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Fintech CEO’s

Eco2wallet: What has in common a tree, a virtual pet and, a debit card? – eco2wallet has the answer

Yodaly Sierra-Rubio founded eco2wallet, a green fintech that specialises in making sustainable banking fun and accessible to all through a VISA debit card that combines gamification and tree-planting to promote sustainable purchases. She is also lecturer of energy finance at The City University of London, award winner of the ESG Fintech Powerlist 2021 by Finance Innovation UK and recognised speaker about sustainable capitalism in more than 100+ conferences (including COP21, websummit, and the European Sustainability Week). Yodaly is a big advocate for tree hugging, imagination games, and earthers.

Conception of Eco2wallet

“With eco2wallet’s debit card, we can calculate not only how much money you spent today (like any other debit card) but also, what was the environmental impact that you generated, and the number of trees and seagrass we planted on your behalf to help in the battle against climate change.

LightYear Docs : Revolutionizing synergies financial services business

An experienced director with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry, Michael is skilled in Business Planning, Investment Advisory, Mutual Funds, Business Relationship Management, and Cash Flow Forecasting. In an interview, Michael speaks on an array of topics. Excerpts:

Conception of LightYear Docs

“Whilst there was existing competition within our space, we targeted a need to take the provision of legal documents to the accounting and advisory industry to infinity and beyond. We wanted to not only be a fintech document provider but one that delivered superior product, superior customer service but most importantly one that was overlayed with knowledge through training our users in understanding the product and strategies on how to deliver it to their customers. We wanted to create partnerships and an ecosystem that supported one another” says Michael.

Merlin Investor: The smart financial advisor

An experienced corporate executive with demonstrated history and track record in creating and running international companies in several industries and regions, Guido Petrelli is the CEO of Merlin Investor, a fintech company that aims to democratize financial inclusion and investment strategies through a software for market study, investment planning, and portfolio tracking designed for any kind of investor. In an interview, Guido speaks on an array of subjects. Excerpts:

Conception of Merlin Investor

Says Guido that the world has seen an unprecedented shift in the approach to investing, with the new generation of retail investors being reluctant to entrust third parties for managing their own money while seeking to achieve financial freedom. “Still, we identified the need to educate and empower them with the necessary tools for conscious investing, risk management and strategic planning, as the key elements to become successful and the one and only master of their own financial future.

REALIZ.io: Creating Smart Ways to Invest

Brice Vandevoorde has had varied experience in building and developing businesses in Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East. A great learner and a technology enthusiast, he is the CEO of REALIZ.io, the French-based fintech start-up, empowering investors to access the world of investment in securities and real estate assets through the latest blockchain technology. In an interview, he speaks on an array of topics. Excerpts:

Conception of REALIZ.io

REALIZ.io was born out of the need to invest savings for good returns while ensuring safety, which was a common problem faced by many. Says Brice, “After realizing the potential of real estate investments, we pooled our resources and expertise to create a company that could help us, and our associates invest more effectively. Using technology, we worked hard to find the best solution to make the investment process seamless and user-friendly.” Eventually, the founders provided a platform that provided transparency and safety for investments and enabled access to previously unavailable opportunities for everyone.

Take Profit Solutions: a fintech company with a difference

Giuliano is the CEO and co-founder of Take Profit Solutions, a fintech company, formed to address liquidity issues among Italian micro and small enterprises. A passionate entrepreneur, he speaks on an array of topics. Excerpts from the interview:

The conception of Take Profit Solutions

Take Profit Solutions was conceived to address issues related to lack of liquidity in Italian micro and small enterprises. According to the ISTAT data collected in 2020, 62.8% of these enterprises would be fragile due to problems directly related to a lack of liquidity. Furthermore, Italian MSMEs are crushed by a high tax burden equal to over 59.1% of their revenues which places Italy among the countries with the highest taxation in the OECD area. “Therefore, we had to develop algorithms that allow companies to use that part of liquidity not committed to short-term operations (free cash flow) for the execution of automated trading operations on the OTC markets with the aim of increasing the liquidity available for the same turnover” says Giuliano.

Clayton Hayward, CEO

Ukheshe: Enabling seamless and scalable payment solutions

Passionate about revolutionizing the financial services landscape in Africa and other emerging markets is how Clayton Hayward, Co-Founder and CEO of Ukheshe is driving innovation across their markets. The leading fintech company is spearheading digital transformation across the continent. Under Hayward’s leadership, Ukheshe has disrupted traditional banking models by leveraging cutting-edge technology and mobile platforms to empower individuals and businesses with seamless financial solutions.

Clayton and his executive team are on a mission to foster financial inclusion and provide access to innovative solutions that aim to improve traditional financial services, unlocking unprecedented economic opportunities for millions. Drawing on his extensive expertise in the fintech industry, he has built a talented team of professionals and forged strategic partnerships to expand their reach and deliver transformative solutions. Ukheshe has created a robust ecosystem that facilitates secure payments, digital banking, and merchant services, facilitating economic growth and empowering individuals to participate fully in the digital economy. In an interview, Clayton speaks on an array of topics. Excerpts:

Andy Cheung

AC Ventures: Revolutionizing South-east Asia’s digital disrupters

Andy is a dynamic senior executive with strategic mindset and global leadership experience on the internet, digital, e-Commerce and blockchain industry across Asia Pacific. His well-rounded skills in P&L management, sales & marketing, operations, and people management, coupled with solid track record in transforming businesses has helped him deliver high performance and results. He is the founder of AC Ventures, an early-stage blockchain venture fund that focuses on investing in digital disruptors. In an interview, he speaks on an array of topics. Excerpts:

Conception of ACV

Says Andy that people are flooding into the blockchain industry. There are a lot of talented people and team who have great ideas but lack resources to execute. They need both capital and technological support, and we can offer both. “We have been in the industry for years, and with my experience as the COO and a founding member at OKX, I have the expertise, resources and network to offer projects advice that led to their success.

Santiago Su‡rez, CEO y fundador de Addi, posa el miŽrcoles 20 de febrero de 2019, en Bogot‡. Addi es una empresa de tecnolog’a que hace servicios financieros 100% digitales. Foto: Carlos Julio Martinez

Addi: Enabling digital commerce in Latin America

Santiago Suarez is the CEO and co-founder of Addi, a Latin American fintech company. Addi promotes and enables digital commerce in Latin America. Addi’s mission is to enable every Latin American to buy and shop digitally. Originally from Colombia, Santiago moved to the USA for pursuing his education. After university and working in the finance industry, he decided to move back to LatAm. In an interview, he speaks on his background in financial services, and how it helped him become an entrepreneur. Excerpts:

Conception of Addi

There are two main factors that constantly reinforce our market opportunity, observes Santiago. “The first one is the lack of financial inclusion in Latin America, in which 80%+ of the population has a smartphone and internet access and less than 60% have a bank account. The second one is the awful payment experience we face when trying to shop, especially online.”

Rom Lakritz

Anchor: Anchoring an autonomous billing solution for SMBs

Rom Lakritz is a passionate entrepreneur. He founded Anchor, a U.S.-based company that helps business owners thrive by allowing them to focus their time and resources on doing business and not billing. Launched in 2021, Anchor’s cloud-based autonomous billing solution redefines B2B billing, collections, and payments. By providing an end-to-end billing and collections solution and removing all manual labor from these processes, Anchor eliminates the risks of fraud and human error in B2B payments. In an interview, Rom speaks on an array of topics.

Conception of Anchor

“Everybody wants to get paid on time. In B2C billing, that’s how things are, but B2B is a whole different story. It can take weeks before the process is completed and the money is in your account, which adds a heavy tow on your cash flow and weakens the foundation of your business,” observes Rom. He adds that as an experienced entrepreneur, he understood how painful the process was, especially for smaller, service-based companies.

Lincoln Ross, CEO

CircleBlack: Offering Intuitive, useful user experience

Lincoln Ross is a veteran wealth tech executive who is also a passionate entrepreneur. He has also served as the Chief of Business Operations to Envestnet Inc, leading strategic and planning and transformation initiatives. CircleBlack was founded in 2014 to deliver innovative technology to a new generation of financial advisors and institutions and clients. The firm’s software tools uniquely fill an important gap in marketplace by combining data integration and aggregation with ease of use and implementation. They are also focused on deepening its integrations with industry partners and expanding the core functionality of its products. In an interview, he speaks on an array of topics. Excerpts:

Conception of CircleBlack

CircleBlack is all set to becoming the primary operating system and a pre-eminent interface for the wealth management industry. Says Lincoln that the wealth management industry needs an intuitive and useful user experience.

1-Nico

Clair: Social impact fintech offering on-demand pay access

Nico Simko managed Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), investment, and partnerships due diligence on 10+ payments FinTechs worth over $25 billion while at J.P. Morgan. Originally from Switzerland and Argentina, Nico holds a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University. He is the Co-founder and CEO of Clair, a digital banking platform, where he manages the company’s overall strategic direction and its relationships with its shareholders and customers. He speaks on an array of topics.

Conception of Clair

Clair is a New York-based mission driven digital banking platform that provides America’s workforce with fee-free access to their earnings anytime via the Clair Debit Mastercard and FDIC-insured spending and savings accounts. The company’s on-demand pay product is embedded within the digital or physical punch clocks of its HR technology partners, where employees clock in and out every day. By giving people access to their earnings when they need them, Clair is bringing financial confidence to America’s workforce.

AndrewPeek

Delphia: Converting investment into a positive sum game

A passionate entrepreneur, Andrew focuses on technology backed by experimentation, data, and the changing patterns in human behavior. He has held pivotal roles in several of Canada’s most notable startups, including FreshBooks and Shopify. He was also previously a partner at Jet Cooper. He continues to mentor and invest in Canadian entrepreneurs with an eye towards making the country one of the greatest places in the world to innovate. In an interview, he speaks on an array of topics. Excerpts:

Conception of Delphia

“We founded Delphia to create meaningful prosperity by re-distributing wealth to those whose data is creating economic value,” says Andrew. “It’s more than passion, though. We have the financial and technical expertise to pull this off as well. Our team is a combination of two research labs — one with proven skill in predicting consumer behavior, the other with a breakthrough way of predicting company fundamentals at scale. We’ve come together with a common purpose. One we hope will resonate with you.”

Philipp Pohlmann

Denario: Automating the business payment experience

Philipp studied Economics, Management and Strategy Innovation in Maastricht and Lisbon. He was Fintech Account Lead DACH at Google and worked for the market research company App Annie before becoming H     ead of Qonto in Germany in November 2019. His expertise in strategic expansion in the fintech      industry helped him co-found Denario, a modernized payment system that offers software connecting businesses financial tools including bank accounts, Stripe and PayPal, using a combination of open banking and banking as a service systems.

Conception of Denario

While launching the German market for Qonto – a leading European B2B neo-bank for SMEs – we had the chance to talk to hundreds of small business owners and heard very similar stories of limited control on company spend, late payments, and hours wasted on monthly accounting admin, says Philip. “It seemed like there was no affordable and effective solution on the market that could help especially small businesses in Europe automate their payment workflow and most service-oriented businesses were overspending on late payment fees and had a strong need for short term liquidity. That is how the idea for Denario was born.”

Element Finance

Element Finance: Financing SaaS organizations

John Gallagher is an experienced business & finance specialist in the information technology and investment industry. He is the CEO of Element Finance, a boutique growth finance company that invests in and lends to SaaS and recurring revenue companies. In an interview, he speaks on an array of topics. Excerpts:

Conception of Element Finance

Element Finance got its start out of necessity. It was founded by Scaleworks – a group of seasoned SaaS operators who faced the challenge of accessing growth capital to grow their family of SaaS companies.

According to John, traditional banks weren’t an option as they didn’t value the SaaS recurring revenue model and wouldn’t lend to companies with no profit or tangible assets but who had amazing customer metrics and growth. Most other alternative lenders in the market at the time required equity warrants, board seats, and business covenants that did not make sense.

Hehenfelder

Findustrial: The Platform for Pay-per-Use Solutions

Günter Hehenfelder is a strong driver of digitalization initiatives, disruptive business models, Pay-per-Use in B2B sector, industrial subscription, blockchain, DEFI and tokenization etc. CEO & Founder of Findustrial, a start-up that helps build sustainable financing solutions for the industry, Günter is at the helm of affairs. He speaks on an array of topics. Excerpts:

Conception of Findustrial

“Our journey with Findustrial aims to create a digital ecosystem for flexible machine financing and enable sustainability through innovative business models. We start our journey with the certainty that the circular economy will not only become a part, but instead the basis of our society in the future.” Observes Günter. As a strong partner in the implementation of pay-per-use solutions, the organization strengthens its client partners in their daily business with consulting expertise and decades of experience in the industrial sector.

Theo Cesarini, Founder & CEO

Incard: The financial partner for e-commerce and digital entrepreneurs

Theo Cesarini is a passionate entrepreneur with a zeal to change the world. His tryst with entrepreneurship began during his engineering days. He founded several successful e-commerce brands and realized the appeal of the sector. He then decided to create a marketing agency to support his peers and confirmed with them some of the problems he had encountered himself. From there, he decided to found incard, the all-in-one finance for e-commerce and online businesses. In an interview, he speaks on array of topics. Excerpts:

Conception of incard

“My tryst with e-commerce began five years ago. Since then, I have built a marketing agency to help online entrepreneurs to grow their business. While helping them, I was shocked by the lack of financial offers in line with their needs” notes Theo. He adds that these e-commerce entrepreneurs were either blocked or rejected by their banks and their cash frozen for weeks. This also meant that they could not access relevant insights to understand their business performance and track their ROI, thus they were ripped off their rewards irrespective of how well their businesses performed.

Aviram Shahar

Lendlord: Property investment simplified with Lendlord

Over 24 years of extensive professional experience in various industries, Aviram is a passionate entrepreneur. He has over 17 years of experience in software development management & product management. His strong leadership skills coupled with expertise in building, running and motivating cross-functional and goal-driven large teams, has helped him carve a niche for himself in the fintech industry. He is the CEO of Lendlord that provides portfolio landlords and property investors with an online platform to run and grow their property business and obtain access to tailored finance based on their profile. Excerpts from an interview:

Conception of Lendlord

Observes Aviram that there is a dearth of digital solutions for unprofessional / semi-professional landlords and property investors, especially when they need to apply for financing. “Understanding what financial options are available and how to obtain them when purchasing a new property or refinancing an existing one is a cumbersome and complicated process, so we knew there was a problem here that technology could solve.”

Carl Streck

MountainSeed: Simplifying real estate and lending services

Carl Streck is passionate about enabling predictable growth in companies that have amazing products and services and has a history of doing so in a variety of industries. He has worked with hordes of financial management firms, including Angelo, Gordon & Co., Citi Group, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, SAC Capital, Anchorage Capital, Blackrock to name a few. He has also helped some of the fastest growing business in the world realize success. A philanthropist, Carl is also actively involved in many business and community organizations that support orphans and homelessness. He is the co-founder and CEO of MountainSeed, that helps hundreds of banks across the country with real estate technology- enabled services (on over $5 billion of commercial real estate) loans every month. In an interview, he speaks on array of topics. Excerpts:

Conception of MountainSeed

“First and foremost, for me, necessity was the mother of invention” notes Carl. He says that coming out of the real estate recession in 2010, he was helping community banks and credit unions work out of troubled loans when one of his clients said they had to re-appraise all the properties they just bought and didn’t have the people to do it.

Rutger Selin

Nowo: re-creating a favorable environment for micro-savings

Rutger is an expert in the financial industry for more than 30 years with an entrepreneurial and passionate mindset. With a proven track record of building and developing lasting structures with motivated employees and colleagues, he is also the CEO of Nowo, a startup offering disruptive solutions in a traditionally conservative industry, that has launched solutions to shoppers and encouraging micro-savings. He speaks on an array of topics in an interview. Excerpts:

Conception of Nowo

Observes Rutger that all demographic data shows that it’s going to be increasingly difficult for people going into retirement to maintain their standard of living under the current pension scheme. Therefore, private savings for your retirement is a necessary means to financial wellness after retirement. “Nowo makes private saving for your retired years easy, seamless, and smart, with a focus on micro-savings in your every date shopping.

Evan Singer 2

SmartBiz: To equip every entrepreneur with reliable access to smart capital

Evan Singer loves the journey of developing and nurturing SmartBiz® with an unparalleled customer experience to fit a large unmet need. He is passionate about team building and growing a team that loves what it does and supports each other to achieve a shared mission, expanding rapidly, and becoming a leader in the market. He is the CEO of SmartBiz a leading AI-powered small business financing platform equipping entrepreneurs with access to the right capital at the right time.

Conception of SmartBiz

According to the SBA, more than half of Americans either own or work for a small business. Small businesses create about two-thirds of new jobs in the U.S. annually and it is vital that entrepreneurs have access to funding. Small business success helps to improve both local communities and the overall economy, observes Evan. “During the last financial crisis, banks had a difficult time serving small businesses profitably and efficiently. Entrepreneurs were paying the price with sky-high rates. The Company’s founders recognized that low-cost funding fuels small business growth and they focused on fixing a broken system.”

Patrick Wood Uribe, CEO

Util: Re-imagining investments in fintech

Patrick Wood Uribe is a passionate entrepreneur. As the CEO of Util, Patrick brings a wealth of experience at the intersection of machine learning and finance. Before joining Util, Patrick was Head of Business Development at Kensho, the leading provider of artificial intelligence and data analytics to sophisticated financial institutions and critical government agencies. In addition to serving Kensho’s clients in the finance industry and the intelligence community, Patrick was Kensho’s Head of Academic Research, leading the firm’s many collaborations with distinguished academic institutions and research teams. In 2018, Kensho was acquired by S&P Global in the world’s largest AI acquisition to date. Patrick joined Kensho from The Advisory Board Company, a global health care research and technology firm, where he provided strategic guidance and leadership development to health care executives in the U.S., Colombia, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia. Prior to his role at The Advisory Board Company, Patrick was a tenure-track professor at Boston University. In addition to publishing in peer-reviewed journals, he has delivered lectures and seminars on his research across the U.S. and Europe at institutions including the Max-Planck-Institute in Berlin, Oxford University, Yale University, and the European University Institute in Florence.

Matteo Masserdotti CEO

Viceversa: Financially boosting companies

An entrepreneur who is passionate about sharing economy, crowd economy, and fintech, Matteo launched Viceversa – a company that envisions a new way of funding based on transparency and technology to support companies in sustainable and ethical growth. Prior to this, he also founded Two Hundred, an Italian leading crowd-investing platform. He has always been interested in following the evolution of financial services industry to create a better and more inclusive economy. In an interview, he speaks on an array of topics. Excerpts:

Conception of Viceversa

“We have been in the startup financing industry for a decade, and we know exactly where the money from funding usually goes. Most of the capital digital startups raise is invested in digital marketing, i.e., Facebook and Google.” Matteo says that equity is quite inefficient to invest in expanses that produce predictable revenues, and that’s where it all began.

Ross James,  CEO & Founder

Empowering Micro SMEs through Accloud

Accloud PLC was founded to empower and stimulate the growth of micro SMEs, (Small, Medium Enterprises) by offering business management tools through its integrated cloud-services platform. Founded in 2015, the company’s signature platform – Accloud offers user-friendly and affordable support to accelerate micro SME growth in rural communities, thus offering the ability to trade and network with other micro SMEs. The man at the helm of affairs – Ross R James, CEO of the company, is a man with a mission. He is on a quest to bridge the economic disparities within communities. An astute man with sound business acumen, coupled with great determination and a competitive spirit, Ross has earned great admiration within the industry. Empowered with high-level expertise and excellent leadership skills, he has proved to be an exceptional CEO. In an interview, he talks on an array of topics – from the decision to build Accloud to the current fintech industry, from the present economic slowdown to Accloud’s expansion to other countries. Excerpts from the interview: Ross feels that for too long, entrepreneurs in high-growth economies have struggled to achieve their ambitions. “Accloud was created to challenge that status quo. In October 2015, we began developing a platform that makes business management simpler, empowering people to grow, and giving them access to new markets and services.

Inigo Rumayor Belausteguigoitia, Co-Founder

Making Fintech Possible for Everyone

“We believe that everyone everywhere should have access to technology that helps them improve their financial wellbeing,” says Inigo Rumayor Belausteguigoitia, Co-Founder of Arcus. Arcus is a FaaS (Fintech-as-a-Service) company he co-founded to help every business make fintech accessible for each of their customers. By being smart, strategic, and being ready to pivot, Rumayor was able to build an easy-to-use platform. The platform eliminated the complexity of launching a fintech business. This strategy has enabled Arcus to expand its operations across Latin America and the USA. Earlier, the fintech ecosystem was fragmented, diverse, and afflicted with inefficiencies. FaaS was the ultimate solution to this problem. FaaS has completely revolutionized the fintech industry by incorporating the power of technology into the legacy systems that drive most of global commerce. FaaS has completely revolutionized the fintech industry by incorporating the power of technology into the legacy systems that drive most of global commerce. FaaS has unlocked a new playing field for financial innovators everywhere. Arcus has made it possible for any company to become a fintech company. Thanks to FaaS, now there are fewer barriers to enter the fintech market. However, building scale still seems to be a challenge.

Sean-Moshir

Global Mobile RegTech

“Make sure you are passionate about your business idea and love what you do,” says Sean Moshir, Co-founder & CEO of CellTrust. CellTrust is a leading provider of secure, compliant mobile communication for enterprises around the world. CellTrust’s award-winning security and mobile compliance products are radically transforming the way enterprises communicate and work. But, CellTrust is not the only feather in Moshir’s cap. Over the years Moshir has founded several cybersecurity companies. Each has excelled in its own way. Moshir is a hard-working and versatile person who has a knack for recognizing the raw energy in people. He motivates them to positively channel that energy to reach their full potential. Half of CellTrust’s current staff have worked with him at his previous companies. Their loyalty and knowledge have led CellTrust in developing leading-edge solutions with global reach. So, what has CellTrust planned for the post-pandemic world? Let’s find out! Moshir and his team realized early on Fintech was missing certain aspects of secure, compliant mobile communication including SMS/Text archiving. Moshir executed on a strategy to make CellTrust the first company to patent an innovation for secure communication.

Mark-Hojgaard

Delegation in Style

“I like to dedicate responsibility to my teams and have great trust in them to deliver the best possible result”, says Mark Hojgaard, CEO & Co-Founder of Coinify, a wallet-independent platform that provides individuals with secure and simple access to the virtual currency space. The company aims to go beyond traditional finance practices and introduce people from all walks of life into virtual currencies and adopt financial innovation. Hojgaard is a leader who believes in delegation and a person who leverages fear to propel himself to go the extra mile. With an incredibly strong determination, Hojgaard is steering the company towards building a strong, trustworthy community and injecting novel methods of payment across industries. So how does he plan to achieve this? Let’s find out! According to Hojgaard, immature technologies and the unregulated approaches are the two biggest challenges faced by the Fintech sector. Another challenge is the one faced by the customers when deciding what platform to invest in. A few years ago, the Bitcoin was the hottest topic, but now there are thousands of similar tokens coming up every day including LibraCoin by Facebook and CBDC (Central Bank own Digital Currency).

Craig-Updated-headshot-scaled

Expecting the Unexpected

“Whenever life knocks me down, I bounce back harder and stronger. I keep going and I don’t stop until I achieve my goals “, says Craig Cecilio, Co-Founder, and CEO of DiversyFund.

DiversyFund is a Fintech company that was born out of recession. It was founded to help normal people in their time of need. By breaking down the barrier between Wall Street and Main Street, DiversyFund opens the doors for the everyday investor to build up their wealth. Cecilio lives according to the philosophy that man’s potential for growth and improvement knew no limits. It totally justifies why people call him the “Renaissance Man”.

Even with the current pandemic causing losses for numerous companies around the world. By moving more processes to the digital space, he ensured that DiversyFund didn’t face much of a challenge.  By delegating to the right people, he has led DiversyFund beyond to reach greater heights and has been successful in unventured areas.

Ivan Nabalon, CEO

Pioneering Innovation within Regtech Industry

As a leading provider of remote user iDentification systems (via streaming video), Electronic Identification (eID) has been a game-changer in creating the highest level of customer experience within industries that require a high level of security. Started in 2013, as a software manufacturer in the Regulatory Technology (RegTech) field, eID is touted as one of the 100 most innovative RegTech in the world. Operating out of four continents in the world today, eID’s technology is used by most of the banks in Europe for end-to-end online customer onboarding. Noted Ivan Nabalon, CEO eID that the company’s flagship product VideoID combines streaming video along with an advanced artificial intelligence algorithm, giving the same technical and compliance level as face-to-face identification in presence. “It is the only technology that allows us to reach this level of security and only annoying the user for a few seconds” he added. Ivan added that as a Regtech company, his firm has always had the vision that regulatory technology and digital identity can change the world by legitimizing users through the internet. “The main feature that characterizes our company is a team of people who never give up. Our motto is: It is very difficult to beat a team that never gives up.”

Joanne-Dewar-CEO

Taking the High Road With GPS

“I approach my leadership in the same way a conductor works with an orchestra to shape an ensemble, using the right musicians, leading them and keeping them on track,” says Joanne Dewar, CEO of Global Processing Services (GPS). GPS is an award-winning payments technology provider that has enabled many high-profile fintech innovators. Dewar, an empathetic leader with a rock-solid vision, has led GPS’ transformation from bootstrapped startup to private equity-backed scale-up that continues to extend its reach globally. Besides possessing a strong ability to optimise the performance of a diverse team, she is also a proud mother who seeks to balance the responsibilities of being CEO with spending quality time with her three children.  “Imposter Syndrome is a huge issue for many people in high-level positions. It is something that I certainly struggled with when I first became CEO,” says Dewar. To combat Imposter Syndrome, she suggests Jack Welch’s ‘Destroy Your Own Business Theory’ – that one should consider how the competition would respond to a situation and do that thing yourself. Dewar had a fear of public speaking. She overcame it by focusing on the hundreds of other people who could learn something from her, instead of the one she thought could not.

1-1

Fintech - The Forefront of Digitization

“For me leadership is very much about listening to others, understanding their opinions and arguments and trying to reach an impactful and efficient decision,” says Michael Juul Rugaard, Partner & Co-founder of Norfico. Norfico is a fintech consultancy that combines strategic advisory and PR activities exclusively for the financial services sector. Rugaard is a pioneer of exclusive fintech consultation. He has spent over fifteen years as a strategic communication adviser, an author, and an editor of magazines, books, articles, and white papers. This has shaped him to be a visionary and futuristic person who always seeks opportunities to identify and fill up the holes in the market. He started as a press manager at one of the biggest payment companies in the Nordics. During his time there, Rugaard faced immense difficulty while looking for external communications consultants. The professionals who were hired didn’t know the basics of the payments industry. “We had to teach them for months before they could help us with just basic stuff, and in most cases, we ended up doing the work ourselves,” states Rugaard.

Harry Hurst,  CEO

Financially Empowering SaaS Companies

Pipe was founded to help cloud services companies grow efficiently by becoming the financial rails of the industry. Founded in September 2019, Pipe’s suite of products allows companies with recurring revenues to unlock their deferred cash flows and invest in growth. Designed particularly for SaaS companies that can benefit from immediate payment, the company enables companies to grow without diluting their current cap table. Harry Hurst, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Pipe said, “When we founded Pipe, we had a clear idea of who our early adopters would be: SaaS companies with the proven product-market fit, servicing customers in the SMB to the mid-market range. So, we set about building and launching our product, and lucky for us the reception has been phenomenal.” Harry noted that post the launch of the company, he discovered the product was in demand with a subset of the SaaS market that they hadn’t expected to be serving in the first few months of the launch – large enterprise focused companies with customers who historically pre-paid annually upfront but are now requesting more flexible payment terms. “We’re fortunate to be in a position to provide much-needed cash flow to SaaS companies.

Haim-Ben-Ami

Pioneering Transcontinental Communication System Within Fintech Markets

As a pioneer in deploying wireless ultra-low latency and transcontinental communications systems, RAFT Technologies has come a long way in serving especially the financial markets and particularly the HFT – algorithmic trading firms. Started in 2013, the company enables the communication between different exchanges and delivers data between exchange co-locations in the lowest latency in the industry. Said Haim Ben Ami, CEO, RAFT Technologies, an experienced professional in capital markets that, RAFT Technologies employs a skilled team of more than 40 years of cumulative experience in the fields of radio communications, networking, management, and monitoring systems. “We have intimate knowledge on how to combine the essential components of all legal, location, and technological aspects of communications systems, which allows us to offer complete and state-of-the-art ‘Plug & Play’ packages to all of our clients.” Haim added that in 2017 when he was offered to become the CEO of RAFT Technologies, the company was in an important stage of its evolution. “I realized the vast potential. I was attracted not only to the opportunity and challenge but also to a place where I could synergize the trading world and wireless communication field which I love and have experience.

ken

Modernizing Business Payments

SnapCheck’s mission is to eliminate paper checks and empower businesses to adopt digital payments. This unique open-ecosystem platform, founded in 2015 was created so that any business could pay any vendor, supplier, contractor or employee, anywhere with the familiar form of a check, but without all the problems inherent in the paper thus reducing the cost to the business by 70% and the risks of fraudulent activity by 90% over any current payment method. On what inspired him to start SnapCheck, Ken Kruszka, CEO & Founder of the company noted that SnapCheck was born of a pain that he himself had as a small business owner trying to easily pay his bills and invoices, and feeling disheartened at the pervasiveness of paper checks. Ken noted that he ended up blocking four days a month just to pay payroll, and it was this pain that spurred the idea of creating the ‘paper check killer’. “Businesses do not have options that are quick and easy and painless. SnapCheck brings that same convenience of a service like Venmo to the business world, giving them an easy way to transact without having to overhaul their back-office processes.

Foto_Francisco Pereira_CEO Trademaster

Empowering Small and Medium Retail Companies

Trademaster is a fintech company specialized in B2B credit solutions that strives to empower small and medium retail companies, by offering credit to all links in the distribution chain – industry, distributors and retail. The company provides an innovative payment platform that is integrated with the commercial operation of the industry or distributor, using technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Launched in 2015, Trademaster enables companies to free up credit and increase the purchasing power of the distribution channels, leveraging sales and mitigating risks. The company offers financial solutions for more than 30 large corporations, including more than 180,000 retailers, with total transactions close to the volume of U$1Billion. Says Francisco Pereira, CEO Trademaster that the platform is a Cloud and Container-driven one, developed for microservices. “Our platform communicates through a catalogue of APIs, integrated in real-time with the sales process of our customers. This helps us provide a truly frictionless process. We also have a customer service portal that has an interface developed with the best of UX” he adds.

Philippe-Sanchís

Digitizing KYCs for Financial Sectors

As a pioneer in developing agile technological solutions for electronic signature and automation of KYC, used by banking and insurance companies, Vialink has heralded a new era in digitalization. The company strongly believes in investing in its R&D and it pays off. The result: Its innovative Artificial Intelligence solutions, developed to support finance companies in automating their KYC processes through an easily integrated API platform.

Said Philippe Sanchis, CEO, Vialink, that he decided to invest in digitalization and automation of the KYC processes within banking and insurance sectors many years ago. The plan was to offer a 360° vision of the customer in real-time, drastically improving both banks’ productivity and customers’ experience, while minimizing the regulator’s sanctions risk. “In the last 15 years, the rise of terrorism and money laundering has forced worldwide regulators to establish new directives and to require better customer knowledge from the financial sector. Thus, the bank, insurance players have put in place appropriate measures to verify their customer’s data (KYC – Know Your Customer), often via a set of manual procedures.

Who all can be leveraged by fintech industry

Who all can be leveraged by fintech industry?

Finance is one of the major sections of each and every sector regardless of their business domains. It’s been a part of each business since traditional age when accounts were only done on the papers, but now the time has grown to a technological level where everything is automated then why not finance sector. With the flying time and growing using of technology, finance sector has undergone great changes and now it is used to automate a number of financial activities and make it easier for business and common folks too. Finance technology, more commonly known as fintech is a very commonly known name but hardly few are well aware of each and every benefit it offers. Fintech is a vast sector with a number of operations sorting capital management in various ways. There are a number of fintech users but they are totally different from one another in terms of objective, type of use and many more. This states that fintech industry is serving a number of distinct requirements with appropriate solutions. Finance management is very crucial aspect for a business to operate smoothly and generate revenue.

Robo-Advisor and its key benefits in Fintech

Robo-Advisor and its key benefits in Fintech

Financial planning is the backbone for every type of business to operate efficiently with achieve targeted objective. A single mistake in the financial records or planning can drag the growth of an organization to zero. As a solution, Robo-Advisors serve a digital platform with automated functions backed up with algorithm-driven financial planning services. This digital platform allow to automate the procedure with least or can be said no human supervision. A question might be nudging your mind, “How a digital platform can be able to plan financial operations?” It is a worth question that must be answered before using such a high tech platform. The mechanism of Robo-Advisor is very simple which involves information gathering from client about their financial state and then conducting a thorough study over the market based on the future objective of the client. Output of all such study and surveys are used as input by this platform to take financial decisions and investing client’s assets automatically. Investing is a boon for an organization or an individual, but hardly people have any idea about investment. So, when they plan to invest their money for a better ROI, the very first solution hit their mind is wealth advisory team.

Technologies that contributes in fintech sector

Technologies that contributes in fintech sector

Finance sector has grown to a large extent and the word fintech itself states a great combination of finance and technology. Business operations need to be speed paced to match the current requirements and fintech allows the business operations to enhance the operations and financial services. Fintech has improved the way finance was dealing with the common life, now it has supported professional and personal lives with easy mobile payments, cryptocurrency, automated investment apps, crowd funding platforms and many more. There are multiple technologies which are responsible for the boosting of fintech sector. To know more about the technologies involved in embracing this sector, continue reading. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are most important technologies which play a major role in finance industry to make it potent enough to serve in much better manner. Fintech applications that include artificial intelligence are fraud detection, credit scoring, wealth management, regulatory compliance, and many more. Most of the financial operation includes repetitive tasks. Robotic process automation assists to enhance the procedure and make it swift by automating such procedures. Most used applications of RPA in fintech sector are listed below:

Use Of Blockchain Technology In Fintech Sector

Use Of Blockchain Technology In Fintech Sector

Blockchain is one of the swiftly emerging technologies in present world and none of the sector is untouched from this extravagantly amazing technology. Especially this technology is having a great emphasis on fintech sector. In current era, almost 77% of financial service providers are incorporating blockchain technology to enhance their service qualities. If integrated in the right manner, blockchain can bring robustness to any large retail banks. To know how blockchains are helping fintech sector, first you need to understand what is blockchain and how does it work? It is a public ledger which is built by collecting all data available on internet. The information in the blockchain is not confined to any number, name or address, rather it comprises details about the transfer of money, personal identities, official or nonofficial agreements between different parties. Each information in this structure is stored in the form of blocks with a capacity of 1MB each. KYC is one of the biggest aspects in national stock exchange sector. It allows banking industry to record electronic details about each transaction along with authentication and verification. In this process, blockchains is the backbone which allows the finance sector to record and track the details efficiently.

finance

Fintech and the emergence of finance technology

Fintech may sound very different but in simple language it is financial technology. Along with other business sectors, technology has a great impact on banking and finance sector too. A number of business sectors are deploying Fintech for a better performance. Actually Fintech is transforming the money transaction procedures and helping companies to make it online with an automated data saving about each transaction made or received. The emergence of this technology has also impacted customers and their usage. Nothing comes out immediately but an innovation is a result of requirements. Fintech is also a result of a number of changes occurred in various industries and lifestyle of targeted audiences. On a side of this world, every sector is highly influenced with the technological growth and is implementing it in some or other way. This is a fast paced era where every sector is moving at a fastest speed and to intact the operations they need finance technology which can match up their speed and serve them with an instantaneous result. In olden day customers were habitual of going door to door and searching for the best solution for their requirements.