Marko Wenthin, co-founder of solarisBank, recently contributed to my blog and, as a mate, has sent some great insights about starting up a FinTech firm which I thought I would share of FinTech banks last week. How to be a Unicorn (Part One) After announcing a whopping 300M$ D-round at a 2.7 Bln USD valuation N26 has…
I often reflect on how quickly China is moving towards being cashless, as are parts of Africa and much of India. I then realised that it is a strong mix of simple infrastructure and strong incentive. In the case of M-PESA in Kenya, there was no method of making payments from city to village, except…
Another interesting nuance of the FinTech Bank is the integration of business and technology. I’ve referenced this a few times, but wanted to be explicit that these banks think technology is business and business is technology. This is clearly demonstrated in their microservices team structures and agile thinking. Auditors, compliance, financial and marketing people sit…
Name the company that strikes fear into everyone’s hearts in business? In the 1980s, it was IBM. You never get fired if you buy IBM, even though It’s a Bloody Mess. In the 1990s, it was Microsoft. Sure, Most Intelligent Creatures Realise Our Software Only Fools Teenagers, but yes, they were taking over the planet….
I’ve had a lot of conversations with bankers and technologists, and realised something recently. That realisation is a simple but important one, and it is this: dealing with technology is very different to dealing with money; furthermore, dealing with money through technology is very different to dealing with technology through money. It may sound like…
It’s not often that the Twittersphere I watch lights up in deep conversation, but a long one started last week thanks to JP Morgan’s announcement of the JPM Coin. Here’s a decent piece of coverage on CNBC: (JPM Coin) will be one of the first real-world applications for a cryptocurrency in banking. The industry has…
I spotted an article by Linus Beliunas on LinkedIn this week, and liked it so much that wanted to share. Enjoy! 39 FinTech Unicorns Valued at $147.37 billion 2018 was a phenomenal year for FinTech. Over a course of 12 months, Venture Capital-backed FinTech deals and funding set an annual record: in 2018, VC-backed FinTech companies…
Last week we had our first meetings of Nordic Finance Innovation, the largest networking group in the Nordic region for people involved in finance and technology which I happen to chair. The meeting focused upon data: data usage, data analytics, data leverage and data privacy. It was an interesting meet-up and Danielle Neben, editor at Nordic…
In another guest post related to industry versus digital banking Marko Wenthin, co-founder of solarisBank, sent this insight into my discussion of FinTech banks last week. Organisational behaviour – synchronised swimming versus football teams I read the post of my friend Chris today about how a FinTech bank embraces IT rather than have it as a…
For years, I’ve been wondering why people in business operations couldn’t align their needs with the people delivering technology in the organisation. The CIO would sit outside the business, watching and responding to requests. The requests would get prioritisation and be delivered in sequence over time, sometimes a very long time. The business people would…
