WOMEN IN FINTECH Gemma Godfrey
Disruptors
Fintech World
International News
co-working in London British Unicorn/Angel
Yoyo Wallet, Revolut with the Apps Alliance
Fintech Age Summer 2016 Editor
Denis Masetti
Welcome to the Fintech era Blue Financial Communication was created more than 20 years ago in Milan, with the ambition to become a leading media company for financial news in Italy. Blue Financial Communication has succeeded and surpassed its objectives and is now a reference for business news in the Italian market, being also listed at the AIM stock exchange of Milan since December 2015. The company is constantly growing, expanding its gaze to the international business scene. Following the advent of the fintech revolution, the house has launched the new online and printed publications iFinance and Origami. In a time of buzz and uncertainty, Fintech Age now comes into the world. The results of the EU referendum, albeit disappointing for most fintech entrepreneurs and investors, has revealed a real ability of the sector to withstand political and economic instability. As Eze Vidra, former partner at Google Ventures, said: “Regardless of EU membership, [the UK] will continue to build bridges across Europe and the rest of the world.” Indeed, we believe London is and will remain the European capital of fintech and a global hub for financial and technological innovation. This is why Blue Financial Communication has founded its British arm iFinance Media, based in the Silicon Roundabout. Alongside its editorial projects, the team in London is developing a social platform connecting people to the financial world, which will be available globally by end 2016. Fintech Age is the first editorial product of iFinance Media. This international publication, solely dedicated to fintech, gives a voice to innovators, disruptors and leaders in London and across the globe. We speak to visionaries who see opportunities in change and seek to make a real positive impact through financial technology. Fintech Age is therefore a concentrate of insights and intelligence from key opinion leaders, a clear sound beyond the noise, showcasing the brave fintech wave.
Publishing House iFinance Media LTD 41 Corsham Street Wework Old Street London N1 6DR www.fintechage.com Editor Denis Masetti masetti@bluefinancialcommunication.com Editorial Director Alessandro Rossi rossi@bluefinancialcommunication.com EDitor In Cheif Marco Barlassina barlassina@bluefinancialcommunication.com Editorial Team Anaïs Borri borri@bluefinancialcommunication.com Federico Morgantini morgantini@bluefinancialcommunication.com Contributors Emma Snow Oliver Waters Matila Keyes Designer Rajeevan Ratnasingham ratnasingham@bluefinancialcommunication.com Advertisement Manager Michele Gamba gamba@bluefinancialcommunication.com Subscription Enquiries abbonamenti@bluefinancialcommunication.com tel. (+39) 0203 032 111 Printed by La Grafica di Frigerio Angelo & C.srl Via Gioacchino Rossini, 11, Molteno (Lecco), Italy Exclusive Distributor MEPE Distribuzione Editoriale Via Ettore Bugatti 15-20142 Milano, Italy
Denis Masetti masetti@bluefinancialcommunication.com
A PRODUCTION BY
THE MEDIA & DIGITAL COMPANY
WOMEN IN FINTECH by Anaïs Borri
I
n this day and age, gender really shouldn’t be a characterising feature for an entrepreneur or, as a matter of fact, for any kind of employee. Yet, women executives remain a rare fruit and this is sadly a fact that most of us, men and women, see as a norm. Fintech disruptors are not an exception, as they are failing to disrupt this particular status-quo: only 7 out of the top 100 London-based Fintech companies listed in Origami (Spring 2016) have female CEOs. Some believe that at the heart of this conundrum isn’t a deep-rooted misogynist attitude from the part of male Fintech-ers, but mainly a lack of females in the tech and financial talent pools. Educational systems are an integral part of this problem as they set girls and boys to believe some subjects are more suitable to their gender, leading girls to be less attracted to male-dominated areas. According to Tech City UK’s chair Eileen Burbidge being a woman was neither a hindrance or an advantage in her career. “Girls, just do it”, she says. Women need to engage with these sectors and believe that they are just as able as men to succeed. Women can indeed make it to the top. Here are a few inspiring profiles to prove our point.
“stereotypes are being challenged” GEMMA GODFREY, CEO and Founder, MOO.LA
ANNE BODEN
CEO and Founder, Starling Bank
GeMMA Godfrey
CEO and Founder, Moo.la
MArta Krupinska
General Manager and Co-Founder, Azimo
CEO and Founder of the mobile only Starling Bank, Boden is at the forefront of the disruptive wave in the banking industry. She has been driving forward her start-up since 2014 with fierce determination, bringing with her a wealth of experience from past executive roles in big corporations (AIB, RBS, ABN AMRO). Starling is set to launch in the UK in January 2017.
Godfrey is a business savvy, witty influencer and entrepreneur. She has a degree in quantum physics and has held executive roles at Brooke McDonald, Credo and GAM. Currently she is the CEO and Founder of Moola, a platform that aims to democratize wealth management. Although the platform is not yet live, it has attracted plenty of support from the media and the fintech community.
One of Forbes’ 30 under 30, Krupinska is an energetic entrepreneur and a rising star in the fintech firmament. Frustrated by her difficulties in sending money to her family in Poland, she co-founded Azimo, an app that facilitates foreign money transfers. Now the start-up has raised $30million in Series A and B and is considered as one of the most promising European fintechs.
Susanne Chishti
Adizah Tejani
Phoebe Hugh
Chishti is an influential mentor and a respected figure in the industry. She is also the editor and cofounder of “The FINTECH Book”, the first crowd-sourced book on fintech. Before dedicating herself to the Fintech ecosystem, she held executive positions in large incumbents including Morgan Stanley, Lloyds Banking Group and Deutsche Bank.
Tejani is one of the main contributors to the success of Level39, the first fintech accelerator in Europe. As Head of Ecosystem Development, she has built a community of 210 start-ups and created key partnerships with leading financial and tech organisations, such as Paypal and Swift. She also curates the content delivered weekly to start-ups and manages both mentor engagement and investor relations.
Hugh is a young and ambitious entrepreneur looking to shake up the insurance industry with Brolly, an artificially intelligent insurance app she is creating with Chris Wessels. The beta app has been launched last August and is available for free download on Apple’s app store. Hugh is also a blogger for the Insurance Times and the Director of Ambition First.
CEo, Fintech Circle; Chairman Fintech Circle Innovate
Head of Ecosystem Develoment, Level39
CEO And Co-Founder, Brolly
BUILDING THE ECOSYSTEM Edward Cooper (Revolut), Beverley Eve (Apps Alliance), and Michael Rolph (Yoyo Wallet) share with us their views on how fintechs are changing the financial industry. by Matilda Keyes
Beverley Eve
Membership & Marketing Manager EMEA @Apps Alliance
The Apps Alliance is a not-for-profit organisation that represents app developers as creators, innovators and entrepreneurs. The Alliance also publishes research and insights.
Edward Cooper Head of Mobile @Revolut
Revolut is a prepaid debit card linked to an app that allows users to travel and feel like they have a bank account wherever they are in the world.
Michael Rolph Co-Founder and CRO @ Yoyo Wallet
Yoyo wallet is a mobile wallet that allows users to collect loyalty points and receive personalized offers. It also allows retailers to better understand and manage their customers.
How can fintech start-ups make the financial industry better? According to Cooper, traditional providers have mainly been focused on profit and have neglected customer engagement. Fintech start-ups can now better serve customers than incumbents because they don’t have legacy issues to deal with. They can create solutions quickly and cheaply that actually improve people’s lives. Rolph supported this argument by adding that the start-ups’ ability to build and test new products far out-paces that of bigger companies. Cooper also pointed out that start-ups are more suited to react nimbly to market changes. This is especially relevant in the wake of the Brexit vote as this might allow them to win over customers. Moreover, as Eve and Cooper highlighted, the use of mobile-first approaches and innovative technologies in fintech products means that the user experience and accessibility of financial services can be dramatically improved.
“Collaboration is going to be key” Edward Cooper, Revolut
What is the most important trend in the fintech industry? Our three disruptors unanimously agreed on the fact that the “continuous march to mobilefirst”, as Rolph put it, is driving the main changes in the industry. Indeed, Rolph reminded us that most students who are entering uni this fall were born in 1998, the same year that Google was launched. Hence, this generation is mobile and internet native. To fulfil their expectations, financial providers will have to adapt to the current digital and mobile trends if they want to survive. Cooper, Eve and Rolph stressed that mobile experience should not be integrated as an afterthought but should be planned from the inception of the product. They claim that incumbents are failing to adapt because they use a desktop to mobile approach. Furthermore, they noted that mobile-only products allow companies to drastically reduce costs. Finally, Rolph noted that smartphones are replacing many products and services, and that mobile wallets may well make physical wallets obsolete.
How can fintech start-ups and incumbents build a more cohesive industry?
Discover More Catch up on the full interview and explore more stories on fintechage.com
“Banking as an industry is under the most potential disruption”, said Rolph, because it faces problems related to the outdated technology it operates on and to the decline in customer trust, resulting from the 2008 crisis. Banks and other incumbents are starting to recognize that fintechs can be very efficient in solving specific problems. As Cooper stated, “Collaboration is going to be key” for the future of the financial industry. Indeed, Eve claimed that banks are actively working to integrate new fintech products and forge partnerships with innovative start-ups. For instance, Metro Bank collaborates with Zopa to provide lending services. Cooper also said Revolut has benefitted from partnerships with bigger companies as they allowed them to focus on producing a very good product and they provided guidance to navigate the regulatory environment. Then, Cooper suggested that the opening up of APIs could create more cohesion as it will allow different services or platforms to “talk” to each other, creating more comprehensive experiences for the users.
BRitish Unicorn Transferwise
by EMMA Snow
T ransferWise is considered to be the top app for peer-to-peer foreign money transfers. Their
services allow people and businesses to transfer money abroad faster and without the burden of hidden bank fees. They do this by matching transfers going in opposite directions. For instance, if you send money from a British account to a French one, TransferWise’s software will find an equivalent transfer going the opposite way and will place each payment in the recipients’ accounts in the same currency of the senders’ accounts. Hence, the money never actually “leaves” the country but is redirected to someone who is meant to receive a corresponding payment. Aside from saving money the users also benefit from a super smooth and simple experience. Moreover, TransferWise does a great job at spelling out all the fees and steps to its users. The company claims it is leading a “little revolution” by encouraging more transparency and responsible behaviour in the financial sector.
At a Glance Founders: Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus Valuation: $1.1 billion Total Equity Funding: $116.37 million Main Investors: Baillie Gifford, Richard Branson, Seedcamp, Valar Ventures Employees: +450 HQ: London Areas Served: Europe, Asia and U.S. Fun Fact: Transferwise is notorious for spreading its message of transparency through quirky campaigns, such as a wet t-shirt contest and an underwear flashmob in the City.
BRitish ANGEL Eileen Burbidge by Anaïs Borri
Describing herself as a “recovering work- and tech- aholic” on social media, Eileen Burbidge is the power woman of the Silicon Roundabout and an all-round badass. Although originally from Chicago, Burbidge can be considered as an honorary Briton as she has been living in the UK for more than ten years and has become arguably the most influential figure of the British Fintech industry. She started off as a computer engineer before taking on business roles in the Silicon Valley at Apple, Sun Microsystems and OpenWave. In 2004, she left California to join Skype’s original UK team as Director of Product Development. What had initially been planned as a temporary move to “gain more international experience” became the base for her professional ascent. After a fall-out with Skype founder Niklas Zennström, Yahoo welcomed her as Director of communication products. Branching out as an early-stage tech investor, she ended up founding her own venture fund, Passion Capital, with Stefan Glaenzer and Robert Dighero. In an interview with the Evening Standard, she said regarding her role at Passion: “I want to live vicariously through the companies we help.” Many of Passion’s investments have been made in promising Fintechs, such as DueDil and GoCardless. 2015 was her golden year as she was appointed Fintech envoy for HM Treasury, Chair of Tech City UK as part of the PM’s Business Advisory Group and MBE for services to UK Business. Burbidge has big hopes for London and claims it has the potential to become an even better innovation pole than the Silicon Valley for Fintech and tech in general. Somehow in her crazy schedule, Burbidge also manages to drive her four kids to and from school every day. She is the living proof that one can be a female fintech executive, a successful entrepreneur and a present parent.
At a Glance Nationality: American Lives in: London Education: BSc Computer Science, University of Illinois (UIUC) Roles: Founding Partner at Passion Capital, Treasury Special Envoy for Fintech (UK) Number of Investments: 18 Fintech Investments: Lendable, Flattr, Kublax Twitter Followers: 64.4K Fun Fact: Burbidge claimed in an interview that one of the only investments she regrets not having made is in TransferWise.
CO-WORKING IN LONDON
The Open-Space Philosophy Co-working spaces are becoming an increasingly popular choice, especially for fintech start-ups. Indeed, these open spaces are not only affordable offices but also an easy way to build your network, scale up, create collaborations and learn from the surrounding community. Here is a selection of the best co-working spaces in London. by Oliver Waters
White Bear Yard is one of London’s first co-working hubs and has previously hosted fintech leaders such as Kreditech, GoCardless, Monzo (previously Mondo) and Stripe. It’s also a good platform to connect with investors as Angel List and Passion Capital are currently residing in this space. The rent plans are quite flexible and affordable, without need to pay any deposit or membership fees.
Other than having a super cool name, this tech start-up hub also has very pleasant co-working spaces. Its community of 200 members counts very reputable companies in the Fintech industry such as Startup Bootcamp, Insly and Worapay. Two major pluses are the lovely location in St Katharine Docks and the spacious 1,400 sqft event space where workshops, conferences and hackathons are often organized.
Founded in NYC in 2010, WeWork now counts 11 sites in London and more than 30,000 members worldwide. This co-working chain is not fintech specific but the facilities in Moorgate, Old Street and Spitafield do host several Fintechs. One of the perks of this membership is that there is no application and each member can access any WeWork facility in the world. This year WeWork has also launched WeLive, a network of “co-living” spaces that is seen to expand internationally.
Level 39, probably the most renowned co-working space in town for fintechs. Level 39 is not only a beautiful office facility in the heart of the City but also an incubator for promising start-ups. The companies that successfully complete the accelerator programme can scale up and access the High Growth Space just a few floors above in Level 42, which hosts leading names such as eToro and Bankable. Entering this community is not easy though as there is very limited space, so if you aim to get in you might want to befriend one of their members first.
This co-working was founded in London in 2010 by a group of entrepreneurs and angel investors who wanted to help digital high-growth start-ups to find mentors and investors. Their mentorship programme, WISE, has since proven to be successful launching more than 100 tech start-ups in the fintech and other industries. What makes this co-working particularly attractive is that it combines a community of exciting start-ups and a strong network of 250 plus investors, including partnerships with Funding Circle and Beacon Capital.
Heavily tech focused, this Google space is obviously a very good hub to build a solid network of investors and potential collaborators. Its event schedule regularly features popular personalities in the industry and its mentorship programmes have helped thousands of start-ups to raise funds and enter the big league. Although the selection process is pretty strict, applying is free and the cost of desk rent is within market average. It’s good to know that this co-working is ideal for seed tech companies but not very suitable for staffed companies that are looking to scale up quickly.
North America / NEW YORK
Europe / Italy
When life gives you lemons‌
Trading online, the Italian way
Lemonade, the peer-to-peer insurance provider that attracted big names such as Warren Buffett, is gearing up for its New York launch planned for the end of the year. The company announced that, over the summer, not only did XL Innovate invest in Lemonade but its managing partner Tom Hutton has joined the board. Time will tell whether this so-called disruptive insuretech will live up to the community’s expectations.
The London Stock Exchange Group and Borsa Italiana will host the 14th edition of the Trading Online Expo in Milan on October 27th and 28th, in the Palazzo Mezzanotte. This year the focus of the event will be on innovation and will therefore feature some of the most disruptive ideas and leaders of the trading scene. At this occasion, Blue Financial Communication will also present its newest publications, media platforms and international projects.
FINTECH WORLD by Federico Morgantini
Africa / Johannesburg Stars of the African Scene
For its first edition, the African Fintech Awards and Conference will be held as part of Finance Indaba Africa, the largest conference in the continent for financial professionals. The event will be held at the Sandton Convention Centre, in Johannesburg, on October 13th and it will feature leading speakers from the African fintech scene.
Europe / Berlin
Asia/ South EAST
the new Fintech capital?
The asian sweet spot
Following the Brexit vote, the German capital has been leading a vigorous campaign to set itself as the new European leader for financial tech and innovation. With already over 70 fintech companies based in Berlin, the city is likely to attract even more talent as it offers more affordable living than London, has a widespread use of English and most importantly is very well connected to the rest of the EU.
Fintech is hot in Eastern Asia, particularly in China and Singapore, and over the past year the two countries have been competing to become the leading fintech hubs of the area, albeit with different motivations. For Singapore the fintech industry is mainly seen as a way to revive the country’s faltering economy, while in China it’s seen as a solution to fill in the gaps of the financial infrastructure. Governmental programs and regulatory changes have allowed to create friendly environments for fintechs in both countries. However, the sheer size of China’s potential market is likely to dwarf Singapore’s efforts in the future.
Australia / Melbourne Meet the australian Community
FinTech Australia has announced the launch of its inaugural national FinTech Summit, FinTech Australia Collab / Collide 2016, in partnership with LaunchVic and the Victorian Government. The event will take place on November 3rd and 4th in Melbourne. This is set to be THE conference and networking event for the fintech industry in Australia.
FINTECH
Top 10 Fintech Influencers
1
UNRAVELLED
1. Marc Andreessen @pmarca American investor and software engineer, co-founder of Mosaic, Netscape, Opsware and Ning. He sits on the board of directors of Facebook, eBay and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. 2. Don Tapscott @dtapscott Canadian business man and writer. Most recently he co-authored with his son the book The Blockchain Revolution, released last May.
Asia has approximately 2500 fintech startups, while the UK and the US have 4000. That’s a grand total of nearly 7000 startups.
3. Gilles Babinet @babgi French entrepreneur, Digital Champion for France European Commission. Nowadays, he directs the boards of Captain Dash, Eyeka, MXP4 and Digibonus 4. Brett King @brettking Australian banker and entrepreneur, CEO and co-founder of Moven
71% of millennials would rather go to the dentist than go to their bank.
5. Michael Kitces @MichaelKitces American financial planner, commentator, speaker, and educator. He is also a partner at Pinnacle Advisory Group. 6. Jim Marous @JimMarous Co-publisher of The Financial Brand, he is also the owner and publisher of the Digital Banking Report.
Fintech investment in 2016 has already risen 75% (compared to 2015).
7. Bruce Porter Jr. @NetworksManager American entrepreneur, Chairman & CEO of GlobalBoost®. He also owns DC Translation LLC and EmmeGirls LLC. 8. Balaji S. Srinivasan @balajis Computer scientist, investor, entrepreneur, and academic. He was the CTO and co-founder of Counsyl, a genomics startup. Now he invests in and advises startups and runs the Stanford Bitcoin Group.
About 1 in 7 people are already using fintech in some way or form.
10. Olivier Bussmann @obussmann Global Executive with 26 years of influential leadership with UBS, SAP, Allianz, Deutsche Bank & IBM. He is currently the Group CIO at UBS.
Clash of the Challenger Banks
1) source: Richtopia
9. Alexander Tapscott @alextapscott Following his father’s footsteps, he joined the top 10 in the fintech scene after co-writing The Blockchain Revolution. He is also the CEO and founder of Northwest Passage Ventures.
In the UK, banks are predicted to lose out on 43% of revenue from retail-based payments by 2020.
This summer both app-only banks Monzo (previously known as Mondo) and Starling obtained their restricted banking licence from the FCA and then announced that they would launch in January 2017. As many know, Tom Blomfield founded Monzo after leaving his role as CTO of Starling due to tensions with the CEO, Anne Boden. In the next months, the two rivals will be racing head-to-head to lift the FCA’s restrictions and achieve customer acquisition. All the while, other challenger banks such as Atom and Tandem keep on growing…
FINTECH JARGON: BaaS Coined by William Mougayar of Virtual Capital Ventures in early 2015, BaaS stands for Blockchain-as-a-Service and refers to the wide range of services based on blockchain technology. This is also known as Ethereum Blockchain-as-a-Service (EthBaaS), and Blockchain-as-aPlatform (BaaP). This year Microsoft has launched its first EthBaaS on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. This platform is designed to let companies with limited hardware resources use blockchain technology.
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