December highlights!
Photo by Robert Ruggiero on Unsplash
In case you missed out on the December 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.
Founder's story: Martins Sulte, CEO and co-founder of Mintos, a global marketplace for investing in loans
Martins Sulte, an INSEAD MBA alumnus, is CEO and Co-Founder at Mintos, an award-winning global marketplace for investing in loans, headquartered in Riga, Latvia.
We talk about:
Martins's motivation to start his own business
Martin's way of picking co-founders to maximize success
What is Mintos? How does it work?
Where are the investors on the platform from, and which loans does Mintos finance?
What's their unique selling point?
Did the pandemic affect the loan business and how?
Martins' way of keeping with the ever-larger company
Did he always believe this will work out, or did he have a moment when you thought you would give up?
Mintos has raised more than EUR 7m on Crowdcube recently. The biggest crowdfunding round in Europe (excl. the UK) ever! Why the crowdfunding route?
What will they do with the money?
Martins' book recommendation: The hard thing about hard things by Ben Horowitz
Where can interested parties reach Martins or Mintos?
Voice of FinTech Americas with Clementina Giraldo (in Spanish / En español): Introduction to FinTech in Mexico / Introducción a FinTech en México con Diego Creel, cofundador y CEO de Creze
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 Diego Creel, cofundador y CEO de Creze, líder de la industria FinTech en México, sobre las oportunidades que ofrece México en esta imparable industria.
In this episode of Voice of FinTech: Americas Series hosted by Clementina Giraldo, Founder & CEO of Dots & Tech, based in Colombia in Spanish, Clementina speaks to Diego Creel, co-founder and CEO of Creze, a FinTech leader in Mexico, about the incredible opportunities in this industry. English description below.
Diego Creel es emprendedor mexicano, con más de 15 años de experiencia profesional. Ha trabajado en banca de inversión, planificación estratégica y dirección general en México y España, incluyendo empresas como UBS, Cemex, Cash Converters LATAM y Polygon Fintech. Co-fundó Tuyo y lo vendió a EZCorp después de 5 años. Es emprendedor Endeavor y finalista de E&Y en 2012. Miembro de la junta directiva de 6 startups de FinTech. Ingeniero del ITESM y MBA del IE en España.
México cuenta con más de 500 empresas FinTech y lídera después de Brasil, el desarrollo de la industria en América Latina. En este episodio Diego Creel, nos cuenta cómo identificó la oportunidad para emprender y cofundar Creze en 2015, una de las FinTech líderes en el segmento de crédito digital para pequeñas y medianas empresas en México. Nos compartió cómo fue el proceso de levantamiento de capital para el desarrollo de Creze, en medio de la evolución de la industria de fondos de capital emprendedor en su país, enfatizando qué aspectos ha tenido en cuenta, además del capital, para elegir a sus inversionistas y cómo ha sido la relación con ellos.
Adicionalmente presentó algunas cifras de la industria FinTech de México, el contexto y posibles repercusiones de la Ley FinTech en el país, las empresas FinTech que acompañan a Creze en el liderazgo del segmento de crédito digital, sus avances y desafíos. Hablamos sobre el interés de diferentes emprendedores del mundo de conquistar el mercado mexicano y las oportunidades que ofrece México en el contexto latinoamericano.
Andrea Melville is MD Commercialisation & Propositions at Lloyds in London. Andrea is also a board member at Fnality, a network of decentralized Financial Market Infrastructures (dFMIs), where Lloyds invested.
We talk about:
MD Commercialisation & Propositions at Lloyds in London - what does it mean in real life?
Andrea previously said, “Why shouldn’t banking be just as simple as booking a hotel or ordering a taxi?” Why it’s sometimes not the case and what can be done about it?
Lloyds is a systemically important organization, so giving rewards to employees to bring down its systems as a test like some tech companies do, doesn’t work. How does Lloyds then infuse agility into an organization with such constraints?
Lloyds' approach to innovation and working with start-ups: from investing to partnering
How do your scouting and outreach at Lloyds work?
How does the selection process work?
How does economics work (broadly)? Do you work on pilots and proof of concepts?
Long-term partnerships. Check out the FinTech Pledge that Lloyds signed up to and how to get onboarded by Lloyds.
What are the metrics of the partnerships and monitoring
Can you share success stories of the start-ups with whom you have partnered up? And the lessons learned?
Favorite book: Guns, Germs and Steel (and some podcasts:)
Wrap up: appeal to inspiring entrepreneurs to learn more about working with Lloyds and the best way to get in touch
Voice of FinTech: Live Speaker Series - Ask us anything about FinTech, AI, VC investing in APAC, the US and LatAm
We recorded this live virtual panel discussion with the Voice of FinTech hosts in the Asia Pacific and the Americas on December 10. Our hosts are outstanding entrepreneurs, investors and start-up community leaders focused on FinTech or related areas such as AI! We talked about what's going on in the FinTech or start-up scene, early-stage investing or open innovation in Singapore, South East Asia, Latin America or the US. More specifically, RegTech in Singapore, VC investing in South East Asia, Data Science and AI in the US and building FinTech community in LatAm. Which are the hottest FinTech verticals? Which countries are FinTech leaders?
