July recap!

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Photo by Greg Nunes on Unsplash

In case you missed out on July episodes of Voice of FinTech podcast, here is the monthly recap! You can listen to all the episodes on the Episodes pages of this website or when you subscribe to your favorite podcast apps under Subscribe.

Crowdfunding made simple with Seedrs

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Jeff Lynn is Executive Chairman and co-founder at Seedrs, an equity crowdfunding platform headquartered in London, UK.

We talked about:

  • Why and how Jeff and his classmate, Carlos Silva, turned their classroom project at Said Business School (University of Oxford) into a very successful business

  • How does it work? Seedrs is based in London and Lisbon and around Europe

  • Is the same idea as the outset, or did they pivot?

  • What kind of start-ups can raise funds at the platform (pre or post-revenue, UK based or pan-European)?

  • What sort of due diligence do start-ups go through?

  • FinTechs the most significant sector on the platform

  • A secondary market for your investments in start-ups, how does it function?

  • Start-ups who took a chance on Seedrs when it was an early-stage start-up itself

  • How vital were partnerships for the growth of the platform: from Andy Murray to the British PE and VC association 

  • An impact of the pandemic on Seedrs business and thoughts on the fundraising prospects for start-ups this year

  • Money raised and how fees work

The Financial Markets Series: SIX (the Swiss Exchange Group) and F10 incubator/accelerator in Asia

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In this episode, we spoke to Neil Thomas, SIX Group's representative in Asia - Head of Sales and Country Head Singapore and Japan and Jonas Thuerig, Head of F10 in Singapore.

We talked about:

  • SIX's objectives in Asia 

  • The state of financial services in Asia and Europe

  • Comparison between Singapore's and Japan's economies and implications for financial markets

  • Why is SIX the core corporate partner for the F10 incubator/accelerator and supported expansion to Singapore?

  • F10 in Singapore: similarities and differences vs. F10 in Zurich

  • Which start-ups are best positioned to benefit from the F10 program?

  • How does the selection and monitoring process work?

  • Financial support, co-working (when safe!) and other terms

  • Current trends: acceleration of digitalization in the financial services due to pandemic

  • The best way to reach out

This episode of the Financial Markets Series was brought to you by SIX, the Swiss Exchange Group. If you would like to learn more about SIX, please go to www.six-group.com.  

Nomisma & SCX: Europe's first licensed, blockchain-based MTF for digital asset derivatives

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with Francesco Adiliberti and Dimitrios Kavvathas

Dimitrios Kavvathas is former Co-Head of Asia Pacific Securities Division Distribution and Partner at Goldman Sachs, is Executive Chairman and CEO of Nomisma. Nomisma is the first company in Europe with the license granted by the Liechtenstein Financial Market Authority for an MTF, which allows trading of tokenized financial instruments, in particular derivatives, on a blockchain. 

Francesco Adiliberti is CEO of the SCX - Swiss Crypto Exchange and former MD at Goldman Sachs and HSBC. Nomisma will join forces with the Swiss Crypto Exchange, regulated exchange for institutional and sophisticated retail clients who want to trade blockchain-based digital assets.

We talked about a matching engine that Nomisma has developed, leveraging blockchain to allow trading, especially derivatives of tokenized assets, more efficiently. The entrepreneurial transition of two senior bankers, the key differentiation factors of their technology and their businesses, why they are joining forces, other critical partnerships in the pipeline, and plans to hit their milestones.

Can you teach entrepreneurship? Bocconi Ph.D. and INSEAD Professor explains

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with Chiara Spina

Chiara Spina, a Ph.D. graduate from Bocconi, is joining INSEAD in Singapore in September as Assistant Professor of  Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise.

We talked about:

  • How Chiara became interested in becoming an academic in entrepreneurship

  • Chiara's goals at INSEAD in her first year as a professor

  • Can you teach entrepreneurship? If yes, how? In terms of method, through the case study method or the traditional way?

  • Is there anything scientific about decision making in the early-stage ventures? How can you improve your odds of survival and success? 

  • How can you experiment in a highly regulated industry like Financial Services? 

  • Strengths and perhaps weaknesses of the start-ups in Italy vs. the rest of the world 

  • Chiara's research on emerging phenomena in entrepreneurship like crowdfunding, accelerators, and hackathons

  • Chiara's involvement with Hackathon Research Center

Asia Pacific Series with Angela Conroy: Neal Cross - PictureWealth, orangutans and sense of it all

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Angela Conroy speaking to Neal Cross

Neal Cross is co-founder and Chairman of PictureWealth, an award-winning innovator and speaker based in Perth, Australia, who is active in FinTech and innovation across the Asia Pacific.

In this first episode of Asia Pacific Series with hosts from the region, Angela and Neal talked about:

  • Why, of all the issues in the current financial services sector, he chose to focus on personal wealth management 

  • Neal's background in innovation and if an enterprise is ready for a fundamental shift (ex DBS, MasterCard, Microsoft)

  • The biggest mistakes corporations and start-ups make when trying to work together and how to fix this

  • How do start-ups pick the best partners and avoid those who are part of the "milking" the start-ups

  • His commitment to sustainable tourism through hotelorangutan.com and pulauwehparadise.com in Indonesia and how we can support their mission. 

    • Hotel Orangutan is a non-profit start-up that seeks to empower villagers economically and to raise awareness of the precarious situation of orangutans, which are being driven out of their natural habitat by wildfires.

    • Pulau Weh Paradise: besides its mission to raise awareness of the plight of the coral reefs, the hotel has also been a source of jobs and education for the local villages 

If you have suggestions for topics or guests on the show or have ideas about how to make this podcast better for you, please e-mail us at info@voiceoffintech.com.

Keep safe!

Sincerely,

Rudolf Falat