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BUSINESS
TECHNOLOGY
Text by KASIA KRZYZANOWSKI
FROM CUB TO LION
Photography by MAISON MODERNE
KPMG FINTECH LION AWARDS:
WWW.FINTECHLION.LU
Will KPMG’s contest help these outfits make a name for themselves, and diversify the Grand Duchy’s financial sector?
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he pressure was on for the 15 financial technology (fintech) startups from around Europe that got three minutes each to pitch to a high profile jury from Luxembourg and neighbouring countries. The presentations were made 9 May, during the semifinals of the inaugural Fintech Lion Awards, held at KPMG Luxembourg’s headquarters on Kirchberg. Ten of them were then selected to compete in the grand finale, to be held seven weeks later at the KPMG Plage, the consulting firm’s summer series of events, where three main awards will be presented to winners by the prime minister, Xavier Bettel. In addition to KPMG, the competition is supported by Digital Lëtzebuerg, the Luxembourg ICT Cluster and Luxinnovation, three government-backed promotion schemes, and Maison Moderne, the publisher of Delano. Organisers say the awards aim at identifying and supporting outstanding fintech startups with a Luxembourg connection.
BOOSTING FINANCIAL CENTRE Many of the finalists chose to be active in the Grand Duchy due to its worldwide reputation as a major financial hub. As Bert Boerman, CEO of Governance.io, notes, “Luxembourg is the second biggest funds domicile after the US and the biggest in cross-border funds. Due to this high concentration of funds, it’s a fantastic location to start.” Based at Nyuko, a a government-supported centre in Hollerich that bolsters entrepreneurs, Governance.io has been live since October 2015 and facilitates regulatory compliance. June 2016
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Their philosophy: “If you want your employees to perform controls, make it as simple as possible,” says Boerman, who explains that competing products are often very complex and difficult to set up. Their platform provides clients such as banks and fund management companies with an overview of their structure, data, documents and controls in one place. Another company attracted by Luxembourg’s reputation was CrossLend, which offers a new type of lending platform based on securitisation. After launching in Berlin in 2014, CrossLend opened a subsidiary in Luxembourg to manage this task, due in part to the country’s reputation as “the securitisation hotspot of Europe,” according to co-CEO Dagmar Bottenbruch. Already providing personal loans in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, the company would like to move into loans to small and medium sized enterprises with an ambitious goal
in mind. “The real problem with the European economy is that money isn’t going where it should go, and our platform can be used to solve this,” says Bottenbruch. She explains that SMEs across Europe, and particularly southern Europe, continue to have difficulty getting access to capital, while many funds and private investors who might be interested in providing SME loans don’t know about this option due to a lack of visibility. “The key is to try to make these loans tradable; we help to do that by securitising them,” she says.
TEN ROAR INTO GRAND FINALE A. E. G. L. N. O. and S. The Fintech Lion Awards semifinal event was held at KPMG’s HQ in Kirchberg
" BEING PART OF THE AWARDS GIVES US CREDIBILITY AND WE CAN MEET PLAYERS AND INVESTORS." BERT BOERMAN