When a business is ready to move to a globally new level, the traditional banking system often lags behind. Ivan Zhiznevsky, the founder and CEO of 3S Money, a neobank for international business, is convinced that the future lies in solutions that allow entrepreneurs from around the world to manage their finances quickly, simply, and without limitations. The idea for 3S Money came to me in 2018 when I encountered a problem opening an account for my company in the Netherlands.
Imagine: a sunny May day in Amsterdam, I walk out of the notary’s office with a stack of documents about company registration. Full of hopes and plans, I enter the first bank I come across — ING. They ask me to present my passport.
The employee’s face changes: sorry, we don’t serve non-residents. I try another bank, then a third — everywhere I’m turned away because of my American citizenship. Later, already in London, I learned that this problem is familiar to many entrepreneurs.
Whether you’re American, Russian, Arab, or Chinese — banks are reluctant to engage with foreigners if they don’t have influential connections or millions in their account. That’s when I decided it was time to create a bank that wouldn’t discriminate based on passport colour. I assembled a team of experienced bankers and talented developers and started working on an MVP — a simple but functional service for opening multi-currency accounts online.
Our first clients were startups from the USA, Israel, and Germany who, like me, needed clear and accessible banking. The real breakthrough came during the pandemic. When borders closed and companies massively switched to remote work, 3S Money was exactly what was needed.
With one click, entrepreneurs could open a global business account, accept payments from foreign counterparties, and pay taxes and salaries worldwide. Revenue growth for 2020 was 400 percent. Dubai’s story began when my wife and I caught the last flight from England as the country closed its borders at Christmas 2020.
Upon arriving, I discovered a completely different reality: people here worked faster and more efficiently than in Europe. Today, thousands of clients trust us — from individual entrepreneurs to large international companies including CoinFund, Mitsubishi, and the Dutch chain Abraco. With us, they can do business in 40-plus countries worldwide with instant conversion into 35 currencies.