Voice of FinTech podcast - Summer highlights!
Voice of FinTech, which I launched in June, is a podcast mapping out the Swiss and European FinTech scene. It aims to inspire entrepreneurs to start new ventures and connect them with various key actors and resources in the ecosystem. In case you missed out on the first few episodes while you were enjoying the summer (rightfully so!), here are the highlights:
F10 — Home of FinTech
The first podcast episode is an interview with Andy Iten, co-founder of F10 — also known as the Home of FinTech, leading FinTech incubator and accelerator in Switzerland — and Lisa Schroeder, Program Manager at F10.
Andy explains what F10, a Zurich-based FinTech incubator, and accelerator, does. F10 solves the problems of three different groups of stakeholders. First, it is the start-ups. They need help to get traction, access to customers, and funding. F10 helps them to get there. The second type of stakeholders are the corporate partners, the members of F10. They are looking for innovative ideas and investment opportunities, so F10 gives them a high-quality deal flow as well as opportunities to collaborate with start-ups. Thirdly, it is the external investors who invest in the start-ups that F10 supports.
In the second segment, Lisa describes F10 programs: a) F10 offers a 48-hour Design Thinking Idea Boot Camp, which aims to turn ideas into validated prototypes. b) F10 also provides a 6-month Prototype to Product program (P2) where early-stage start-ups come to Zurich to work on their prototype, and at the end of the program, they leave with an MVP. c) Then, there is also a program for the later-stage start-ups called the P3: Product to Market.
Only 25 teams from hundreds of applications get accepted into a program. Moreover, F10 ensures the quality of the participants’ work. If a team doesn’t hit certain milestones, they have to leave the program!
AXAnauten — Open Innovation with AXA
An interview with Claudia Bienentreu, Head Open Innovation AXA Switzerland, also known as AXAnauten. Claudia explains why AXA partners up with start-ups and how.
Claudia talks about the benefits of cooperation with start-ups both for incumbents and start-ups. Claudia appreciates that the start-ups are much bolder and much faster. However, AXA can benefit from working with them, and start-ups can benefit from working with an incumbent like AXA. Partnering with start-ups is the right way to do innovation nowadays. For example, Claudia is very proud of the cooperation with Veezoo, a data science start-up. Veezoo helps AXA to analyze and visualize sales data. AXA is rolling out Veezoo’s tool to the agents who love the program, thanks to which they have a better view of their sales and client interactions.
We also talked about what founders should watch out for when they seek to cooperate with incumbents. Claudia explains: for us, it’s crucial that when start-ups approach us, they know what they’re doing. In other words, they have the first product in the market and already have the first clients. Then, AXA is happy to see how it might fit into its business and how it might solve a problem that their clients have. It’s always a question of the right timing, of course. The team fit is essential: start-ups have to be able to work with corporates, which is not easy sometimes!
Apiax — RegTech founder story
Ralf Huber, the co-founder of Apiax, shares why and how he co-founded Apiax, an award-winning Swiss RegTech company with offices in Zurich, Geneva, London, and Lisbon. Apiax provides digital solutions to master complex regulations in the financial services (e.g., mutual funds distribution rules engine).
Ralf explains the core of Apiax’s value proposition. Apiax takes everything from what Big 4 firms are good at, such as having a global network and having the reputation of really understanding the business and regulation in detail. That’s where Apiax collaborates with Big 4: they provide the regulatory knowledge, while Apiax builds on what they are not good at, which is technology. It is a considerable challenge to keep track of all the ever-changing rules and make them easily accessible to client advisors. That’s how Apiax helps its clients: by making the regulatory expertise digitally transferable.
Odysseus Alternative Ventures — Venture builder
Minh Q. Tran, managing partner of InsurTech at Odysseus Alternative Ventures and former GP of AXA Ventures, talks about why he founded a venture-builder company after many years as a VC partner and explains how it differs from a traditional VC fund.
Minh explains that Odysseus looks for start-ups with reasonable strong growth, not hyper-growth. Odysseus intends to help these businesses to build their markets. It’s like investing in Uber on the one hand, and on the other hand, buying a taxi company to bring customers to Uber. Likewise, it’s like investing in Airbnb on the one hand, and on the other hand, investing in a real estate company to buy apartments that will use Airbnb to find customers. That’s the Odysseus model.
DACH FinTech founder story
An interview with Franz Hoerhager, the co-founder of the home equity diversification platform called Bambus, active in Germany and Austria, explains why and when taking on more debt can be a good idea! Bambus is also a recent graduate of the F10 Accelerator Program in Zurich.
Franz and his co-founder, Patrick, strongly believe that individuals should be able to optimize their capital structures just as corporations do. In Germany, for example, a large portion of the population lives in residences, which are fully paid up, and the real estate they own represents the bulk of their wealth. The Bambus team believes there is a healthy level of debt that any individual balance sheet can sustain. That’s why Bambus provides home equity loans for re-allocation of wealth for diversification purposes. Bambus allows its clients to put, say, 20% of their apartment into a real estate portfolio in a different country or to take 20% of their apartment and put it into an ETF. The goal is to optimize the capital structure of an individual’s balance sheet, not to provide consumer loans backed by real estate though!
Investiere — Investment platform for start-ups in Switzerland
Investiere is a Zurich-based investment platform for qualified investors to invest in start-ups. In an interview with David Sidler, head of investor relations at Investiere, David explains how Investiere finds suitable investment opportunities, what investors can expect from the platform, and what start-ups need to do to get on the platform.
I asked David about what he would advise founders approaching Investiere to raise funding. Not surprisingly, David’s key piece of advice for the founders is to do as much as they can on their own before trying to get money from investors. David stressed that the more founders have on the table, the stronger their negotiation position is, and so they should bootstrap for as long as possible. There’s also a lot of money to be had from awards, but at the end of the day, while it’s essential to have a good pitch, perfecting a three-minute elevator pitch endlessly instead of finalizing one’s business model and getting going is a waste of time!
Founders Factory — Global partner for start-ups and scale-ups
An interview with Kelvin Au, Head of Venture at Founders Factory in London, about how he got to do what he loves and what Founders Factory, a global technology incubator, and accelerator, is all about.
Kelvin talks about Founders Factory’s original thesis that there’s no reason why corporates and start-ups can’t co-exist. They should and should mutually benefit each other very much! It’s just that in the past, there were not many successful corporate venture business models that would have worked. Honestly, traditional corporates often struggle with innovation. That’s why Founders Factory is trying to set up a format or a platform so that corporates and start-ups can mutually benefit while building future stars of the industry and hopefully have fun as well! Founders Factory in London has over 70 people who can provide expertise in several verticals and help start-ups maximize their chances to make an impact in the world!
Toquity — Cap table solution for founders and investors by INSEAD alumni
An interview with Mazin Biviji, INSEAD alumnus, co-founder of the Paris-based start-up Toquity, about simplifying everything to do with equity. Toquity is a dynamic cap table solution that leverages blockchain.
Mazin explains how he and his co-founder came to develop a solution for dynamic cap tables for entrepreneurs and investors. Toquity’s solution leverages blockchain technology to help founders, companies, and investors manage cap tables, option plans, shareholder lists, and portfolios. The key features of their tool are that it is paperless, dynamic, and transparent. It is especially valuable as the start-ups grow and their cap tables become more and more complicated! Toquity was part of the INSEAD LaunchPad program at Station F in Paris. It makes sense for them to launch their venture there as France was the first country to allow storing equity records on the blockchain last year!
Redalpine — European Technology and Health Tech VC
An interview with Harald Nieder, partner at Redalpine, European, Zurich based, VC, who invests in technology (including FinTech) and health tech businesses in Europe. Harald explains how he started investing in start-ups and what VC firms like his are looking for when investing in start-ups.
Also with Harald, we talked about what the founders should focus on when raising money from the VC. Harald pointed out that while having a beautiful deck is important, being able to present the business case verbally is even more so! He explained that if you want to sell a company or an idea, the ability to present orally is an incredibly crucial point in that process. A lot of people probably put too much emphasis on the deck and less so on the verbal communication. Founders, remember: you have to sell your company not only to investors and clients but also to employees. Writing a deck is not enough!
It is also essential for start-ups to remember that when they look for funding, it is very much a two-way process. It’s not about just a VC choosing a company to invest in. A start-up should put a lot of effort into researching who is a suitable funding partner for them. It’s essential to look at the companies that a particular VC has invested in and get in touch with them to get an idea about what work it is like to work with a specific VC.
Veridian Ventures — business angel syndicate
Marwan El-Hakim, Partner at London based Veridian Ventures, and INSEAD alumnus speaks about how he started angel investing and how business angel syndicates like Veridian Ventures work.
We talked about the biggest mistakes business angels see when reviewing investment proposals from the founders. Marwan explains: I think the biggest pitfall we see is an unreasonable valuation. I always warn the founders that even if you can get away with an unreasonably high valuation early on, it will come and bite you later on in the future raising rounds. It’s imperative to get that right, and it’s always better to ensure long-term success. The expectation is that there are going to be several rounds of funding. It is crucial to tee up the company for the next one and not increase the valuation so much that the next funding round may be a flat round or a down round.
We also touched upon where we are in the cycle now. Marwan believes that, on average, we are still at the place in the cycle where there are lots of companies that are investable, but there’s a wide range. There are a lot of companies that have unreasonable valuations, but at the same time also many companies with reasonable ones and Veridian always engages with them if the business plan is a good one!
Monito — Stop overpaying when sending money abroad!
An interview with Francois Briod, CEO & co-founder of Monito, the comparison website for foreign exchange services.
Francois talks about why he co-founded Monito. As students, Francois and his brother started an NGO in Switzerland helping underprivileged kids in Cameroon. They faced up to 15% in fees when they were trying to send the money from Switzerland there. Francois and his brother also saw an opportunity: not to be another money transfer service on the list, but to become “the list” and to compare all the various options of how to send money abroad. Today, Monito shows the customers the best deal for transferring money abroad on its platform!
Silkpay — AliPay and WeChat interface for European merchants
An interview with Annie Guo, CEO, and founder of Silkpay. Annie talks about her passion for running her own company and how Silkpay connects European merchants and Chinese tourists using Alipay and WeChat Pay so they can pay in Europe just like they do at home.
I called Annie to talk about her business called Silkpay. In the interview, Annie explains why she started her own business. A few years back, she took a taxi in Beijing and tried to pay the driver in cash at the end of the trip. He turned around and asked her to pay with the phone, just like everyone else. When Annie explained to him she doesn’t have a wallet on her phone, he turned around and stared at her for a few seconds to understand why this Chinese person doesn’t have a wallet on her phone! Annie realized that there is a digital revolution going on in China in terms of payments, and Europe is missing out! That’s what inspired her to start Silkpay, a payment interface between European merchant payment systems on the one hand and Alipay and WeChat Pay phone wallets on the other. Now, many merchants in France and soon elsewhere will be able to accept payments from Chinese tourists just like it has been commonplace in China for a while.
You can find all the episodes on https://www.voiceoffintech.com/, where you can also subscribe to the podcast or the newsletter for additional content.
For comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at info@voiceoffintech.com.
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Thank you!
Rudolf Falat
