September summary
New York City, photo by Barron Roth on Unsplash
In case you missed out on September episodes of Voice of FinTech podcast, here is the monthly summary! 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.
FinTech Talents Virtual North America Preview with Jim Marous from the Financial Brand and Sarika Sangwan from Pinterest
Jim Marous is a financial industry publisher, global speaker, podcast host, owner and CEO of Digital Banking Report and co-publisher at The Financial Brand (#2 in the United States and #1 free resource on banking). Jim also hosted Gary Vaynerchuk, Tom Peters or Steve Wozniak on his Banking Transformed podcast.
We talk about:
Digital Banking Report's recently published Digital Transformation report says the most successful transformation efforts are led by CEO or CDO. How is the pandemic affecting these efforts and management views? Are more of them now finally ready to embrace digitalization, and why?
Who will the winners in financial services be in the post COVID world? What will be the key success factors?
What are the most exciting innovations in financial services for Jim, perhaps from the founders featured on the podcast?
How do you get the insights from the Financial Brand, Banking Transformed and Digital Banking Report most efficiently
Sarika Sangwan, former American Express executive, is Global Head of Strategy & Marketing - Financial Services at Pinterest. In the second segment, we talk to Sarika about:
Sarika's transition from Amex to Pinterest
Pinterest is a visual search engine for people who are looking for inspiration for events like parties, weddings and home decorating. That means financial services brands can target consumers who are displaying clear signals around life moments. How does Pinterest work with financial services companies to build partnerships where sometimes Pinterest wasn't their obvious choice?
How has life at Pinterest changed post IPO - obviously a major step for a successful start-up. How has life within the company changed? Does Pinterest staff like bankers now more than before or the same?
Where do interested parties from Financial Services or FinTech world can find out more what Pinterest can do for them and what's the best way to get in touch
Jim and Sarika will be speaking at the FinTech Talents Virtual North America on September 9 from New York City alongside many rockstar speakers. Check out the agenda and register for free here.
Amazon Web Services (AWS): A wealth of resources for FinTechs worldwide
Kathryn Van Nuys, US Head of Business Development, Start-ups and Venture Capital at Amazon Web Services (AWS) based in New York, talks about:
Amazon Web Services (AWS) value proposition - low cost, easy to use, global infrastructure to support start-ups from the early stage to global scale. Many household names like Coinbase, Transferwise and many others use AWS infrastructure
Strategic partnerships of AWS with VCs like Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures or incubators and accelerators like Barclays Techstars, FinTech Sandbox, Venture Center and others to reach and work with their portfolio companies and program participants, respectively
Go to market and educational services, like:
AWS Activate program: AWS Activate offers start-ups free tools, resources, and more to quickly get started on AWS, including USD 100k credits. Specifically, check out AWS Active Founders for self-funded and bootstrapped start-ups
AWS Well-Architected review: helping B2B start-ups to be enterprise-ready, mainly in Financial Services
AWS Partner Network: webinars and speaking opportunities for lead generation, direct customer intro: Behalf (on-demand purchase financing), Behavox (RegTech automates insider threats and misconduct detection), see specifics for start-ups here.
Partnerships with other technology companies like Nvidia: check out the joint marketplace here. Joint customers include Upstart, BlueVine and Clinc and others, all leveraging AI to help service customers on their journey
Connecting enterprises, banks, insurance companies and start-ups partnerships
Success stories of start-ups, now scale-ups, using ASW solutions:
Events: the transition from in-person to virtual, targeted events on-demand, fostering relationships with the start-up community around the world
Best way to reach out and learn more about AWS's resources available to start-ups, and FinTechs in particular
Disrupting securitization with Gentwo, Switzerland
Patrick Loepfe is the founder and Chairman of Gentwo, based in Zurich, Switzerland. Gentwo provides securitization of all assets; bankable and non-bankable assets, including digital assets with a Swiss ISIN off-balance sheet.
We talk about:
What is Gentwo? What do they do? Securitization of what assets? Bankable, non-bankable, and digital assets (Gentwo vs. Gentwo Digital)
Why Gentwo? What's their unique selling point
Target clients and key markets
Regulation and liability: not regulated and not liable for investment performance and why
How did the pandemic affect Gentwo's business so far?
Passion projects: financing production of the content for streaming services like Netflix or sustainability
Gentwo's journey as of today: fundraising, hiring, expansion plans
Best way to find out more
Asia Pacific Series with Taneia Bhardwaj: Jitendra Gupta, CEO & founder of Jupiter, India’s first & only co-created banking experience dedicated to millenials
In this episode of our Asia Pacific Series, host Taneia Bhardwaj chats with Jitendra Gupta, Founder & CEO of Jupiter, a neo-banking start-up that wants to create mobile-first banking experiences for Indian millennials. Jupiter has raised a total of $26 million, whilst in stealth mode. Bedrock Capital and Hummingbird Ventures are the most recent investors in Jupiter. Jitendra also co-founded Citrus Pay, a leading digital payments company, which was sold to Naspers-backed PayU in 2016 for $130 million; the largest cash exit for a payments company in India.
Taneia and Jitendra talk about:
Jitendra’s entrepreneurial journey – what led him down the path of payments/fintech
How he built a tech company ground up despite being a non-tech person
What Jupiter is solving for: first & only co-created banking experience dedicated to millennials
Jupiter’s USP – a co-created banking experience that takes a community-first product approach
What will drive adoption for neobanks in India
Investment ideas in the Indian fintech sector
Best way to reach out
LendIt FinTech USA Preview with Plaid, Mouro Capital (ex Santander InnoVentures) and OakNorth
Ahead of LendIt FinTech USA, we talk to representatives of companies participating in this virtual event: Keith Grose, Head of UK and International at Plaid, Jillian Cohn, Partner at Mouro Capital (formerly Santander Innoventures), and Sean Hunter, CIO of OakNorth.
With Keith, we talk about:
Plaid's growth ambitions and plans, including the US
Recap of the key use cases and target customers for Plaid
Out of these, key products and services that Plaid focuses on when expanding internationally.
Plaid's role in driving the evolution from open banking to open finance and how they see that playing out
The best way to find out what Plaid can do for a prospective client - demos, contacts, etc.
Jillian explains:
The rationale for the recent spin-off of Santander Innoventures and rebranding as Mouro Capital
Santander Innoventures and now Mouro Capital's investment philosophy and approach
What Jilian likes most about her current role as Partner of Mouro Capital and why
Jillian will be on the jury for the Lendit Awards - find out more how it works. Also, Jillian's colleague, Chris Gottschalk, will interview CEO and co-founder of the US alternative lender Upgrade, Mouro Capital's portfolio company from San Francisco, Renaud Laplanche
Success stories from their portfolio: iZettle (Swedish payments company for SMEs acquired by PayPal) and Kabbage (being acquired by American Express), for example
Appeal to interested parties to learn more about Mouro Capital and reach out
and with Sean, we talk about:
OakNorth focuses on lending to small businesses that are in the scale-up mode - why this particular segment?
There are OakNorth platform and OakNorth Bank – why it makes sense for OakNorth to license their credit scoring methodology and platform to other banks?
OakNorth's priorities regarding the home market, UK, Europe, and the United States?
What do you need to do if you would like to apply for a loan with OakNorth? Conversely, what to do if you would like to save with OakNorth?
What's the best way to find out about your products and services and reach out?
Voice of FinTech: Live Speaker Series - Digital Assets, Blockchain and Crypto: 2020 reality check
In this virtual event from Voice of FinTech: Live Speaker Series, we talked to Naina Sethi from Magic FinServ New York, Darko Pilav from Digital Asset Zurich and Emilie Raffo from Geneva about Digital Assets, Blockchain and Crypto: 2020 reality check.
Pandemic has accelerated digital transformation trends - have digital assets, blockchain and crypto players capitalized on the opportunity?
Can you keep focused on the customer’s problem first, and technology second?
Do enterprise blockchain and smart contracts have a future? How can blockchain facilitate inclusion and social mobility?
These are just some of the questions we tried to tackle. Joins us next time for the full experience. The best way not to miss out is to subscribe to our newsletter on https://www.voiceoffintech.com/.
You can also watch the excerpts video from the event, including entertainment by fantastic violinist, Irina Pak from Tonhalle Zurich and an entrepreneur bringing music to unusual settings, below. Check out also Irina Pak’s business More than Classic.
Corporate VC as a strategic tool - with ING Ventures
Frederic Hofmann, Managing Director at ING Ventures, based in London, UK, explains:
ING's approach to working with start-ups - a range of teams and strategies, from partnering to investing and ING's commitment to digital transformation
ING Ventures' mandate - do they focus on the strategic alignment with ING or financial gain?
Deal sourcing - how does ING find new investment opportunities
What are the minimum criteria to invest, if any?
Success stories: Aigen Technologies, Flowcast - an early warning system for ING retail to identify when retail clients are likely to be distressed, Cobase, a company built and spun out from ING Labs (now with Nordea and Credit Agricole as investors)
Lessons learned:
Lean governance for a corporate VC is key to success in a fast-changing environment
Working with a large bank takes time, but it can be massively impactful.
There is no silver bullet when it comes to innovation in a large corporate, so many avenues need to be explored at the same time
Start-ups should continuously invest time in building a network of potential investors and, more
The most efficient way to pitch your ideas to the ING Ventures team or ING in general
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. You can also leave feedback using a quick form here: https://www.voiceoffintech.com/feedback.
Keep safe!
Sincerely,