Web Summit 2022 wrap-up #4: N26, What’s next for digital banking?

Welcome to our series of articles on the recent Web Summit 2022, a premier event in the tech industry. In this series, we will be highlighting some of the most exciting and interesting presentations, panels, and events that took place at the conference. From keynotes by industry leaders to breakout sessions covering the latest trends and developments in technology, there was no shortage of thought-provoking content at this year's conference. We hope you enjoy reading about the Web Summit 2022 as much as we enjoyed attending it!

N26, What’s next for digital banking?

In this session, Maximilian Taynthal, Co-Founder of N26 and Patricia Kowsmann, Finance reporter at The Wall Stret Jounal talk about what the future holds for digital banking, and how neobanks are closing the gap between them and traditional bank.

Over the last few years, the rise of the neobank has shown no sign of slowing down, and we're currently in an era of innovation that is reshaping how consumers interact with their banks. 

About N26

N26 is a German neobank founded in 2013. It offers a 100% digital banking experience designed to be simple, transparent, and secure. Actually, N26 has more than 8 million customers.  

If you want to learn more about the company, here is his website: https://n26.com/en-eu. 

What kinds of banking services do online banks offer?

With online banking, you can transfer money, exchange crypto, make online payment or pay bills via your bank card, and deposit your money. But unlike traditional banks, they can’t give loans. 

Digital banks are well known to offer lower fees so concretely how can online banks be profitable?

By their clients' deposit, banks like N26 can invest in profitable business. They make sure that it’s risk free, so their clients don’t have to worry about anything. 

In the future, digital banks even plan to remunerate their clients by sharing the benefit from their deposit. 

The pandemic situation, inflation, war, ... Did those situations infect digital banking?

It didn’t. It was even positive, digital banks got more revenue. Easy to use, digital banking’s clients can access their bank account just via their online account or via their mobile banking app. So that is the real difference of digital banking with traditional banking, they prioritize customer experience. 

What are online banking challenges?

They want to expand in more countries, get more customers, be more profitable, developpe their products, but their biggest challenge is to be completely independent of external funding! 

Feel free to contact us to discuss a partnership or for more information about this article.

Minh Q. Tran, minh@mandalorepartners.com

Web Summit 2022 wrap-up #3: Cultivating investor relationships and long-term partnerships

Welcome to our series of articles on the recent Web Summit 2022, a premier event in the tech industry. In this series, we will be highlighting some of the most exciting and interesting presentations, panels, and events that took place at the conference. From keynotes by industry leaders to breakout sessions covering the latest trends and developments in technology, there was no shortage of thought-provoking content at this year's conference. We hope you enjoy reading about the Web Summit 2022 as much as we enjoyed attending it!

CULTIVATING VC INVESTOR RELATIONSHIPS AND LONG-TERM PARTNERSHIPS

In their panel on “Cultivating investor relationships and long-term partnerships” at the 2022 WebSummit, Harry Nelis of Accel Partners and Samir Desai, the founder of Super Payments, discussed what it takes for a start-up to find (and to attract) the right venture capitalists.

Warm introductions to VC firms

Both panelists highlighted the importance of warm introductions in the venture capital field. A market of a few is all you need when you are starting off : despite the truckload of rejections you may face from the venture capital industry as a whole, it is important to keep networking and to be resilient. Early stage companies will all eventually find the right venture capital firm, who will be interested enough to help them raise money. Harry Nelis also highlighted how, at his venture capital fund, most of the selected projects came from warm introductions.  Venture firms expect a great track record from founders as well, which can help secure additional capital. The slow-down in the VC investments market is also no reason to worry, according to the panelists : successful startups have been know to stem from times of crisis, and there is, in fact, a lot of money out available from many VC funds.

On sales skills and choosing the right VC fund  

It is no secret that great sales skills matter to close venture capital deals: venture capital investors look for ambitious, tenacious and convincing people, who they know will put vc money to good use. But startup founders are not necessarily great salespersons right off the bat ; according to Samir Desai, successful venture funding relies on being able to present a small reliable team, very involved in the company’s management, to angel investors — thus build a true identity for your company. One-on-one trusted collaboration is most important to raise startup funding, which is why engaging with outside contractors for sales is not necessarily recommended. Finally, the choice of the VC firm matters, especially for early stage startups — beyond initial vc funding rounds, it is crucial for the goals and characteristics of the venture capitalist to match the project. Hence, top VC firms should be researched and referenced, making sure they’re the right fit before you pitch for new companies to start building solid relationships with their investors. 

Feel free to contact us to discuss a partnership or for more information about this article.

Minh Q. Tran, minh@mandalorepartners.com

Web Summit 2022 wrap-up #2: TO INFINITY AND BEYOND: BEST USE CASES IN WEB3

Welcome to our series of articles on the recent Web Summit 2022, a premier event in the tech industry. In this series, we will be highlighting some of the most exciting and interesting presentations, panels, and events that took place at the conference. From keynotes by industry leaders to breakout sessions covering the latest trends and developments in technology, there was no shortage of thought-provoking content at this year's conference. We hope you enjoy reading about the Web Summit 2022 as much as we enjoyed attending it!

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND: BEST USE CASES IN WEB3

The Web summit 2022, held in Lisbon between November 1 and November 4 gathered many corporates, startups and influencers specialized in the Internet. It was also the occasion to explore the possibilities of Web3 in various fields, especially in marketing strategy.

On the 2nd of November, Marty Swant gave the opportunity to Sandy Carter (Unstoppable Domains), Amanda Cassatt (Serotonin) and Jeremiah Owyang (RLY Network Association) to share their views on marketing and Web3.

Web1, Web2, Web3: what are the main differences?

To better understand the new marketing strategies to be used in Web3, it is important to briefly reconsider the evolution of World wide web.

Web1, the origins of the Internet

Web1 was the first version of the Internet. It was a confidential and complicated system, only used by those who were able to code. At this time, the general public was not able to see the use cases of it and to measure its impact in their daily life.

Web2, the democratization of the Internet

Web2 is the Internet we know today. Way more user-friendly than the previous one, its adoption rate has been tremendous. Web2 has changed our everyday life, and companies heavily rely on it for selling their products. Every user can generate and gain access to content.

Web3, a broad new paradigm

Web3 is still in its early days,  and will definitely reshape our usage of social media and the Internet. With Web3, every user become the owner of its own content, and can control it. Instead of relying on CEO of large technology companies such as Twitter, Web3 allows us to create communities and have ownership over the Internet. Web3 produces decentralized autonomous organizations and redefine our use of online services.

Compared to current internet, Web3 adoption growth rate is impressive. Today, around 40% of South Asia has already adopted it, and 15% in the US. To make another comparison, the NFT trading volumes grow by 21000% in 2021, a way bigger growth than Web2’s one when Bezos launched Amazon.

Why do traditional companies struggle to adapt to decentralized web?

Companies need to change their marketing strategy in order to adapt to Web3. Decentralized blockchains, cryptocurrencies, NFT and metaverse are new game changers in the marketing field.

Companies need to change their marketing paradigm

Traditionally, companies have a short-term view on the return of a digital marketing campaign. In Web2, marketing efforts are all about reducing Customer Acquisition Cost (with the cost of targeted ads for instance) while maximizing Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

In a Web3 paradigm, we shift to a user generated content model. Marketing is all about building a strong decentralized community that will use Web 3.0 to make content about the brand.

If traditional social media platforms are still used to discuss about Web 3.0, we will see in the near future new Web3 native social media platforms.

What should companies do to enter in web 3.0?

Start now

The common view between our panel specialists is that every company should start to create their web3 strategy today, because time will be needed to reap the benefits of it.

The best way to start, according to Sandy Carter, is to think deeply about its Web 3.0 identity, by showing to its community the desire to integrate web3.

Focus on what does the customer want

Web3 is not a magic solution and is useful only if it really helps customers. A company needs to have a very user-centric approach to provide services that are really useful to the next generation, and not only to be part of the decentralized internet race. So many products are built on a nonexistent customer demand!

Incentivize customers smartly

In Web 3.0, users are owners of their data. To gain access to this precious data, companies need to incentivized people correctly. It is the only way to build a real community where user generates content and help your brand to grow.

Feel free to contact us to discuss a partnership or for more information about this article.

Minh Q. Tran, minh@mandalorepartners.com

Web Summit 2022 wrap-up #1: FINTECH 2023: WHAT NEXT?

Welcome to our series of articles on the recent Web Summit 2022, a premier event in the tech industry. In this series, we will be highlighting some of the most exciting and interesting presentations, panels, and events that took place at the conference. From keynotes by industry leaders to breakout sessions covering the latest trends and developments in technology, there was no shortage of thought-provoking content at this year's conference. We hope you enjoy reading about the Web Summit 2022 as much as we enjoyed attending it!

FINTECH 2023: WHAT NEXT?

At the 2022 Web Summit that took place last November, in a talk led by the journalist Nick Huber, Carolyn Rodz (Founder at Hello Alice), Rodolphe Ardant (Co-founder & CEO at Spendesk) and Tegan Kline (Co-founder at Edge & Node) discussed the future of the fintech market in the incoming year.

2021 was the year of growth, what’s next for Fintech in 2023?

After a successful record growth in 2021, it seems that the fintech industry is facing tough times. But what is the reality of the fintech market, its challenges, and opportunities?

 If we look at the current market, fintechs were founded because the banks were incapable or did not want to take advantage of technology. According to Rodolphe Ardant, this is just the beginning of the fintech world: indeed, the public traded fintech is on average 12 years old while the legacy financial services in 90 years old. Moreover, Tegan Kline explains that there are a lot of opportunities in the fintech market, for example taking advantages of interest rates growing. We are just at the beginning of the disruption in the finance world.

 In the past 10 years, we saw many different business models emerge, and some business models will come up stronger after the crisis (such as B2B payment or banking software). The market should come back, and fintechs should ask themselves how to work with the major players in finance (especially banks and goverments) and not against them, while keeping focusing on individuals’ needs.

TRENDS OF FINTECH 2023: FREEDOM OF CHOICE

According to Carolyn Rodz, the reality of the market is that we all want the freedom of choice, and this is fintech is all about. It is hard to predict how the market will respond in 2023, but the valuations may come down within the fintech industry, the users will remain, which would leave a lot of opportunities to get into emerging businesses.

For Tegan Kline, there is a great opportunity within the NFT space within cryptos, and we could likely see a lot of fintech getting into that space. In addition, we would see the emergence of fintech using the metaverse, decentralizing and giving the power back to the users.

For Carolyn Rodz, the focus should be on anything that support open banking, community and human engagement (such as identity verification, data transferring, …).

Feel free to contact us to discuss a partnership or for more information about this article.

Minh Q. Tran, minh@mandalorepartners.com