In case you missed out on the March 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.

Making compliance sustainable using DeepTech

Shub Nandi, co-founder and CEO at PiChain explains what is sustainable compliance and RegTech and how to leverage the latest technologies to bring banking to underbanked in India. Hosted by Rudolf Falat, founder of Voice of FinTech podcast.

Here is what we talked about:

Shub, you are a serial entrepreneur and thought leader in the blockchain and AI space. What has attracted you to it?
What’s your latest venture PiChain about? What’s the problem you are solving?
What does it mean, sustainable compliance? What’s your solution?
I know you already have many products – why such a wide range already now and how do you distinguish those from “solutions”?
Who are your target clients?
What’s deep tech to you and how does it relate to FinTech?
You have been also an adjunct faculty in the AI field for a number of years – do you think your students are ready for the work-life where AI is commonplace?
Can you also comment on the Indian FinTech scene? Where do you think it’s strong and where you would like to see further progress?
Your favorite business book you have read recently?
What’s in store for you and PiChain this year?
What’s the best way to reach out and find out more about PiChain?

Investing in technology for the Financial Services sector - with Finch Capital

Sara Palmbush talks to Radboud Vlaar, co-founder and partner at Finch Capital, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands about how and why Finch Capital backs companies developing great new tech for the financial services sector.

Here is what Sara asked Radboud:

What is Finch about?
How much money have you raised since inception and for how many start-ups?
What kind of start-ups have you invested in?
What kind of FinTechs have you invested in?
How do you find them? How do scouting and due dligence work? What are your selection criteria?
What’s your investment approach? E.g. min size of the stake, board seat, time to exit, economics?
Can you share success stories of the start-ups for which you raised funds (exited)? How do you view the start-up scene in Europe?
What are some tips you can give foreign VCs about investing in European (or Dutch) companies? What are the unique differences and challenges posed?
The best way to reach you if you are a founder looking for investment

Voice of FinTech Americas with Clementina Giraldo (in Spanish / En español): Pierpaolo Barbieri nos cuenta cómo lidera una revolución contra el efectivo con Ualá

En este episodio de Voice of FinTech: Americas Series, conducido por Clementina Giraldo, fundadora y CEO de Dots & Tech, con sede en Colombia, Clementina habla con Pierpaolo Barbieri, fundador y CEO de Ualá, líder de la industria FinTech en América Latina, sobre la revolución que impulsa Ualá para incluir a más latinoamericanos a servicios financieros modernos y universales.

Argentina cuenta con más de 260 empresas FinTech y lidera después de Brasil y México el desarrollo de la industria en América Latina. En este episodio Pierpaolo Barbieri, emprendedor argentino, nos cuenta cómo identificó la oportunidad para emprender y fundar Ualá movido por un gran problema en América Latina, región en la que más del 50% de los adultos no han tenido acceso a un método de pago diferente al efectivo, sumado a la exclusión que esto genera. Pier nos compartió cómo fue el proceso de crear empresa al regresar a su país, después de haber vivido varios años fuera de Argentina, cómo conformó su equipo, lanzando un producto o cuenta universal y cómo convenció a los inversionistas de creer en esta revolución contra el efectivo apostándole al éxito en el largo plazo. La energía de Pier es impresionante y eso explica porque Ualá, cuenta hoy con un equipo diverso de 700 personas, con más de 46% mujeres, comprometidos con esta revolución im

FinTech Marketing - how to go about it?

Ani Petrova, founder of The FinTech Marketing Hub and Araminta Robertson, a FinTech writer at Mint Studios, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of Voice of FinTech podcast.

Here is what they talked about:

Araminta and Ani – how did you end up interested and working in FinTech Marketing? Why have you joined forces?
Tell us about The Fintech Marketing Hub – what’s your mission?
Specifically, what services you provide for FinTechs?
Say I am a B2C FinTech early-stage start-up – what would be your advice on building a brand with a limited budget in the shortest possible space of time? Is it possible at all?
Are online ads worth the money and effort at all? When can they work and when?
Is traditional marketing (apart from digital) relevant and useful for FinTechs? If yes, how?
Perhaps slightly less relevant, but what you recommend B2B start-ups? How to impress their enterprise clients?
Can you mention some success stories of clients you have worked with? And conversely, lessons learned?
The best book for a FinTech founder? Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine and Fintech Founders: Inspiring Tales from the Entrepreneurs that are Changing Finance
What’s in store for you this year?
What’s the best way to reach out and find out more about you?

Voice of FinTech Africa Series with Patrick Awori: FinTech supporting the gig economy in Africa

Patrick Awori, Founder and CEO at Imaginarium, a Kenyan-based FinTech behind the Circle, a virtual savings platform, hosts another episode of Voice of FinTech: Africa Series. Patrick talks to Tatenda Furusa, co-founder of ImaliPay.

A burgeoning gig economy has presented opportunities for the youthful workforce in Africa's fast-growing economies where formal employment has fallen short. Overall, McKinsey estimates that about 63 percent of the total labor force in Africa engages in self-employment. This trend continues as the formal economy grapples to keep up as hundreds of thousands of new entrants join the labor market each year. There is also some evidence that a formal job may not always be the best option for all.

In this episode, we explore this topic through the lens of Tatenda Furusa, co-founder of Imali Pay, a promising Nairobi and Lagos-based start-up offering tailored financial solutions to Africa's informal or self-employed workers. He walks us through his analysis of the gig economy's current market trends, COVID-19 and its impact, the future of work and how Imali Pay leverages financial technology and partnerships to meet informal workers at their point of need and proceeds to carve their share of what is a "billion-dollar" business opportunity.

Digitizing Wealth Management with Addepar

Alastair Cairns, Head of Insights and Marketplace at Addepar, based in New York, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about managing wealth more efficiently.

Here is what they covered:

Alastair's journey from being Partner at McKinsey, Head of Strategy at a hedge fund Silver Point Capital, Head of Asset Management Strategy and then Co-Head of Global Products and Solutions at Credit Suisse to Head of Insights and Marketplace at Addepar
What is the problem Addepar is solving?
Who are Addepar's key clients? Who are their end clients?
What is Addepar's unique advantage? Why them and not someone else? Why are in-house solutions for your clients insufficient?
What is Alastair's view on the long-term prospects of WealthTech?
Which areas of WealthTech are the hottest right now
Large banks are focusing on ever-larger clients, RMs are more productive, Loans/AuM are going up, and costs being slashed – but where do innovation and WealthTech fit into all of this?
Where do you think the US leads the way in wealth management and where things could get better?
Where is Addepar on their journey (Addepar raised USD 117m in November 2020 and acquired RCI in January 2021)
Plans for the rest of the year
Favorite business book? Hard things about hard things by Ben Horrowitz - the most popular book on this podcast!
Best way to reach out

Asia Pacific Series with Taneia Bhardwaj: Turning phones into mobile point of sale with Mswipe

In this episode of the Asia Pacific Series, Taneia Bhardwaj, Nium's SME business lead for India, sits down with Manish Patel, founder and CEO of Mswipe Technologies, one of India's leading POS merchant network providers. The two talk about:

Manish's entrepreneurial journey that spans across medicine, alcohol distribution and digital payments
How Manish turned his idea into a business and validated his product-market fit
How POS-based payments players like Mswipe raised the game in a pandemic year
Mswipe's industry-first product called Bank Box - an acceptance solution that enables merchants to process all debit and credit card transactions, without incurring any rental or merchant discount rate
The future of last-mile retail transaction technology in India

Voice of FinTech Live Speaker Series: Tokenization and blockchain prospects in 2021

In this edition of Voice of FinTech: Live Speaker Series, our outstanding virtual panelists were:

Lothar Cerjak is Head of Institutional Services & Products at Bitcoin Suisse.
Lily Fang, Finance Professor at INSEAD. Check out the new INSEAD online FinTech course, led by Lily Fang here.
Anthony Lamy, Partner at Wecan Group
Emi Lorincz, Business Development Director at Ledger.

The key topic we discussed:

Switzerland now lets tokenized securities trade on a blockchain with the same legal standing as traditional assets. The new law went into effect recently. Swiss lawmakers decided to adapt the current legislation for specific features of distributed ledger technology. What does it mean for you for DLT and blockchain prospects in Switzerland this year

We also covered the medium and long-term prospects of the whole blockchain ecosystem (including crypto and digital currencies), potential end states and examples of tokenization and other blockchain-related use cases utilized by Bitcoin Suisse, Wecan Group, Ledger and macro views from an academic perspective.

Business media and FinTech trends with Lianna Brinded, Head of Yahoo Finance UK

Lianna Brinded, Head of Yahoo Finance UK, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast. Here is what they covered:

How did Lianna, at first interested in being a war correspondent, ended up in the business media
Lianna's role as a Head of Yahoo Finance UK – what does it entail?
How has the world of business media changed and where is it headed? Lianna reflecting on her experience at Yahoo, CNBC, Business Insider and more
Is TV dead? If video, on-demand style is the answer, why only a few video first outlets are succeeding?
Does Lianna prefer live programming or recorded? Why?
What was the most memorable interview Lianna has ever done?
I heard that your boss once told you to curb your enthusiasm. How did you deal with that?
How has FinTech changed in the UK and the world in last few years?
What will Lianna speak about during FinTech Talents North America on March 24?
Lianna's favorite business book: The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
What is in store for Yahoo Finance UK and Lianna for the rest of the year?
What's the best way to reach out and find out more

Financial responsibility made easy with vlot

Daniel Schmidheiny, co-founder and COO of vlot, a Swiss-based InsurTech, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of Voice of FinTech podcast. vlot is reinventing life insurance policy by helping individuals to become more financially responsible.

Here is what they talked about:

Daniel's serial entrepreneurial journey
What is vlot? How does it work? Why now?
What is vlot's unique advantage? How is it different from other solutions out there?
How does vlot make money?
Who are your target customers? Is it B2B or B2BC or B2C?
Where is vlot on their journey?
Lessons learned for potential entrepreneurs thinking of starting their own business
What's in store for vlot this year?
Daniel's favorite business book
The best way to reach out

Corporate Venturing with DB1 Ventures (Deutsche Boerse)

Eric Leupold, Managing Director and Rebecca Qian Gong, Vice Present at DB1 Ventures spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about Deutsche Boerse's investment approach and success stories.

Here is what they covered:

Deutsche Boerse's current business range
DB1 Ventures is a corporate venturing arm of Deutsche Boerse
What kind of start-ups has DB1 invested in?
How does DB1 see start-ups? As disruptors, competitors or partners?
How does DB1's deal sourcing work?
How do they cooperate with other actors in the ecosystem?
How does the selection process work?
How does economics work?
How does the monitoring of the investments work?
Success stories of the start-ups that DB1 invested in
What's the best way to learn more about Deutsche Boerse Ventures and reach out

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.

Keep safe!

Sincerely,

Rudolf Falat