Baxter Credit Union, based in N.J., has found a new #solution to an old, and costly problem. David Brydun, vice president of consumer lending, exclusively told Bank Innovation that the financial institution has partnered with #Checkbook.io on a #digital #check issuance solution that utilizes #blockchain. “A lot of what goes on in digital lending is […]
Bank Innovation
#PayPal made a strong move into the group #payments space with the announcement it will purchase #Hyperwallet for $ 400 million. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Hyperwallet allows for businesses such as Etsy, eBay or Uber to easily make disbursements to multiple merchants or drivers, even across international borders. The company […]
Bank Innovation
#Zelle, the person-to-person payments network launched by Early Warning, reported today that it processed 170 million #transactions in 2016, proving what the #fintech majority already knows: consumers really like person-to-person payments, the simpler, the better. Harnessing the consumer-acquiring power of P2P has been a goal for financial institutions since the arrival of Venmo, and the […]
Bank Innovation
This week saw the release of The #Fintech 100, a collaborative report put together by H2 Ventures and KPMG. The report takes a global look at the 50 established fintech businesses and 50 emerging stars and is a must read for anyone wanting to understand the industry landscape. Behind lendingRead More
Bank Innovation
You cannot ignore it: #Fintech is a boom. According to Fintech News Switzerland, there are 185 digital finance firms in the Swiss market. As a contrast, our neighbor German has more than twice as many shown by a study by Barkow Consulting last year.
Meanwhile, even more #Fintechs should be in the market. The support for the industry is evident through the 300 million Euros investments in German Fintechs.
Yet the first Fintechs are already dying. The online payment service Paymill and the payment Fintechs Yapital and Click-and-buy are only a few examples for the Fintech flops that shake the acclaimed industry.
I myself co-founded two internet companies, the nightlife-website usgang.ch and amiando, an eventmanagement tool. Both now belong to large corporations – usgang.ch to Axel Springer and amiando to Xing. Since 2010, I have had the opportunity to be close to many Fintech investments in both Switzerland and Germany.
Again and again the question arises: What #makes a fintech #successful?
In my opinion: a company builder. I am saying this from the perspective of both a former founder and investor. Instead of supporting a startup through risk capital only and hoping for the unsurpassable high flyer, a company builder is engaged intensively in each venture.
There lies the important difference: a company builder is not an accelerator in which companies undergo a coaching period. It is also not an incubator that aims to grow companies which leave the nest.
A company builder analyses the market, searches for gaps in digital offerings, and develops solutions. The implementation of the solutions is only possible with the right founder. This has nothing to do with the “on-our-way-home-in-the-train-we-had-a-great-idea” founder romance, but it concentrates on a work-related promising ideology. FinLeap, a Berlin-based Fintech company builder, where I am a member of the advisory board, proceeds in that manner.
With more than 700 applicants every month, a huge number of potential employees approach FinLeap. Since its founding almost two year ago, FinLeap employees 250 employees from more than 30 nations and has successfully founded nine ventures with the next projects already in the pipeline. All of them grow, found cooperations between them, win over #banks as customers &8211; or operate with a full banking license themselves, like solarisBank.
It is an amazing experience for me as a FinLeap companion to not only have a focus on one project, but to be parallelly involved in many exciting business models at once. As a result, we often see synergies and cooperations between the ventures. For the founders, the advantages are clear: Instead of being occupied with salary statements, legal issues or marketing, they can fully concentrate on the core business- with a seed funding between 0.5 and 5 million as a basis.
The majority of founders at FinLeap are not just-graduated students, but are carefully chosen industry experts. One of FinLeap’s ventures Savedo, a marketplace for fixed term deposits in Europe, is the perfect example. Its co-founder Christian Tiessen has already successfully co-founded the online design shop cascandra, and later on fab.de, leading them up to the exit. Christopher Oster, managing director of online-insurance broker Clark, co-founded the platform for holiday apartments Wimdu and additionally possesses many years of experience in strategy consulting for the Boston Consulting Group.
These represent only two examples of the many present at FinLeap.
So to answer the question: Expertise and passionate entrepreneurship make a Fintech idea successful, but a company builder can contribute on many levels.
The post Marc P. Bernegger: What Makes Fintechs Successful? appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
It’s easy to move your money between #banks. What&8217;s annoying is moving your apps. There&8217;s been a recent explosion of #fintech products in spaces like&160;stock trading, wealth management, payments, loans, remittance, and&160;insurance. That&8217;s been fueled by a massive uptick in venture&160;investment in private fintech companies, which hit $ 19 billion in… Read More
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