The Tech Mogul Who Sold His Piano—and Opens Doors for Others

The air inside the coworking space hums with quiet, nervous energy. In the heart of Berlin, aspiring startup entrepreneurs from across Eastern Europe take the stage, pitching ideas they’ve spent months shaping in the final round of a regional accelerator. The room is alive with accents, startup jargon and flashes of hopeful brilliance.

 

In one of the rows, alongside other judges, sits a man in a plain navy-blue polo with white stripes. No theatrics, no detached superiority – relaxed and smiling, he listens intently, occasionally leaning in to talk to people around him.

 

At first glance, you might not guess that the man is the founder of SOFTSWISS, a global tech powerhouse with more than 2,000 people operating across several continents, a headquarters in Malta and two development offices in Poland. And SOFTSWISS is just one chapter of his entrepreneurial story – his portfolio also includes ventures in fintech and strategic investments across industries. His name is Ivan Montik.

 

But if you were expecting the usual tech-mogul-in-a-suit persona, you’d be surprised.

 

Montik’s own startup story began far from Berlin, in post-Soviet Minsk. Born into a family of educators, his first bold entrepreneurial decision came at age 12, when he sold his piano to buy his first computer.

 

“My parents were shocked,” he recalls. “In Belarus in the 90s, a piano was a symbol of culture. Selling it for a computer? It felt like madness.”

 

But Montik sensed the future, even when others couldn’t. He started building websites before most businesses understood why they’d ever need one. Later, at Belarusian State University, he combined applied mathematics with international management – a mix of technology and business thinking that became the foundation for everything that followed.

 

In 2009, Montik launched his first company, an online auction platform. The niche proved promising though unstable, with clients shutting down within months. But that experience led to a pivot – and to SOFTSWISS, originally a small software development firm that stumbled onto an untapped market: tech solutions for online gambling.

 

From the start, Montik wanted SOFTSWISS to be more than just a vendor. His teams were encouraged to experiment with emerging tech, which led to SOFTSWISS becoming the first company to offer Bitcoin payments for online casinos in 2013. A bold move at a time when most competitors still handled payments like it was 1999.

 

Despite building an international business in a highly competitive and cash-driven industry known for attracting all kinds of tough characters, his own belief in personal success as a force for good is what brought Montik to Berlin’s accelerator event. In recent years, he has become a strong advocate for supporting migrant entrepreneurs, who he believes could be a vital source of innovation in Europe.

 

This human-first approach also shaped SOFTSWISS’ reputation as a partner other companies could genuinely trust. That reputation recently earned Montik recognition as Europe’s top iGaming leader in 2025 by the European CEO Awards, acknowledging him not only for his business performance but also for building a company culture that values relationships as much as revenue.

 

In a world where tech leaders often make headlines for their wealth – or their arrogance – Ivan Montik may seem like an outlier. In addition to mentoring startups, he’s now laying the groundwork for a foundation focused on supporting STEM education – first in Germany, his adopted home, and later expanding into Latin America and Africa.

 

“STEM education gave me my own start,” he says. “It’s a global language – whether you’re from Berlin, Buenos Aires or Lagos, technology can open doors.”

 

With the foundation, Montik wants to build a bridge, connecting students to mentors, internships, and real-world opportunities. “Success, to me, is simple,” he says. “It’s leaving a door open behind you and making sure someone else knows they’re welcome to walk through it.”

 

It’s a vision that started with a piano in Minsk and now stretches from Berlin to São Paulo, from Warsaw to Cape Town.

 

And if you’re wondering about that piano, here’s the twist. Recently, Montik and his partners launched an initiative to provide brilliant young musicians with original masterpiece instruments, helping them take their talent to new heights. That’s full circle.

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Ivan Montik, Founder of SOFTSWISS, Interviewed by Business Reporter Journalist Jeremy Swiften-Green