monobank — a bank in a smartphone — is a product of cooperation between Universal Bank and the Fintech Band team, a progressive personal banking tool in the form of a mobile app.
In 2024, the number of monobank users exceeded 8.5 million, and the total amount of money they spent was UAH 5.6 trillion.
mono is a project that is constantly evolving and actively communicating with its audience to become better and better.
We started working with monobank before they crossed the 1 million customer mark.
At that time, none of the banks and their apps on the Ukrainian market had their own recognizable sound identity and used audio systematically (it was much later that we had the opportunity to work with FUIB Online!).
The mono team wanted to add branded notifications to the app to complement the user-friendly interface, add recognition to the young brand, and make it stand out.
Spoiler alert: many years later, the monobank refill of bank account sound has become a universal sound in Ukrainian TikToks, even if this banking does not appear in the video. ;)
The sound concept was straightforward: the mono mascot is a QR-cat, so the app began to purr and meow. Kalimba notes and wooden percussion instruments made all the notifications more cozy and friendly. For better functionality, we also added sound effects to some notifications, such as the ding of a cash register.
By the way, some of the cat’s meows are those of a real cat that we recorded, and the other are those of our co-founder Ruslana and her hidden talents. But the purr is exclusively authentic feline!
This is how we created the first monobank notification sounds, which have already become iconic:
Later, when the mono app received an updated design, we created another set of sounds that included such notifications:
In addition to the mobile banking app, the mono team has also created an analog of the Patreon platform, “Base by mono”, a tool for making legal money for content creators.
Base allows users to create subscriptions, receive donations, display QR codes, and have donation animations on streams. We created a signature cheerful sound for the latter.
We had already developed such an element of the sonic identity during our cooperation with PlayUA, so we immediately knew how “Base” notifications should sound.
We ensured that the sounds not only complemented animations but also attracted the streamer’s attention and evoked pleasant emotions in the audience (which indirectly affects their desire to donate in the future!).
And here’s how one of the “Base” animations works in real life:
monobank has secret in-app games. So the fact that besides audio brands, our team also creates music and sound design for games came in handy. :)
In this game, a QR cat flies on a rocket through space, bravely rescues cat astronauts, and dodges asteroids.
Since the game has a distinctive retro style, we created its sound accordingly. Although some things remained unchanged - the rescued astronauts meow quite recognizably. :)
A fun fact: in the first days after the release, the game had a bug that prevented the number of points scored from being saved if the user had the sound turned off. We had nothing to do with it. Honestly.
After the success of Space Invader, which monobank customers played more than 7 million times, the mono team added another mini-game, “Sausage Cat,” to the app in the spirit of the legendary retro-style snake.
Now, the sneaky QR-cat ate the logos of Ukrainian banks and died when bumping into the National Bank of Ukraine. Later, the QR-cat was replaced by Patron the Dog, the mascot of Chernihiv Pyrotechnics, who collects mines.
The game has the same retro sound as Space Invader, and we didn’t even change the tone to make all the app’s elements sound consistent.
However, “Sausage Cat” music has a much more sly and amusing mood, so it’s no surprise that our audio moodboard included the Pink Panther and Despicable Me themes.
While developing notification sounds for monobank, the guys had the idea to record the cats’ purring so that the sounds were natural enough. In the process of preparation, the guys recorded themselves to test some ideas, in the end, we liked it so much that now 2 million users of monobank listen to the purring sounds of VP Production employees. 😀