products.
- Extra — a credit card with an overdraft limit of 500 pounds. It has no grace period. You must pay 20 pence for each day you had a negative balance.
- And Spread that was more like the installment buying (where you could buy anything up to 1,000 GBP and pay for it a month for a month) with a fixed fee of 200 GBP.
The Credit Thing combined these two products. Now we offer a credit card with a limit of 1,500 pounds, a grace period of up to 62 days, and an interest rate applied after the grace period has expired.
How did the rebranding impact the business?
We spent about six weeks remaking and relaunching the product under a new name. The Credit Thing started a month ago, on December 14, 2021. And we got quick results confirming it was the right decision. Our conversions through main channels increased 2, 3, or even 4 times thanks to a more straightforward message and a more transparent product.
At the moment, The Credit Thing has over 20,000 clients, and it is growing much faster than Koto, without having spent a cent on ads.
For the first three weeks, The Credit Thing got the same number of clients as Koto for 3.5 months.
I think the rebranding and relaunching have brought great success.
Koto was launched on March 2, 2020. Fintech Band has invested $3.5 million of own funds and 1.4 million euros of raised investments in its launch. The product is being developed in the UK market by a local management team while the development takes place in Ukraine.