Tag Archives: B2B

LFP159 – “Payments Terms As A Service” w/Lara Gilman iwocapay

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Iwocapay is a new business venture from iwoca, one of London’s leading Fintechs, to offer payment terms as a service. Metaphorically this is a cross between a domestic version of trade finance – helping finance a supply chain – with an oldschool (and rather harder to get these days) bank overdraft – ie a flexible facility which can be paid up and down at will. PTAAS means that suppliers get what they want – goods out, cash-in whilst customers get optionality to manage payment terms as proves most convenient to them.

 In this world of post-covid destruction of the economy in the UK small businesses have had the largest hit ever. Fintech cannot sort that but it can oil the wheels of financing supply chains and as we know most businesses go broke due to inadequate cashflow/financing than as they are making losses.

Thus now more than ever innovations for the small businesses that are iwoca’s core market are needed.

In this episode Lara Gilman,, co-lead of iwocapay, takes us through this. Topics discussed include: Continue reading →

LFP157 – Enabling Direct Bank to Bank Payments For Merchants – Faster, Cheaper w/Brad Goodall CEO Banked

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Online payments are expensive – directly for merchants and indirectly for consumers as the price is obviously higher due to the merchants having a ~3% cost of payments. But in a world where I as a consumer could pay you as a merchant directly from my phone if you simply gave me your sort code and account number (and you would get the funds immediately rather than with a considerable delay), in a world of Open Banking and APIs can this simple model not be automated and provide the same functionality online to all customers?

It turns out it can and Banked are leading the way of so-called direct-payments. These have many benefits not having been designed in the days when a plastic piece of card with some simple numbers on them was what amounted to account security.

If this is the schematic than as always one needs to understand that traditional credit card payments do but just provide payment but a whole host of features around them. What if eg the credit card used to buy something from your store was stolen? What if you the consumer receive the goods having paid but the goods are substandard.

As always with payments the high-level schematic is simple yet the devil lies in the detail.

Topics discussed include: Continue reading →

LFP154 – Successful Partnering in Fintech w/Joanne Dewar CEO GPS

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

One reason that as the Fintech revolution proceeds Fintechs can do more ambitious things is that there an increasing number of back-end service providers that they can plug into. In this episode Joanne Dewar, CEO of back-end payments services provider GPS – who work with 40 issuing banks globally, and operate programmes with 90+ APIs for over 100 clients (including Revolut, Starling Bank and Bo) in 60 countries in 150 currencies – joins us to share her experience of what drives  success in this sector for both the B2C front-end companies and the B2B back-end providers. GPS is furthermore a rare example of a profitable Fintech – which are always good to talk to.

Back-end providers have been with us for a long time – Currency Cloud, who executed most of Transferwise’s FX transactions for quite some time were back on the show years ago.

Time moves on though and by now we have plenty of data where partnering/outsourcing worked well and plenty where it did not.

What are the key factors of success? How is it done well and why is it done badly?

Topics discussed on the show include: Continue reading →

LFP153 – Landbay & BTL Mortgages, A Case Study of Finteching Pre- & Post- Corona w/Julian Cork COO

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

In LFP152 we took a strategic look at the post-Covid landscape. In this show Julian Cork, COO of Landbay, guides us through the tactical responses by one of the UK’s most solid Fintechs – £1/2bn buy-to-let mortgages written to date and zero losses.

 

However as to risk “the past is not necessarily a guide to the future” and in a market that has frozen it is very challenging to operate.

We cover many aspects starting with a background to the UK BTL market and the strategic shifts that were already in play right through to the importance of maintaining not just business dialogue between staff but that important social glue social dialogue too.

Topics discussed include: Continue reading →

LFP151 – Meta-Creativity & The Road To Fintech Profitability w/Tim Nicolle CEO Primadollar

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

As we have repeatedly heard profitability is a major challenge in Fintech. In this episode Tim Nicolle CEO of Trade Finance Fintech Primadollar describes his journey to working out the necessary building blocks to profitability. As someone who has had his own businesses for some 30yrs he has had more experience than most with these challenges.

Despite only being founded in 2015 Primadollar already has an astonishing 12 offices around the world so is well placed to also talk to the globalising of Fintech in this Brexiting year (albeit temporarily (?!) on hold due to a well-know virus of course).

Staff numbers are around 50, one-third in the UK and around two-thirds abroad.

Topics discussed include: Continue reading →

LFP143 – Results From Analysing A Decades Profitability Data On One Hundred UK Fintechs w/Michael Pearson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Michael conducts the most in-depth analysis of Companies House data on UK Fintechs that I am aware of. That earlier this year he partnered with KPMG and Google on his Fintech Funding and Financing study says a lot. So what can we learn from a decades’s data on UK Fintechs?

Well first that only five are making a profit!

Michael recently updated his study which includes nearly one hundred Fintechs.

In this episode we focus on trends in profitability – which are not all as you might expect – although the report covers many more parameters especially around fund-raisings.

After a decade for the longest running Fintechs we should be able to start to draw conclusions. What are they?

Topics discussed include: Continue reading →

LFP142 – Capital Markets Fintech & “Grown-Up” Digital FS w/ Martin Boyd FIS

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Capital Markets is the beating heart of FS – far higher tech and far more hardcore than just bank accounts and it is by definition the most complex area. What can we and Fintech learn from the super-big boys working in this world?

FIS systems process an astonishing amount of $9 trillion moved around the world per annum. They acquired the super-well known FS systems vendor Sunguard systems at the end of 2015

Martin Boyd is President of Capital Markets at FIS and is thus well-placed to give us the view on FS and “digital” from the most hardcore high volume end of the industry spectrum.

Indeed as we all regularly gloss “digital” as being “interweb + smartphone” what does digital actually mean when we are talking about wholesale markets for megabanks – I assume it isn’t “interweb + smartphone” – what does it mean in this context?

What we can learn, the view from the top of the mountain and much more are discussed. Topics include: Continue reading →

LFP141 – Open-Banking: Super-Important for SMEs w/Matt Cockayne CCO Yapily

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Open-banking hype has generally focused on the consumer marketplace. However SMEs can potentially benefit more especially as they currently pay for banking services. Accounts and transactions can be consolidated improving cashflow management and payments can be made at a far lower cost and far faster as well as cool stuff like including “pay me” buttons in invoices to speed up receivables.

In this episode Matt Cockayne of Yapily takes us through the SME open banking marketplace and we cover a schematic of how it all works.

How do you connect to open banking? How does authroisation work? Is it just a set of pipes connecting accounts or is there added value taking place.

We get the whiteboard out and sketch the whole process.

Topics discussed include: Continue reading →

LFP140 – The Fourth UK Retail Credit Bureau Is A Fintech! Freddy Kelly CEO Credit Kudos

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

The Retail Credit Bureau market has been in place for decades but disruption is coming to the market in the shape of Credit Kudos who help people make faster more accurate credit decisions. They have proved that this new source of data enables better credit decisions.

Formed in 2015 in anticipation of  ‘open data”  (a superior term in this context to Open Banking) they got by with screen scraping but now have a commanding lead with this new technology. Contrary to my inbox there aren’t a million firms doing new credit bureau services – only Credit Kudos.

In this episode we look at how open data and Fintech are changing the assessment of retail credit decisions.

Topics discussed include: Continue reading →

LFP139 – A Fintech That Is Globally The Largest Non-Bank In Its Sector – Global Trade & Supply Chain Finance w/ Peter Cook PrimeRevenue

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Not many Fintechs dominate their sector let alone in one of the biggest markets in the world. PrimeRevenue was formed in 2003 and is the largest non-bank supplied of Supply Chain Finance in the world (working capital finance for global trade). They facilitate more than $200bn of payments per annum for 20,000 clients. In this show we dive into what it is that such a Fintech does. What can other Fintechs learn from one of the global best in Fintech?

Peter Cook who is head of all non-US sales talks us through how global trade actually works and the staggering sums of money that can be released from working capital using the appropriate techniques and how this can be win:win for vendor and buyer.

Topics discussed include: Continue reading →