October summary
In case you missed out on October episodes of the 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.
B2B payments don’t have to be painful — with Veem from San Francisco
Marwan Forzley, CEO of Veem, a B2B payments platform, operates worldwide, based in San Francisco Bay Area. We talk about:
- Marwan’s back story: from Ottawa, Canada to Silicon Valley
- What is Veem? What is the problem they are solving — how does it work?
- How did Marwan and his team build the network needed to effect payments?
- How did they go about acquiring first clients, and how were you able to scale up
- If I am a small business, why should I bank with Veem and not someone else, including some banks who claim they have specific services for SMEs and large corporates? Marwan explains.
- How does Veem make money?
- How are small and medium businesses in the US coping with the pandemic, especially when it comes to payments? Are they willing and able to adapt to be more digital-like some of their larger competitors?
- The impact of the COVID-19 on the payments industry and, more broadly, FinTechs? Are contactless or even contact-free and digital payments here to stay? Opportunities and threats? Short term and long term?
- Veem’s journey as of today and the milestones ahead of them
- Where can interested parties find out more about Veem
Leadership Special: Strategic Side Gig with Ken Banta (founder of The Vanguard Group for Leadership and Harvard Business Review contributor)
Ken Banta is the founder and principal of the Vanguard Group for Leadership. Ken is a leadership development consultant and executive advisor to both tomorrow’s top leaders and today’s CEOs.
We talk to Ken about:
- Why Ken he become a leadership consultant
- In his article Strategic Side Gig, co-authored with Orlan Boston and published in the HBR recently, Ken argues that executives need to be engaged in the right kind of side work as it can boost their career — why?
- What sort of side activities are productive and helpful for one’s career, apart from the usual, golf, or tennis?
- How was his research conducted?
- How to find time for the outside activities like these? Say most leaders would agree with the argument for a strategic side gig — but would probably put off acting on it. Should they first a book on how to end procrastination?
- How can one find the right opportunities — ones that create the kind of virtuous cycle we described earlier?
- One would need an understanding boss and family — how to justify a commitment to the strategic gig in addition to existing responsibilities?
- What are the long-term benefits?
- Future of work and leadership: Any signs of systemic changes in the way we work due to the pandemic? Will remote working stay for good or not? Will we strive for fully digital processes from end to end? Or will we rush to the old « normal»?
- What are the next steps for you this year and beyond?
- Where can interested parties reach you and find out more about the Vanguard Group for Leadership?
Albion VC: investing in companies that improve your lives
We talk to Ed Lascelles, Partner at Albion and Jessica Bartos, Investment Manager at Albion.
You will find out more about:
- What brought Jessica and Ed to VC investing? Jessica from the White House under Obama’s Administration to Rothschild’s at Wall Street and the City to Albion and Ed, a VC investor from before it became fashionable
- What is Albion? Who founded Albion? When?
- What’s Albion’s investment focus/philosophy? Geographic focus?
- How much money they have raised since inception and for how many start-ups?
- What kind of start-ups do they invest in? Series A, post-product-market fit, writing checks of GBP 0.25 to 10 million
- What kind of FinTechs has Albion invested in? E.g., Quantexa or Imandra
- How do you find them? How do scouting and due diligence work? What are your selection criteria?
- What’s your investment approach? E.g., min size of the stake, board seat, time to exit, economics?
- Investment success stories of the start-ups — Booking.com or active.com
- How do you see the prospects of Fintechs vs. incumbent banks?
- Assessment of the start-up scene in the UK and Europe vs. the rest of the world
- Wrap up: where and how can inspiring entrepreneurs learn more about Albion
Voice of FinTech Americas with Clementina Giraldo (in Spanish / En español): Introduction to FinTech in LatAm / Introducción a FinTech en LatAm — Erick Rincon Cardenas & Mariano Biocca
Este episodio Voice of FinTech conducido por CLementina Giraldo, Founder & CEO of Dots & Tech / FinTech / Blockchain. This episode of Voice of FinTech: Americas Series is hosted by Clementina Giraldo, Founder & CEO of Dots & Tech / FinTech / Blockchain. Founder of FinTech Latinoamérica Community, based in Colombia in Spanish! English description below.
Mariano Biocca, Coordinador Cámara Argentina de FinTech
Licenciado en Administración de la Universidad de Buenos Aires, luego de 2 años al mando de las relaciones institucionales en iBillionaire, fue convocado para encabezar el desarrollo de la Cámara Argentina de FinTech con fuerte foco en la vinculación entre el sector privado, sector público y sector académico.
Erick Rincon Cardenas, Presidente Colombia FinTech
Abogado de la Universidad del Rosario, especialista en Derecho financiero y en Derecho Contractual de la misma casa de estudios, Master en Derecho mercantil de la Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio, Máster en Administración y dirección de empresas y Doctor en Derecho de la Universidad Europea de Madrid. Es Profesor Asociado de la Facultad de Jurisprudencia de la Universidad del Rosario, Presidente de la Asociación de Empresas Fintech en Colombia y de la Alianza Fintech Iberoamérica
América Latina cuenta con más de 2.000 empresas FinTech. Brasil, México, Argentina y Colombia son los países que lideran el desarrollo de la industria en la región. Este episodio presenta un panorama completo de la industria Fintech de Colombia y Argentina. Se presentan cifras en cuanto a número de empresas por país, principales segmentos, números de la actividad y el efecto de COVID 19 en cada caso; se destacan los unicornios y otras empresas líderes y con mayor potencial de crecimiento.
Mariano Biocca y Erick Rincón compartieron los avances de cada país desde el punto de vista regulatorio, el aporte de la industria en materia de inclusión financiera, los desafíos y oportunidades, así como de dónde provienen principalmente los inversionistas y las empresas que están llegando a establecerse para expandir sus operaciones en la región. Nos contaron cuáles son los principales mercados de destino o países foco de las empresas FInTech colombianas y argentinas. Si quiere conocer la evolución de esta industria imparable en la región no se pierda este episodio.
Latin America has more than 2,000 FinTech companies. Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia are the countries that lead the development of the industry in the region. This episode presents a complete overview of the Fintech industry in Colombia and Argentina. Figures are presented regarding the number of companies per country, main segments, activity numbers and the effect of COVID 19 in each case; unicorns and other leading companies with the greatest growth potential stand out.
Mariano Biocca and Erick Rincón shared the progress of each country from the regulatory point of view, the contribution of the industry in terms of financial inclusion, the challenges and opportunities, as well as where the investors and companies that are coming to establish themselves mainly come from to expand its operations in the region. They told us which are the main destination markets or focus countries for Colombian and Argentine FInTech companies. If you want to know the evolution of this unstoppable industry in the region, don’t miss this episode.
Careers in FinTech and future of work with Mana Search
Mimi Nguyen is co-founder of Mana Labs R&D and Ph.D. Fellow at Imperial College in London and Lloyd Wahed, is founder, CEO, and investor at Mana Search, a FinTech search firm based in London and UK.
We discuss:
- Mimi’s backstory. An academic and entrepreneur: how does it fit together?
- How has life changed during the lockdown/pandemic from the perspective of a founder and a parent?
- Lloyd — backstory: How did Lloyd get to do what he does today?
- Mana Search firm and podcast — What is its’ mission and objectives?
- How do Lloyd and Mimi see the FinTech job market this year and next? Where are the pockets of opportunities, and what’s the best way to break into this market, for example, if you had worked at an incumbent before and don’t have a start-up experience?
- Why is striving for diversity in the start-up world is important? What’s the state of the women in tech and inclusivity in the UK?
- Where are the opportunities for FinTech companies post-pandemic?
- Based on their discussions with founders, arguably digital transformation ambassadors, what’s the future of work? Office work vs. remote or hybrid work (we focus on the nuanced view of the workers with less social capital, i.e., juniors or incoming leaders vs. well-established teams)
- Female guests on Searching for Mana podcast — most popular examples
- Best way to reach out
Asia Pacific Series with Angela Conroy: Entrepreneurship and innovation with Varun Mittal from EY
In this episode of Asia Pacific Series, hosted by Angela Conroy, based in Singapore, Angela talks to Varun Mittal, EY Global’s Emerging Markets FinTech Leader.
Varun and Angela talk about:
- How through a combination of good timing and hard work, Varun managed to craft an unconventional but ultimately successful career path for himself
- How public-private partnerships are the foundation of tech development and how Singapore has used this model to become a FinTech powerhouse
- Why emerging market countries are on the cusp of leading a FinTech revolution and the trends, we can already see emerging from this region
- The considerations large corporates make when decided if they should ‘build or buy’ technology and how start-ups can leverage their agility and ability to execute into ‘closing the deal’
- The early days of the Singapore FinTech Association and how a carefully crafted charter ensures start-up voices are heard along with the bigger players in the ecosystem
- His new book, Singapore: The FinTech Nation, covers ‘the liberalization of financial services, the establishment of regional hubs and the embracement of financial services’. His book is available for pre-order here.
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. Alternatively, you can also leave a voicemail here. If you are based in the US or Canada, you can also text at (646) 328–6550!
Keep safe!
Sincerely,
