A full-house at the Airport Club in Frankfurt.
In his keynote, Frank Schwab presented some initial results from the FinTech Forum study of 100 FinTech startups in Germany, Austria and Switzerland:
Beyond Berlin, the financial centres Frankfurt, Munich and Zürich make a strong appearance in the D-A-CH FinTech Startup scene.
For the lending- and risk-averse D- A-CH region, a relatively high number of crowdfunding/crowdinvesting, lending and trading startups could be identified.
There is a jump in the number of startups founded just after the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, perhaps suggesting founders who were frustrated with the way financial services are currently offered.
Startup Presentations Part 1
First to pitch was Daniel Schäfer from United Signals about successful trading strategies.
Next up: Christopher Kampshoff from lendstar convincing us – with some bank-bashing – to “Bank with Friends, not Banks”.
moneymeets co-founder Johannes Cremer demonstrated how you can reach your financial goals for a long holiday!
For Andreas Kern from wikifolio, it is all about growth, partners, and a solid tech that helps “invest better together”.
Ismail Chaib started where Frank Schwab’s keynote left off: showing how Open Bank Project can help transform ageing bank tech.
Next, Timur Peter from Debitos on how Germany’s first factoring exchange is helping firms to create working capital from invoices, receivables etc..
Roger Fromm ofrom Investory talked about their clear focus on Asset Managers and plans for expansion.
Sharewise’s Michael Mellinghof is looking to go global with its recent merger with Japan’s Minkabu, and is excited about the Sharewise Community Fund (launched end-2012)
Key messages from the Roundtable Discussion with Dr. Michael Rundshagen from Traxpay, Norman Stürtz from a leading European Bank and Steffen Seeger from Fidor Bank:
D-A-CH banks missed the retail banking boat – which startups like Fidor hopped onto.
Traxpay feels banks may be about to miss the second, the corporate / B2B banking boat as well, going by expected electronic banking numbers.
Banks do have a huge starting balance, e.g. existing relationships and trust, customer information and understanding and almost the entire share of the larger-size business. Banks keen to innovate, but find it hard to move fast. Most banks are surely open to partner with startups to make this happen.
FinTech Startups in DACH are recommended to focus, focus, focus, and to be prepared for the delays due to the regulatory, BaFin and legal requirements required in the Financial Services sector.
Startup Presentations Part 2
In the financial world, there is no running away from compliance: first up in this session was Erik Bogaerts from Naqoda on solving German tax compliance issues!
Dominique Riedl from justETF, spoke on their “strategies supermarket” for beginners as well as sophisticated traders. justETF is keen to talk to partners (banks, online trading firms etc.) both in Germany, Switzerland and Austria but also globally.
Michael Klein fromof FinPoint on solving EU SME funding gap. Looking for global partners!
Levin Brunner fron from MashupFinance on a localized, relationship-based approach to SME crowdfunding (initial focus: Munich).
MoneyGarden with its apps that bring together your financial “as is” and “to be” by helping you “watch your money grow”.
Stefan Seedorf on how co-browsing technology at Synchronite could help banks win/serve and win clients in real time!
Daniel Horak from Conda Austria, about crowdinvesting for Startups and SMEs in Austria / DACH: it’s all about money!
We thank our sponsors: BankITX (marketplace for banks & tech providers) and Kea Company (PR, AR & SMM for Startups)