Fintech Fast Forward #3F: The age of collaborative platforms
The series of fintech meetups continue! After the completion of the Fintech Meetup: The Age of Embedded Finance held in January, the second meetup took place virtually on Thursday 04.03.2021, 17:00, named Fintech Fast Forward #3F with the theme “The age of collaborative platforms”.
The key topic was how platforms impact the development and digital transformation of the financial sector and create new forms of competition and co-creation. Moreover, all the latest developments of the Visa Innovation Program were shared, as well as how it has evolved into a point of reference for fintech startups in Southeast Europe, opening up opportunities for commercial agreements. Key members of the fintech community, top bank executives, and start-up founders gathered to exchange views on the new landscape.
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The event kicked off with an intro speech by Mr Konstantinos Kalogerakis, Chief Innovation Officer at Crowdpolicy who analyzed the new frontiers of the Fintech ecosystem and the opportunities that arise. He also put the agenda topics into context briefly introducing the webinar speakers.
Then Ms Dr. Leda Glyptis, Chief Client Officer, 10x Future Technologies as a keynote speaker took the virtual floor and analyzed Platform Economics for home. She stressed the need to establish modern digital financial services in new infrastructure in order to make the most of available interconnectivity.
Georgios Karamanolis, Co — Founder, CTO/CIO at Crowdpolicy, continued and analyzed the meaning of smart cities as a new frontier in the fintech era. He presents among others smart applications for citizens, such as the recently launched superapp for Greek municipalities City On.
The first panel of the event was girls only! Fintech collaboration and growth through Visa Innovation Program with Sabina Babayeva, Chief Operating Officer, Hackquarters, Gergana Stoitchkova, Program Manager, Eleven Ventures, Vicky Foteinou, Program Manager, Crowdpolicy. The panel focused on the added value fintechs can gain from their participation in the Visa Innovation Program highlighting the successful KPIs which have arised from the 2 successful Cohorts which the Program has produced so far: 19,2 m in funding, 22 successful PoCs collaborations. All parties highlighted the value of the Visa Innovation Program for the startups and the fintech ecosystem as it gives access to Visa global network, produces added value to the startups which participate and leads to successful collaborations with Visa, Visa partners — Banks and expands their business network . Concluding, there was an open invitation to all interested fintechs and startups s to participate in the third cohort which becomes wider and broader
The second panel consisted of executives of banks and Visa. The theme of the panel was: The new financial landscape in high speed transformation mode with Athina Chatzipetrou, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hellenic Development Bank, Yannis Papakostas, Assistant General Manager, Head of Group Digital Transformation, Eurobank, Agamemnon Papastergiou, Senior Director Digital Banking and Innovation, Alpha Bank, Panagiotis Divriotis, Chief Retail Officer, Attica Bank, Andreana Pappas, Head of Visa Greece. Moderated by Konstantinos Kalogerakis, Chief Innovation Officer Crowdpolicy. The main topic discussed in this panel was the level of digital transformation undergoing in the Greek financial sector today. All participants stressed the importance of digital transformation and how banking systems and organizations have been working dynamically in this direction in recent years and especially last year with all the challenges brought up by covid-19 crisis. Ms Chatzipetrou closed the session with the quote: go digital, grow digital!
The third and last panel of the meetup was composed by the real protagonists of the Visa Innovation Program, the startups with the theme Use cases beyond fintech, by Visa Innovation Program alumni with Evangelos Rossetos, Founder, Simply, Niklas Palaghias, Co-Founder, Quadible, Elena Avatangelou, Co-Founder, Giving Streets. Moderated by Vicky Foteinou, Program Manager, Crowdpolicy. The startups pinpointed the significant support provided by Visa Innovation Program and the access they gained in the fintech ecosystem. They also mentioned the very helpful mentoring sessions they had with executives for the implementation and direction of their business idea.
