Fintech Matters?

Open banking is said to be a seismic shift in the financial services industry where data becomes democratized and new opportunities for innovation will be created. But what is open banking really? What real and what's hype when it comes to open banking? And what is the impact on consumers? Many consumers express concerns about the safety and management of their data in this digital age - is there merit to this concern? And how can banks and fintechs clearly communicate the impact and the benefits of open finances to consumers? In this episode, we want to understand open finance better and discuss if consumers have a right to be afraid of open banking or if the concerns about data have been overblown. And to help me with that we have invited Sam Gilbert, author of Good data: An optimist guide to our digital future & Esben Toftdahl Nielsen, CCO og Co-founder of Penni   Tune in and enjoy!

‘AI' seems to be the hottest buzzword of the hour. The advances of tech and specifically AI have been half-century in the making but are now increasingly becoming an essential part of our everyday life - without us often realizing it. But with the amazing possibilities, artificial intelligence brings, also comes fear-mongering. Will we all at some point be replaced? Aren't there human skills that can not be replicated, like empathy, intuition, complex collaboration, and creativity? In this episode, we want to discuss which possibilities AI entails for the future and what it means to be human in the era of machines. And to help me with that we have invited Mikael Munck, CEO of 2021.ai   Tune in and enjoy!

On April 22, 2021, 8 early stage investors in the Danish startup ecosystem, signed The Diversity Commitment. Together with the non-profit organization Female Founders of the Future, the signing partners formulated diversity goals to redesign the ecosystem for more diversity, starting with diminishing the gender gap.   A report made by European Women in VC, Unconventional Ventures and experior venture fund sheds light on the fundraising and investment conditions in Central and Eastern Europe, pointing to an unquestionable difficulty faced by women entrepreneurs and women fund managers in accessing finance, a problem that haunts Europe as a whole. In this episode we are talking with Lars Andersen from Seed Capital to hear more about what exactly they have signed and how they are planning on meeting the goals.  Tune in and enjoy!

We mostly hear about unconscious biases when we discuss AI governance. But unconscious biases also sabotage our efforts to set up diverse organizations. This is why today we will not only outline the extent of the issue but also showcase some of the emerging action-oriented solutions that leverage tech to further diversity.  In this episode, we want to discuss how to control for unconscious biases and which mechanisms need to be established to prevent them from conflicting with our conscious targets. And to help me unfold this conversation with me today is  Nimish Gåtam and Dr. Poornima Luthra We are looking forward to hear your thoughts.    Tune in and enjoy!

Currently, bitcoin consumes the equivalent of a small country. This is one of the arguments against cryptocurrency that you often hear from detractors who like to point out the enormous energy consumption of the bitcoin mining industry. Proponents, however, point out that it is not a zero-sum game and we need to A) consider the good bitcoin brings and B) that bitcoin isn’t competing with countries but is competing with rival assets such as the fiat currencies and gold.  In this episode, we want to dive into this discussion together with Simon Ousager, CEO & Co-founder of Januar. We would love to continue the conversation with you and figure out the good and the bad bitcoin does for our planet and the people that live on it. What do you think?   Tune in and enjoy!

The Fintech Week plugged into what’s going on in the tech and financial ecosystems around the world. This interesting discussion led by a futurist will reveal the latest trends and what we can expect in the future.

Not only the world of finance is watching fintech closely, telcos, gaming and many other industries are too. This discussion will unveil how that looks and what it means for the customers and society.

New technologies lead the way to new business models - or is it the other way around? This discussion is centered around the impact business models hold in the future, and how sustainable business models are paving the way, also from a diversity perspective.

The financial ecosystems are increasingly relying on partnerships. Fintechs elevate and fast forward innovation in incumbent organisations. This conversation will go more in-depth into partnerships and what it means for the industry.

The Fintech Week was heavily focused on sustainability on a global level. The pandemic has a major impact on the financial ecosystems both globally and locally. This discussion is centered around the possibilities and challenges in the wake of COVID-19 through the lens of sustainability. Will sustainability increase or decrease in the future?

How to fix a broken system? A talk about sustainability, what makes a company sustainable, and why it matters in the world of financial services. A discussion between Kristian Rönn, CEO and Co-Founder of Swedish fintech startup Normative and Oliver Sjöstedt, Head of Startup Growth at Copenhagen Fintech.

”Samfundskontrakten” in Danish or the ”Social contract” in English is a new book by the former CEO of Bang & Olufsen in Denmark and before that Triumph Motorcycles in UK, Tue Mantoni. Tue is now Chairman Of The Board at Vækstfonden (Danish Growth Fund) and active investor and board member in several Danish high growth companies in different industries. We talked about with Tue about his book, why the social contract is even more important now than pre COVID-19? If the pandemic is a litmus test for stakeholder capitalism (quote from Klaus Schwab, WEF), what is it for the social contract then? What Tue sees as the major challenges for Denmark and the Nordics in the near future? AND what should companies and leaders do in the current environment? Finally we – of course – talk about why fintech matters?

Financial services for women have historically been abysmal. Simply making it pink and positioning it toward women doesn’t say anything about women's behavior, wants, needs or situation. And furthermore financial services firms—those in banking, insurance, and wealth/asset management—are leaving $700 billion in revenue on the table by using assumptions that are built around men’s careers and not offering solutions that address the realities of women’s lives. In this episode Naima Yasin and Dr. Anette Broløs is talking about why and if women need their own financial services, what does it mean that a financial product is gender neutral and where do we go from here. Anette has written a report together with Dr. Erin B Taylor and EWPN called  ”Female Finance – Digital, Mobile, Networked” and you can find it here: https://ewpn.eu/female-finance-digital-mobile-networked/ 

Dear listeners. Welcome back from your summer holiday. This episode is an informal conversation between Chief Innovation Officer at Copenhagen Fintech Simon Schou and Chief Futurist at Universal Futurist – Anne Skare Nielsen. Fintech-innovation has during the last few years been very much about creating connections and new relationships - The Fintech Lab in Copenhagen is by many seen as a melting pot for this - so this episode is also about exploring the future of fintech-innnovation. How should businesses be thinking about the future when it is still so unclear how we come out of the pandemic? The cornerstone of business relationships is trust and networks. Consider the handshake, which for some people is a way of determining whether to trust someone. How do we build trust in a post-handshake world where most of your business meetings take place in front of a webcam? These are just some of the questions being addressed.

COVID-19 pandemic is the black swan event of the decade that has taken the world by storm. With unprecedented challenges and situations, entrepreneurs and startups are facing every day, their concerns for survival and getting through these tough times are only increasing. The social isolation has set some conscious or unconscious limitations on everyone's productivity. However, these rather unfortunate times have helped the global communities to come together in whatever capacity possible. That is why Naima Yasin has invited Rasmus Bjørn Dahl, Partner at CANUTE to talk about community building. How do we build deep relationships with our community online? How can we keep building communities if reality is that this is our new normal for the next year? These are just some of the questions we talk about.

The fourth episode in season 2. Copenhagen Fintech interviewed Nils Elmark. Nils is the founder of the business and finance consultancies Incepcion and BankingLab.london. He is a futurist who helps companies create better and braver dreams. Nils has written three books on his old Remington typewriter and is a great motorcycle enthusiast. In his latest book “New Local Economy: How the Future’s Big Businesses Will Grow out of Small Communities” Nils argues for the creation of local economies as a means of resisting the seismic changes that globalization often brings, especially in times of crises. Moreover, research shows that for every £100 spent in a local shop, 45% will remain in the community (compared with only 15% if spent in retail chains such as Tesco or Aldi). As part of the design of the future, Elmark argues for the need to break up the global economy into local economies, so that communities can regain their independence and be less exposed to the tide of globalization. We talk with Nils how fintech fits in the new local economy, about the strength of local communities and how you balance the hyper globalized world (where COVID-19 now rages) and make smaller local communities thrive. And of course why fintech matters?

The third episode in season 2. Copenhagen Fintech brought the Managing Director of Kameo Denmark, Jesper Johansen, and CEO of Brickshare, Thomas Midtgaard, in to a talk talk on how the state of proptech is in Denmark. Are we ahead of the innovation curve? What barriers are there to get ahead? And how do we educate private investors on the option of investing in real estate without large amounts of capital? These are some of the questions we dive into in this general discussion of one of the highest potential subsectors of fintech.

The second episode in season 2. Copenhagen Fintech visited Paris Fintech Forum and the BNP Paribas Lounge and met up with Dorel Blitz, VP Strategy & Business Development at Personetics. Dorel is an old friend of Copenhagen Fintech and previously Dorel was director at KPMG Israel Fintech department and a member of KPMG Global Fintech SGI Leadership team. In this episode we talk with Dorel about the startup nation Israel. What makes the Israeli (fin)tech ecosystem special and why Israeli entrepreneurs seems to aim higher in their global ambitions than their european and Nordic peers? How important the universities are for building an entrepreneurial ecosystems, why banks are not IT companies and the role of big egos.

The first episode in season 2 (!!) of Fintech Matters we sat down with Sofie Blakstad & Marianne Haahr at Paris Fintech Forum to dive into the Paris Agreement, how green bonds can be the new alternative economic models, the outcome of the One Planet Summit and how when we are working with sustainability can avoid green washing and lip servicing.

In this final episode of 2019, Simon Schou and Oliver Sjöstedt from Copenhagen Fintech explore why and how to build a global ecosystem that foster innovation. While we acknowledge the Nordics might never be the biggest fintech hub, we can definitely be the most connected, and we believe connections matter.

In this episode we meet the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority at the Singapore Fintech Festival and talk to their Director General Jesper Berg on the role of emerging fintech solution in the overall financial system. Jesper Berg has an impressive financial services CV and has among other things earlier been working an the Danish Central Bank as well as in the European Central Bank. We talk to Jesper on how the many new tech solutions popping up are influencing overall financial stability and how the Danish Regulator combine the role of regulating with the role of facilitating innovation.

Building a startup is often compared to launching a rocket. It's a cliche for a reason. You need to assemble a skilled crew, build a machine that flies without falling apart, and then hope you can make it into outer space before the fuel runs out. Each member wears many different hats because it isn’t practical to hire a complete team of specialists right off the bat. For this episode we invited mentors in our Copenhagen fintech mentor program, Jesper Johansen, active investor & Troels Bulow, board member & senior adviser, to talk about these challenges startups encounter.

Todays episode we are focusing on the current investment landscape in the Nordics and the necessity to include underrepresented founders in investment decisions. Especially, in fintech we still experience a lack of diversity in age, ethnicity, gender and many other factors. This spans all the way from talent in the STEM fields to the workforce and essentially fintech businesses founded by diverse teams. That is why we have invited Thea Messel, who founded the Nordic early-stage investment firm focusing on the potentials and market opportunities of underrepresented founders and Charlotte Rønje who is co-founder of Jamiipay a danish fintech startup.

In the 19th episode Mads Tingsgård, Head of Fintech Intelligence at Copenhagen Fintech, invites Ian Choo, Founder at Ekofolio, to a conversation on how it is possible for fintech companies to make our earth a more livable place.  Ekofolio focuses on investments in natural assets – forestry - and with a background as adjunct professor in sustainability, Ian will take you through the opportunities that exist for entrepreneurs and businesses to build a better world through passion, treating people the right way and how to ensure that your fintech will truly matter.

In the 18th episode Thomas Krogh Jensen, CEO of Copenhagen Fintech talks to Jason Channell, Managing Director, Head of Sustainable Finance, Citi Global Insights and Karim Jabbar, Co-founder of Solstroem & Industrial PhD Fellow.  Jason was in Copenhagen for the C40 World Mayors Summit and to share his key-findings in the latest GPS Energy Darwinism report - The Electrifying Path to Net Zero Carbon. Solstroem automates the generation of micro carbon offsets (MCOs) from distributed solar installations in real-time, thus offering a fully-traceable and data-driven offsetting option to businesses and individuals. In this episode we focus on the role of technology and specifically fintech in accelerating the UN Global Sustainable Development Goals and deliver on the targets by 2030. Listen in and get inspired by Jason and Karim that work every day towards making the world more sustainable and make fintech matter. 

14 September 2019 was the final deadline for PSD2 and now what? It is a piece of regulation that affects our everyday lives, both as consumers and as businesses. But have PSD2 delivered on its promise or is it still too early to evaluate the real impact? What will be the next big thing and is Open Banking a technology play or a change of mindset for incumbent banks?  One thing is for sure, the PSD2 have caused a lot of discussion and worry, but has already given a lot to the industry and has much more to offer, changing banking (and now moving beyond banking) as we know it! Learn from two of the frontrunners in the Nordics, Michael Camphausen, Partner, Camphausen|Co Law Firm and Christian Panton, Co-founder, Nordic API Gateway.

In our 16th episode we talk to the Danish challenger bank, Lunar Way and what it is fintech aims to challenge with the established industry. Join Oliver, our Head of Startup Growth and Peter Smith, Bank Director at Lunar Way in their discussions about both the transformation on an industry, company and personal level that we’re undergoing from the old to the new.

It seems like there’s an epidemic on our hands. More and more founders and tech industry staff are struggling to deal with the pressures of running a startup, leading to self-destructive behaviour. Mental health problems permeate every industry, not just the tech industry, but the statistics seem to indicate that we have a particular problem. Together with Cecilie Willer, Business Psychologist & Coach at TODAY, we dive into what we as a community can do about it.

In our 14th episode, we dive into one of the hottest movements around: Powered by blockchain and distributed ledger technology, decentralized finance is the name of the game. But just what is a blockchain and a ledger? And how does the application of these technologies impact the world of finance and help us work against financial exclusion? This podcast episode dives into these questions and more. Join Sebastian from Copenhagen Fintech, Søren Peterfrom the Maker Foundation, and Jacob Pouncey from Saxo Bank, as they examine why fintech matters in creating a new world of finance.

In our 13th episode, we talk about the state of data ethics. In the Nordics, and in Denmark especially, a strong movement of user-centric digital trust is taking place, and the digital scene is undergoing rapid transformation. As data and insights grow, new pathways to the consumer and new potential revenue streams are opened for exploration. Join Sebastian, our Head of Alliances, Mads, our Head of Intelligence, and Lars Frelle, Director of the Confederation of Danish Industries, as we explore how digital trust can become a Nordic competitive advantage, and why fintech matters on this journey.

In our 12th episode, we talk about the value of perseverance as a founder and how to build a successful business on top of extremely difficult circumstances. Joining Oliver, our Head of Startup Growth we had the founders of Likvido and Nord Investments, Maximilian Frimmer and Anders Hartmann sharing their stories of how they dealt with bankruptcy and losing a bank partner.

In our 11th episode, we celebrate that since we first opened the doors 3 years ago, now have had more than 100 startups working and scaling as residents in the fintech lab in Copenhagen. We have invited the very first talented fintech entrepreneur who moved into the lab to talk about community, coworking, blockchain, Copenhagen and the other big issues in life.

We have made our 10th episode a bit more personal together with Jeppe Rindom, Founder and CEO of the Danish fintech startup Pleo. How do you think about strategy in building a startup? How do you design for building a rapid scaling company? What is the tipping point? When do you go from being involved in everything to being a ‘real’ CEO?

Why does fintech matter for children and for parents? How do we invest in our childrens’ future and how to raise children in an increasingly digital world? Together with the two dads, co-founders, CEOs Jacob Munk-Stander from Tobi and Soren Nielsen from Ernit we explore these questions together.

The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice. In Denmark and Copenhagen FinTech see a lot of fintech solutions using the UN Global Goals as a framework. In this episode we meet Kirsten Brosbøl, member of the Danish Parliament and Emil Fuglsang, Co-founder of the Danish Fintech startup Matter and ask some fundamental questions regarding the what, why and how.  

Human centric design is a Danish position of strength. Trust is often something we take for granted in Denmark. Maybe the two things can be an ‘unfair advantage’ for Denmark? Listen to our 7th episode where we talk with Mikal Hallstrup from Designit and Jens Kam from the fintech startup Grandhood. We discuss what does human centric design mean in fintech and why does it matter?

Copenhagen FinTech meet the world's first and only tech ambassador, Casper Klynge. The Office of the Danish Tech Ambassador has a global mandate and a physical presence across three time zones in Silicon Valley, Copenhagen and Beijing - transcending borders and regions and rethinking diplomacy. But what does that have to do with fintech and does it actually matter? That is what we explore in this 6th episode of ‘FinTech Matters?’.

Oliver Sjöstedt and Simon Schou from Copenhagen Fintech dig into why and how a global NGO is collaborating with a fintech startup together with Rasmus Jacobsen from Care Denmark and Sofie Blakstad from Hiveonline. Care and Hiveonline talk about their joint experience with their work to bring a blockchain based solution to bank the unbanked nomadic population of Niger.

Thomas Krogh visited professor Rebecca Homkes at London Business School to talk with her about her work with CEOs and executive teams of the top global companies on strategy and execution as well as hyper-growth companies on developing and executing strategies for growth, especially when facing extreme uncertainty.

In this episode you will hear Rune Mai talk about the birth of Spiir and the creation of the Nordic API Gateway. What does it mean for fintech startups and what does it mean for the financial industry?

Today we look back on Simon Schou and Thomas Krogh trip to Singapore Fintech Festival 2018 and in this episode we hear from Dorthe Vizard, Gustav Arentoft, Adam Reynolds, Sara Koslinska & Oliver Hall. What is the fintech festival all about and what is special about Singapore?

I am Naima Yasin and your host for the day and you are listening to our very first episode. I am the community manager her at Copenhagen FinTech Lab and with me today I have Thomas Krogh, CEO of Copenhagen Fintech and Oliver Sjøstedt, Head of Startup Growth. We are talking about what Fintech is, why does it matter and for who does it matter?