Voice of FinTech

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November gone!

Rudolf Falat

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In case you missed out on the November 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.

Venture Capital, Business Angels, and Start-ups with INSEAD Professor Henning Piezunka

Henning Piezunka, an Assistant Professor at INSEAD, shared with Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, what led Henning to choose the academic path, his highly successful workshop Venture Capital, Business Angels, and Start-ups, and key learnings from it.

Among the many interesting points, they have highlighted the following:

Africa Series with Stacey Japhta: Currency trading solutions for frontier markets with CEO and co-founder of AZA Finance, Elizabeth Rossiello

In this episode of the Africa Series, Stacey Japhta, VP Growth at TalentintheCloud, interviews Elizabeth Rossiello.

Elizabeth is the CEO & Founder of AZA Finance. AZA Finance is an established provider of currency trading solutions that accelerate global access to frontier markets through an innovative infrastructure. This episode discusses AZA Finance acquiring businesses, how they've grown across Africa and advice on growing your business from 0-50 people. In addition, Elizabeth discusses all things FinTech, a fitting formula for acquisition, and why Boards push back on crypto.

FIDO - leading the way to a passwordless future with Andrew Shikiar, FIDO's Executive Director

Andrew Shikiar, Executive Director & CMO, FIDO Alliance, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about how he came to work with FIDO Alliance, an open industry association launched in February 2013 whose mission is to develop and promote authentication standards that help reduce the world's over-reliance on passwords.

Here are some of the insights Andrew shared:

  • How Andrew came about leading FIDO

  • Discussed what FIDO is and how it works

  • A world of passwordless future as an alternative to bypass authentication

  • Importance of security and privacy to go passwordless

  • The latest development in projects and standards that push towards a passwordless future

  • Discussed 2 step verification and if it works in the meantime as we transition to a passwordless world

  • Differences between financial services and other industries towards their openness towards a passwordless future

  • Other work areas of focus at FIDO: identity verification & binding, and lastly, the Internet of things

  • The key themes emerged at the Authenticate 2021 conference, which Andrew hosted recently

  • The best way to find out more about FIDO

Asia Pacific Series with Angela Conroy: Disrupting legal services with LegalTech Intelllex's CEO Chang Zi Qian

 Angela Conroy, CEO, and co-founder at Notarum, spoke to Chang Zi Qian, entrepreneur, lawyer and historian, and CEO and co-founder at Intelllex about disrupting legal research by leveraging categorization technology they developed.

Here is what they covered:

  • Chang's backstory: from a law firm to government and the world of innovation and entrepreneurship

  • How do digitize and automate the legal research

  • Thoughts on starting a business in Singapore

  • Licenses and regulations, especially when it comes to FinTech and crypto

  • How pandemic has impacted legal services, especially for junior lawyers

  • How to find the right co-founder

Check out their flagship product here.

Launching digital assets easily with CEO and co-founder of Zero Hash, Edward Woodford

Edward Woodford, CEO, and Co-Founder of Zero Hash (VC backed, including Bain Capital Ventures, Point72, NYCA & tastytrade), discussed his serial entrepreneur journey leading to his current venture that enables launching and distributing digital assets easily with Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast.

 Here are some of the insights that Edward shared:

  • Edward's serial entrepreneurial journey and lessons learned

  • Why Edward is a believer in digital assets promise

  • Zero Hash solution: distribution platform for digital assets globally

  • Which types of digital assets Zero Hash supports

  • Zero Hash and regulatory framework

  • Edward's view on traditional financial services firms' embracement of digital assets

  • Advantages of companies moving from Finance 1.0 to Finance 2.0

  • His thoughts on the DeFi overlay

  • Best way to reach out

Voice of FinTech Africa Series with Patrick Awori: Powering e-commerce in Africa with Flutterwave's Elizaphan Mouko

Africa’s FinTech infrastructure companies are radically transforming the technology and financial services industry with the help of APIs that enable virtually any software company to offer financial products directly to their end customers. Unregulated startups offering financial products through APIs and bank partnerships are well-positioned to take advantage of these trends. Thousands of Small Business Enterprises are prevailing as winners, too, as their barriers to entry are eliminated by these companies’ plug-and-play business intelligence and payments solutions.

In this episode, we interview Elizaphan Mouko, Flutterwave’s East Africa Business Head, about their strategy for the region and why supporting Africa’s small businesses is an important pillar for their organization and economic development in general. We spoke in detail about Flutterwave’s comprehensive service offering and their simple onboarding process. We also discuss Africa’s current VC funding boom and why- according to Eli, “We are just getting started.” Finally, we conclude that Africa’s challenges are significant and that we can only tackle them if we work together.

Elizaphan quotes Isaac Newton’s famous saying, “We can see further by standing on the shoulders of giants,” to stress the importance of ecosystem thinking in solving Africa’s fintech challenges.

We can see further by standing on the shoulders of giants, Isaac Newton.

Best practices in Corporate Venturing with Fidelity's Alokik Advani

Alokik Advani, the Managing Partner of Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, discussed best practices in corporate venturing with Rudolf Falat, creator of the Voice of FinTech.

Here is what they talked about:

  • Alokik shared his story – how he got to where he is now

  • Fidelity’s approach to working with start-ups: from partnering to investing

  • What is the mandate of Fidelity International Strategic Ventures?

  • Alokik shared some of the success stories of the start ups he has helped and identified which start-ups he had invested in

  • How Alokik and his team find start-ups, weighing in the pros and cons of inbound and proactive outreach

  • Key FinTech themes he wants to follow up as an investor: embedded finance - democratizing access to investment products or sustainability

  • Discussed valuations, previous bubbles and bursts, and the record height fundraising for FinTechs

  • How do Alokik and Fidelity think about whether to invest or not

  • What is it like to work with Fidelity as an investor

  • Corporate VC’s bad reputation and suggestions on how to do it right

  • How can interested parties reach out to Alokik and Fidelity?

Venture building and investing with Marc Penkala, hosted by Wani Baumgartner

Marc Penkala, a VC angel investor, entrepreneur, and fund advisor, discussed his highly successful investment journey leading to his current investment vehicle, Minimal VC, with Wani Baumgartner, Finance and Life Sciences recruiter and the Voice of FinTech's guest host.

 Here are some of the insights that Marc shared:

  • How serendipity plays a role and has led to some of his best investments

  • The importance of team-centric when deciding to invest

  • How he de-risks despite having a high-risk tolerance

  • The need of being intimately aware of your biases

  • Why and how to network

  • His ten principles on life gained from lessons derived from work

     

Glassbox - experience intelligence for your digital customer journeys

Yaron Morgenstern, CEO of Glassbox, talked about his entrepreneurial journey with his company, how Glassbox improves digital customer journeys for their clients around the globe with Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast.


Below are the notable points of the conversation:

  • Yaron's backstory

  • What is Glassbox? What is experience intelligence

  • How Glassbox stands out with improving the digital journey compared to other existing solutions in the market

  • How to measure a client's success when it comes to digital customer journey?

  • How challenging (or easy) is it to start using Glassbox solutions?

  • Key clients of the company like SoFi

  • Business strategies that scale the company to its' current level and advice to start-up businesses

  • Ways to scale up

  • Key milestones ahead of Glassbox

  • The best way to reach out and find out more about Glassbox

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. Alternatively, you can also leave a voicemail here.

Keep safe!

Sincerely,

Rudolf Falat