PCN Magazine - Volume 6, Issue 4 by PCN Magazine

Inside this issue:

The Decentralised Financial Revolution Emerging Markets dLocal Transformation with Gibson Nascimento The History of Disruption Top 8 Fintechs in AMS & TXL Your gateway to the world of fintech and payments

Volume 6, Issue 4 January 2021

The team behind the PCN Magazine: Andre Van der Westhuizen: Editor Mark Manzi: CD & Graphic Design Zsofia Bodnar: Marketing Viliana Peleva: Digital Marketing & Design Intern Mert Ali Kiraz: Media & Content Marketing Intern

With the largest network of payment/fintech industry professionals across the globe, & reaching over 150 000 people, PCN helps companies stay on the Pulse of an industry rapidly Curving and adapting to change. We’re all connected like Nodes - Leverage it.

We do Expert Staffing, Multi-media content production, Events, and Exposure! Fintech. Ecommerce. SaaS. Cyber-Security. Find us on social media

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Reach us at: marketing@teampcn.com

Cover image: Danny Lines / Yongzheng Xu PCN MagazineTM is the property of Payments & Cards Network, Keizersgracht 477, 1017 DL, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Company registration #67852815. All material contained within PCN Magazine is the property of Payments & Cards Network. All other product and service names may be trademarks of their respective companies.

PCN Magazine is created and the property of Payments & Cards Network BV. Art and photos © Payments & Cards Network, pexels.com and unsplash.com excluding advertisements, company logos & images. ©2020 Payments & Cards Network. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any kind is strictly prohibited without the express prior written consent of Payments & Cards Network.

Contents 10

06 The Financial revolution 14 PCN Webinar Success 16 Emerging markets with Meirav from dLocal 20 PCN Podcast: The round up 22 Gibson Pasquini Nascimento from Cielo 26 Insiders guide to LinkedIn 32 The Fintech Watchlist 34 Top 8 Amsterdam and Berlin Fintech 38 Industry Events 39 Hot Jobs from PCN 1

by Andries Van Der Westhuizen

Letter from the Editor: The new wave in the digital revolution spurred on by the pandemic and the evolution of currency into digital assets across classes, coupled with customercentricity, and access to real-time data are the primary value propositions driving this wave of innovation. Emerging markets illustrate technology’s disruptive capabilities unencumbered by overburdening laws and regulations from a previous age lacking transparency. This PCN magazine issue dives into this topic and delivers thought leadership, real-world cases, a history of disruption, and where we’re likely to find ourselves. Lex Sokolin thoughtfully illustrates this financial revolution’s nature toward a decentralised future from Consensys (p.6) - a company working on Central Bank Digital currencies with Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia, and Société Générale. The above reflected by the level of investment in the Fintech space throughout 2020; VC’s invested an astonishing $9.4 billion into digital banks and payment companies outperforming any other industry. Coupled with $24.28 Billion in total locked value in Defi, we’re in for one of the most exciting years in finance and digital transformation. When considering emerging markets, there is little structural reform needed to spur on digital adoption. These now outdated banking infrastructures only arrived on emerging market shores relatively recently, with most falling victim to state capture in the post-colonial era. State Capture led to slow development

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and structural reform’s hindrance, meaning the global economy and systems of financial services left most African countries behind - and as a result, these countries fell into high-levels of debt. The African continent is undoubtedly mobile-first. Innovation and disruption are requirements for advancement as opposed to developed markets mostly digitising traditional banking models; emerging markets pave the way with innovative approaches challenging the established standard. dLocal (p.16) and Cielo (p.22) are at the forefront of emerging market entry - and have delivered a tried and tested model accounting for the most challenging aspect to market entry - regulations. Cielo’s story of transformation from a POS provider to an Ecommerce giant in LATAM - with over 50% of transactions conducted on their platform and working with Facebook on the Whatsapp payment platform is a testament to emerging market agility. dLocal dives into the emerging African market and the enormous opportunities and tricky challenges faced - and how their winning approach is facing and conquering the challenges head-on. To fulfil the rapidly changing needs in the new world, financial institutions must evolve to an open architecture supporting new models and partners across different ecosystems, industries, and verticals. 2021 will showcase the rapid reform spurred on by 2020’s turmoil.

Thank you to our incredible contributors, readers, and the team at PCN.

Connecting people, at home.

As one door closes, another one opens, and so in-person attendance to seminars and conferences become impossible, PCN Webinars rise to the occasion. Whether it is in German, French, or English, we got you covered with events discussing topics ranging from the home office, over leadership issues, and to starting your own businesses. Take the opportunity to learn about many topics through insightful discussions of our many excellent panellists, wherever and whenever youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like!

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LATEST NEWS: News shaping the world of finance, technology, and the global marketplace.

Germany is set to incentivize investment Germany will introduce regulatory reforms on stock options to “incentivize startup investment in our country,” according to finance ministry official Jörg Kukies. The government is hoping to attract international VC funds with a competitive tax regime and fund laws. Hundreds of European tech entrepreneurs have been calling for pan-European reforms to update and align EU rules on staff share schemes.

India’s move to limit some digital payment players: India moved to cap the transaction market share of third-party payment companies to 30%. This move will likely stymie the growth of payments services offered by Facebook and Alphabet’s Google while boosting Reliance’s Jio Payments Bank and SoftBank-backed Paytm, which are armed with bank permits.

Standard Chartered Bank and Amazon Web Services (AWS) enter a global agreement: The five-year strategic agreement forms part of the drive towards digital transformation for Standard Chartered. “A cloud-first strategy allows us to be more agile and clientfocused” - Michael Gorriz, group chief information officer. Standard Chartered launched its nexus banking-as-a-service (BaaS) solution on AWS in March 2020.

Antgroup ordered by China to overhaul its business: With the growing influence of big tech on national and international economies, governments have been clamping down these tech behemoths. With the cited “business failings” of Ant group, Xi Jinping pulled the plug on what could have been the biggest IPO ever. The Chinese market regulator also opened an antitrust suit against the payment company Alibaba in an antitrust probe - tough times for Jack Ma and his aspirations.

The new frontier in Asian payments - Mckinsey reports “The future of Payments in Asia” Asia has outpaced all other regions in terms of payments revenue growth over the past several years. It is also the largest contributor to global payments revenue, generating over $900 billion in 2019. The role of payments in Asia’s overall banking landscape has expanded as well, representing 44% of the region’s aggregate banking revenues, compared with one-third as recently as 2007. According to McKinsey, five fundamental themes are reshaping Asia’s payments landscape: consolidation and industry structure shifts; cross-border links; contactless payments; cashless economy; and connected commerce.

N26 licenced in Brazil: The Brazillian Central Bank has granted the German fintech a banking licence to expand into the Brazillian market. The widely connected but under-banked local market is ripe with opportunity, but N26 faces a challenge with NuBank, which has a significant market share of around 25 million users.

China’s Blockchain network to integrate CBDC:

Checkout.com, EU’s most valued startup:

With a staggering $24.23 billion in total locked value in DeFi systems globally, the growing popularity and investment are irrefutable. The Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) launched by China in 2020 through public city nodes is an effort to stay ahead of the wave of innovation which could render stagnant financial institutions obsolete without digital reform. The statebacked blockchain-based service network (BSN) aims toward a Universal digital payment network, supporting CBDC’s from other countries alongside public blockchains.

The London-based fintech announced a $450m Series C round. It has seen its valuation triple since it last raised $150m in June - to a monster $15bn valuation, rendering it the fourth-largest fintech company globally. The latest round was led by Tiger Global Management, which is also an investor in Checkout. com’s digital payments rival Stripe.

C D Lex Sokolin Global Fintech Co-Head and CMO of ConsenSys Lex is a futurist and entrepreneur focused on the next generation of financial services. He is the Global Fintech CoHead and CMO at ConsenSys, a blockchain software company building the infrastructure, applications, and practices that enable a decentralized world. He focuses on strategy and product development across Fintech, Decentralized Finance and DAOs, public and private enterprise blockchain solutions, and emerging crypto asset classes.

Before Autonomous, Lex was COO at AdvisorEngine, a digital wealth management technology platform (acquired by Franklin Templeton), and CEO of NestEgg Wealth, a roboadvisor that partnered with financial advisors. Prior to NestEgg, Lex held roles in investment management and banking at Barclays, Lehman Brothers, and Deutsche Bank. He earned a JD/MBA from Columbia University and a B.A. in Economics and Law from Amherst College.

Previously, Lex was the Global Director of Fintech Strategy at Autonomous Research, an equity research firm serving institutional investors (acquired by AllianceBernstein), where he covered artificial intelligence, blockchain, neobanks, digital lenders, roboadvisors, paytech and mixed reality.

Lexâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thought leadership has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Economist, Bloomberg, FT, Reuters, American Banker, ThinkAdvisor, and Investment News, among others. He is a regular speaker at industry conferences such as Money2020, LendIt, Schwab Impact, In|Vest, T3 Enterprise Edition, and Consensus. His writing is publicly available at lex.substack.com.

ConsenSys is the leading Ethereum software company who enable developers, enterprises, and people worldwide to build next-generation applications, launch modern financial infrastructure, and access the decentralized web.

Financial Revolution spurred on by Decentralized Finance Decentralized finance has grown into one of the most active sectors of blockchain, now with over $15 billion total value locked in DeFi smart contracts. From decentralized exchanges to lending and insurance platforms, the DeFi ecosystem is flourishing and unlocking a modern financial infrastructure that is setting new standards for access, resilience, and transparency. DeFi makes it possible to reproduce the instruments and certain mechanisms of classic finance in a decentralized environment like that of Ethereum. What has emerged is a vast spectrum of activity: on one end, there are open finance platforms that empower individuals around the world to engage with new and remodeled financial systems. And on the other, decentralized finance solutions are transforming the approach of traditional institutions. We see a growing number of use cases that mainly address the custodial character of finance. There is particular interest in DeFi solutions in countries without a solid financial infrastructure. Decentralized applications, also called dApps, have emerged in recent years. Using dApps, it is possible for anyone, regardless of their economic and geographic situation, to access DeFi solutions by connecting to a compatible wallet, such as MetaMask, on their mobile phone. All in all, decentralized finance projects now range in the thousands, and we’re witnessing the emergence of a whole new, global infrastructure for financial activity.

M&A in Decentralized Finance There is a discussion of mergers and acquisitions in decentralized finance. We find the whole thing fascinating. An analysis of the issues can help us sharpen a toolkit for understanding value creation and power in a world of open source, programmable blockchains and their assets. It can help us understand why things like “number of blockchain patents” are nonsense, and therefore suggest to financial incumbents a better way to be. The last time we had a corporate development discussion about tokens was in 2018 with Messari. Ryan’s view at the time was that a number of low quality projects sold their ICO tokens and received Ether (ETH). So let’s say you sold 10 million of X, and got $10 million of USD equivalent denominated in ETH. As the market realized your project was worthless, let’s say X falls 90% in value. But the treasury still holds $10 million denominated in ETH! So the vulture fund strategy, copying a page from the book of 1980s traders and leveraged buy-out professionals, would be to buy up all the worthless X and somehow get control of the treasury. You pay $1 million USD equivalent for $10 million in treasury assets and profit.

This didn’t work for a few reasons. First, ICO tokens did not have meaningful governance rights, or any enforcement mechanisms. If you buy them all, the only thing you hold is a bunch of digital pets. Yes, you could argue “reliance” to a court and extract damages or file injunctions. But it is highly unlikely that would find suitable jurisdiction, and by the time you get it done, the house will have burned down. And second, ETH fell from over $1,000 to nearly $100. So the value of the honeypots became irrelevant. Today in 2020, we no longer have ICOs, but we do have decentralized finance. And in the last 6 months, governance tokens over decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) have become the standard playbook. Let’s unpack that. If you buy a container that gives you economic rewards based on the efforts of others, you are very likely buying a security. If that security is sold to you in a way that is not pursuant to securities laws of your resident jurisdiction, there’s a large liability on the issuer. There have been some signs from regulators, however, that a token changes nature over the course of its lifecycle. It may add securities-like features, while starting out as an empty container. It may be at first motivated by usage (i.e., like a reward) and then become a participant in cash flow. The biggest lifeline came in 2018, when William Hinman introduced a concept of “sufficient decentralization”, per below. While far from gospel, many crypto entrepreneurs now believe that turning a protocol / project into a DAO gets the project over the safe line from securities registration. Time will tell whether relying on an SEC speech is valid defense. It also helps that issuing governance tokens for a DAO creates market capitalizations and enterprise value for token holders. The main DeFi players of 2020 each have $100+ million or more in the market cap of their instantiated tokens. This has accrued from various distribution mechanisms that embedded financial assets as rewards for financial use. As an example, if you deposit your tokens for others to borrow in one venue, you get rewards at some interest rate from the borrower.

And on the other, decentralized finance solutions are transforming the approach of traditional institutions. We see a growing number of use cases that mainly address the custodial character of finance.

When a large corporate tech player decides to buy up a competitor, the process is clear and well established. To read through the obvious from the Messari data, Uniswap and Aave are at $900 million, Yearn at $800 million, Maker at $560 million, Synthetix at $530 million, Compound at $470 million, Balancer at $100 million, and Curve at $95 million. These numbers may change or go to zero. But currently, there is about $3.5 billion of enterprise value associated with the governance tokens of decentralized finance projects. Certainly there are many other projects that are key to this space. But the above are the main DeFi machines in operation. $4.5 billion is a chunk of change. Envestnet is trading at $4 billion, Jack Henry at $12 billion, Temenos at $8 billion, Broadridge at $12 billion. These are your industry comparisons. When a large corporate tech player decides to buy up a competitor, the process is clear and well established. Generally, shareholders elect the board of directors, which governs the company and appoints executive management. Shareholders also vote for large, existential transactions that impact their stock holdings. The Board applies business judgment to the corporate development path of the company, from issuing debt, to buying back shares, to investing in acquisitions. Within the company, executives focused on corporate development will hunt down targets and propose various transactions. Everyone knows what it means to maximize shareholder value, which largely boils down to maximizing EBITDA at some multiple in the market, without creating onerous debt. But what about open source financial protocols? 8

Decentralized M&A Yearn is likely the most sophisticated financial DAO in existence. Whereas Compound & Aave match margin lend/borrow demand at particular interest rates, and Uniswap & Balancer & Curve create automated market making for on-chain trading, Yearn is a blockchain-native fixed income active asset manager. For 2020 at least, Yearn is the Bill Gross of crypto, playing across trading fees, interest maximization, dividend farming, governance rewards, and various other technological innovations that lead to capital appreciation. The “funds” are called “vaults” or “pools” or “jars” and so on. They are just the equivalent of SMAs or fund interests, synthetically structured through code. The interesting thing is that the whole thing is open source, so in principle, somebody could just copy the code base. And somebody did! The fork is called Pickle Finance, and had between $100 and $400 million in assets. During the summer run-up of the DeFi markets, forks generated trading returns by simply existing. However, over the long term, it is much more difficult to retain a community and assets. It is hard to maintain a thing that works in the highly adversarial DeFi environment, where protocols are under constant attack. A recent $20 million exploit left Pickle ... in a pickle. The recent news is that Pickle is going to be “merging” with Yearn. Given that the technical architecture is quite similar, and the experience of the developers is comparable, the core part of the merger is onboarding Pickle developers to work on Yearn. This implies that the Pickle protocol converges its path and community back to Yearn, and that Pickle-specific features will be an addition to, rather than a differentiator against, Yearn. Deeper DAO related features will also be implemented based on a design from the Curve DAO. Holders can tweak the tokenomics of the machine in real time to create incentives in different dimensions (e.g., more issuance of rewards here, less here).

This merger is not about the technology. It’s about the people writing code to create the technology. And who pays them what. If the incentives from Yearn cash flows are much higher than the incentives from Pickle cash flows, a lagging protocol can’t last long in an adversarial environment. Attackers prefer to go after those who have the least defense, not those who are most capitalized. There is a fixed cost to defense, which creates competitive barriers and winner-take-all outcomes. And in a world where capital can move without friction between investment venues, a merger will also pull that community to follow you to the new protocol. Notably, the governance tokens for Yearn had limited input on this “transaction” -- in part because governance is not clearly, legally articulated, and in part because the transaction did not involve the sale and purchase of assets. The assets are open sourced, and people have the freedom and ability to switch what they decide to work on. Not only is capital movement much less restricted, but so is the stickiness of “employees”. Another announcement quickly followed. Yearn is “merging” with Cream, a fork of Compound and Balancer, making it a combination of lending markets and an automated market maker. In this case, however, it seems that Yearn is delegating to Cream several strategic product developments, like leverage and a pool-agnostic (i.e., collateral agnostic) stablecoin. In traditional finance, we would call this a cash sweep account. The developer teams, again, are merging together. We assume the benefit to Cream is in part driven the lower the costs of potential errors, in addition to higher cash flow. And another. Yearn and Akropolis. The latter had a $2 million hack earlier in the month, and going forward will play the role of institutional distributor of Yearn products, as well as be part of investment strategy formulation. The same compensatory mechanism of issuing tokens to Pickle holders (i.e., a piece of something that looks like debt) will be applied to Akropolis holders. So what do we observe? Yearn is extending not just its technology, but its economics and reputation to “bail out” multiple projects that have great teams but have all suffered in the recent past. In a world where financial instruments are manufactured by machines on open source rails, it is not the rails that are valuable. Yes, over time, the rails become more sophisticated and are stress-tested by capital and hacking. But what actually holds “value” are (1) the communities that commit assets to protocols, and choose to align economic activity with some particular brand, and (2) the entrepreneurs that have the very rare skill-set of building and securing such protocols. The community is the business asset. It generates cash flow. It improves governance. It fixes hacks. Notably, communities align to brand narratives and the celebrities and influencers that spearhead the narrative. Andre will represent Yearn, despite decentralizing maximally his project, is the face of the fund. Popular confidence in his good will and judgment is the measure of the project. Similarly, confidence in Vitalik Buterin is correlated with confidence in Ethereum. There is something deeply conservative in the realization that these futuristic finance networks rely on philosopher kings and have increasing returns to scale. But this was always the case. Humans need torch-bearers. Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and the rest. In the case of DeFi, the torch itself is of a different kind. But it burns with the same flame.

Central Banks and The Future of Digital Money The rise of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology over the last decade has brought about new possibilities in the issuance and use of money as well as exciting new forms of digital assets and markets. At the same time a rapidly evolving geopolitical, economic and social environment has created new expectations and new requirements for secure, reliable, easy-touse, globally available digital payments and means of exchange. Among the most significant innovations we are witnessing today are stablecoins, or privately issued cryptocurrencies pegged to a stable asset, which today have a market cap over $20B USD, as well as the parallel phenomenon of central bank-issued digital currencies, commonly referred to as CBDC. According to the Bank of International Settlements, over 70% of central banks are looking at issuing a digital currency on a blockchain. We think this is a development to be applauded. CBDCs can offer a range of advantages. They can play a central role in advancing the digital assets revolution in a regulated, lower-risk and – crucially – accessible way, helping make financial markets more efficient and available to all global citizens. CBDC can give the central banks more effective, future-oriented tools to allow them to implement monetary policy in more direct and innovative ways and keep pace with technological change. CBDCs could also simplify and reduce the cost of cross-border remittances, while forming the basis for more efficient, more secure interbank payments networks. We believe that Ethereum is the best-suited blockchain network for the kind of maximally secure, global-scale, interoperable settlement platforms that CBDCs require. But there are many other possibilities. Over the past year we have seen a number of announcements from central banks around the world exploring the issuance of central bank digital currencies (CBDC). Blockchain-based CBDC, which represents a new technology for the issuance of central bank money at the wholesale and retail level, offers a number of potential advantages for central banks. It could be a strong catalyst for financial services innovation by providing a viable, large-scale payments system for tokenized assets markets – offering a risk-free, widely accessible alternative to privatelyissued stablecoins, like Facebook’s Libra, which serve a similar purpose but could expose users to credit and/or liquidity risk. Widespread use of CBDC instead of private payment tokens could also help central banks retain sovereignty over monetary policy in tokenized assets markets, an important consideration should such markets come to represent significant portions of the economy. Other benefits include potentially new regulatory monitoring and enforcement tools, cheaper crossborder remittances, improvements to the interbank payments infrastructure and innovation in retail markets. CBDC could also be a superior replacement to physical cash, helping alleviate some of the risks and costs associated with banknotes. Depending on how it is designed, a CBDC could support financial inclusion by providing wide-scale access to risk-free reserves.

Blockchain-based CBDC, which represents a new technology for the issuance of central bank money... 9

ConsenSys has been on a tear recently announcing 4 different CBDC projects on Ethereum infrastructure. Let’s briefly highlight those: •• Bank of Thailand to use enterprise Ethereum for retail CBDC prototype with ConsenSys •• Australia’s central bank announces CBDC project with ConsenSys •• Societe Generale selects ConsenSys for CBDC experiments •• ConsenSys wins Hong Kong central bank digital currency project

The discussion of CBDCs is often a stark reaction to the development of Facebook’s Libra private stablecoin / USD network, and the Chinese deployment and expansion of their national digital currency. The discussion often splits into (1) wholesale CBDCs, which largely reinforce and optimize the role of banking institutions relative to the central bank’s money management authority, (2) retail CBDCs, which would bypass the banks and go directly into the wallets of consumers. The first option is about efficiency and industry cost mutualization. The second is more deeply transformative, and analogizes more closely to owning Bitcoin and using it to transact. In many of the projects above, there is a combination of a financial institution, a technology consulting firm, and a blockchain company coming together. ConsenSys brings forward enterprise Ethereum, which is a variant of the open source programmable blockchain optimized for a permissioned deployment with large transaction throughput. Unlike public Ethereum, which just launched the first phase of its scalability upgrade (Eth2), private permissioned networks scale more easily because you do not start with an open adversarial environment. Other examples of such enterprise networks would be IBM and Hyperledger Fabric, or R3 and its Corda technology, as the chassis for digital value transfer and settlement. How should we contextualize Ethereum-based CBDCs relative to Bitcoin, Visa, and PayPal? First, there is the actual network itself. Much of the current thinking is about the software protocol as the ledger. Where does the information actually live? Who hosts it? Who processes it? In the previous world, data centers and servers run by some firm (e.g., Visa or a cloud-provider like Google / AWS) hold a copy of the information and run software which performs computation about the transactions. In the current world, the blockchain is itself a set of some large number of duplicates of the data set, held by each of the network participants. In the case of programmable blockchains, those network participants are also each executing software programs, which are then synced across the entire system. Making sure this network functions and reflects the requirements of a central bank, or other constituents, is a key part of standing up a CBDC. This is, we think, what most industry participants are really thinking about. Read the whitepaper from ConsenSys to learn more.

Alternate: Fintech to DeFi The last decade has seen a Fintech boom unlike anything in the industry’s history. Financial start-ups grew from a footnote in venture capital (at around 5% of total), to the fair share of GDP at over 15%. Private capital doubled, and then doubled again. As a result, Fintech vertical champions sprouted like mushrooms across payments, banking, lending, investments, and insurance. As you well know, they are converging into the same financial super-apps that we see in the East, with competition from financial incumbents and tech companies driving pricing down 50% or more. Squint, and everyone looks the same. But nothing feels fundamentally different. Yes, we have some new brands that live on our phones. But when sliced across deposits, volume, or assets under management, the public companies still do the lion’s share of the financial work. With open banking, incumbents are likely to win even more, powering Apple’s credit card for example. The core reason for this, I think, is that Fintech has democratized access to existing financial products. It has not really changed how those products are manufactured.

Only by transforming how things are made and the value chains to deliver them can you build the Google, Netflix, Spotify, or Uber of the next generation. Blockchains are good for building financial products -- whether powering core banking, turnkey asset management, payments processing, or financial instruments themselves. They come with so many native features out of the box that the industry should love, from deep audit, to native reconciliation, to programmability and cyber-security. And yet, it’s been hard to get things really going at scale, despite the proof. Since 2015, Ethereum developers have routed payments, helped people save money, created investment vehicles, built lending and insurance machines, and still we are sceptical! At the very beginning, the starting point is for companies and operators to agree on shared data standards. For organizations that have spent centuries thinking about how to compete against each other, letting go of even back-office costs is difficult. Yet there is no competitive advantage in making industries less efficient by creating information friction – something that has become absurd in the land of data science and emerging artificial intelligence. Once industries, whether in supply chain finance, banking and payments, or capital markets, agree on shared data standards, the next step is to mutualize certain workflows that derive from the data itself. Examples include standard software procedures for negotiating legal documents and the terms of financial instruments, or reconciliation and settlement of securities trading. We have seen meaningful digital transformation benefits from these efforts, lowering operating costs, speeding up arcane human processes, and generally improving the customer experience. For this digitization, look to enterprise blockchains, like private deployments of Ethereum with built-in privacy, permissioning, and scalability. And yet, embedded industry rule-sets and shared software functions are still at the early stages of what this technology can accomplish. Once companies are sharing data and performing common workflows, there needs to be a substantive object to which the software applies. Tokenization is the next step in the DLT maturity curve. We can turn any piece of captured data into a token, secured by world-class cryptography and thereby creating a digital asset. Such digital assets can represent any number of real world financial and commercial instruments, from currencies, to securities, bonds, commodities, real estate, or physical goods. They can also be extended to more speculative units of value, like human attention, medical data, or corporate identity. In the beginning, these tokens capture a very small percentage of information about the outside world, like a hyperlink that points you to a PDF of a printed book. Over time, we see deeper functionality being embedded into these digital assets, and into the networks on which they travel. When looking at financial services for example, smart programmable financial instruments begin to emerge. Bonds will have software covenants that are triggered automatically by data events. Equities will issue their own dividends and split automatically in an investment accounts. Commodities will have digital twins and equilibrate in price. Increasingly, the software that used to effect real-world assets will begin to have a digital analog, and be part of the digital assets themselves.

As more activity from real world economies is able to shift to public blockchains, this is the seed from which the modern financial factory emerges. 11

One day, all such software may live in distributed networks, hosted and powered by the companies within particular sectors and industries. Their products will be rigorously permissioned and tracked, flowing through digital versions of today’s value chains. New types of markets and networks will emerge to enable this interconnected, global commercial web. The same underlying software rails could be used across commerce, payments, banking, lending, and insurance. Just like we use the Internet today to see our bank account web apps, trade stocks, or e-sign legal agreements, we will use blockchain-based Web 3.0 to transact, maintain, and engage with digital commerce and finance. This is called Decentralized Finance. One of the most compelling attributes of the movement is its anchoring in a community of users and investors that has self-bootstrapped a new financial system. It is unabashedly part of the Internet. Whereas Fintech is a bridge -- trying to digitize and reformat old finance into a digital one -- DeFi is a new beginning. It is made for the Internet, from the Internet, by the Internet. Its logic is open source, its history is Napster, and it spreads like a software virus.

Stop thinking about the asset, and start thinking about its gears and engines. Ethereum is where the experiment is already happening. There are 120 million unique addresses (i.e., accounts), over 3 million smart contract calls per day (i.e., a request to/from a software). Over $15 billion of capital is being used as collateral -- “locked” in the parlance of the industry -to power new financial machines. Digital currency is collateralized, invested across lending products, and then sent to multiple trading and derivative exchanges on the left. There is growth in the number of services providers, their specialization, and their users. There is also growth in the connection between these services, and the economic activity between them. As more activity from real world economies is able to shift to public blockchains, this is the seed from which the modern financial factory emerges. The stunning thing about the DeFi offerings is not just that they are targeting a large financial technology use-case. Of course they are! Human nature does not change. Rather, it is that they target these use-cases while running on a common software infrastructure, being interoperable, and open source. We are a stone’s throw away from the global financial industry running on a common software infrastructure across asset classes, being natively interoperable, and open source. Sounds good to me!

Do you want to be our podcast guest and share your fintech story to 10,000 listeners? Reach us at: marketing@teampcn.com

2020 was the year of digital events:

PCN has compiled the most popular webinars we’ve hosted, panelled, and promoted.

Card & Payments Opportunities During a Pandemic & The Lessons Learnt - FSS:

(French) La marketplace aujourd’hui et demain - PCN x Oney:

An exclusive webinar organized in collaboration with FSS Tech on Card & Payments Opportunities During a Pandemic & The Lessons Learnt. Our debate wasl focused on the evolution of cards against today’s pandemic landscape. Has innovation stopped as a result of the pandemic?

Following the success of the first two French PCN Meetups, we organized a special PCNLive webinar edition about “The marketplace of today and tomorrow” (FR) in partnership with the Oney Group. Hosted by Gregoire Toussaint - Director at Edgar, Dunn & Company, Strategy & Management Consulting Firm

We explored the impact of new form factors such as virtual cards and apple/google-pay and the opportunities, the importance of user experience, and threats brought by the need for increased monetization, with demand for improved reconciliation, funding, and streamlined supplier support.

We discussed: • • • •

The impacts of Covid-19 on the development of marketplaces in France and Europe The characteristics of payments for marketplaces B2C and B2B marketplaces: best practices Future trends in the sector

How to launch your Dutch Fintech company in the USA:

An exclusive webinar on How To Launch Your Fintech Company In The USA - Expert panel hosted by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The panel of Atlanta-based fintech leaders from the world of banking, academia, and government answer your questions on the who, why, and how of launching your fintech company in the US. Atlanta is considered “Transaction Alley”, the global HQ of payments processing. The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs is partnering with the city to encourage and facilitate Dutch fintech companies “taking the leap” and conquering the US. While the Dutch government is taking this initiative, this webinar will prove very informative for any European fintech looking to get a foothold in the USA. Hosted by Esther Smith - Sr. Economic Officer at The Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Click here and watch a

FREE WEBINAR

Open Banking: Ready for Business x Volt: Drilling into some of the most exciting breakthroughs in Open Banking over the last year, get perspective on future developments, and hear from global leaders joining us from all facets of Open Banking.

Hosted by Jordan Lawrence, CEO & Chairman, PCN. Keynote Speaker Gijs Boudewijn, Chief Payments Systems Committee, The European Banking Federation (EBF). Payments in Open Banking (Sponsor): Tom Greenwood, Founder, and CEO, VOLT Open Banking

Payment Security in APAC: 3DS for the online citizen of today:

Gain valuable insights from experts at Rapyd, Netcetera, AsiaPay, and Bank of New Zealand to find out how 3DS works for the rapidly expanding pool of online citizens and businesses within the APAC region - and beyond! Hosted by Lakshmi Rajagopalan - Director, Program Management & Delivery APAC at Rapyd

How to Hire Remotely with Confidence:

A special webinar to find out How to Hire Remotely with Confidence during the current global situation (and after)! Hosted by Mark Whitby, with special guest talks from Casey Potenzone (Nexway), Francesco Passone (Klarna), Sebastian Krahe (Wirecard), Christy Brown (Loeb.nyc), & Jordan Lawrence (PCN).

Our webinar numbers:

13 Webinars hosted

6 EU / International editions

2800 Registered people

4 USA editions

1200 Attendees

47+ countries in attendance 15

C About Meirav Adi As Vice-President of Sales at dLocal, Meirav Adi leads the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s outreach efforts, working with top-tier merchants and fintech ecosystem players in EMEA. Before joining dLocal, she served as Vice-President in sales and business development at Citi. Meirav holds an MBA in finance and a BA in economics from Ben-Gurion University (Israel). Listen to Meirav Adiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Podcast

Enormous opportunities and tricky challenges: Processing eCommerce payments in emerging markets Here at dLocal, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve known for some time that there are colossal opportunities for eCommerce merchants wanting to expand into emerging markets. The COVID-19 pandemic is ratcheting up that growth even more, especially for retailers and sellers of digital goods. European, US, and Chinese eCommerce companies are struggling to expand in their mature domestic markets. Meanwhile, the growth rates of emerging markets are noticeably higher: The economic growth of emerging markets and developing economies is at 4 - 7%, while that of advanced economies is approximately 2%.

Latin America will be the fastestgrowing retail eCommerce market this year, with an impressive growth of 36.7%. Mandated stay-at-home orders in several countries during the pandemic forced retailers to close physical stores, moving their business to digital. According to emarketer.com, Latin America will be the fastest-growing retail eCommerce market this year, with an impressive growth of 36.7%. It is the first time since 2010 that Asia-Pacific will no longer hold its historical No. 1 position.

The next big thing: Africa If you’ve been following our efforts to connect global merchants to emerging markets, then you probably know that we have a sizable footprint in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. In particular, the latter has been gaining a lot of attention lately, as more and more merchants are eyeing this mostly untapped market. For instance, Microsoft has just decided to leverage the dLocal 360-degree payment platform to increase its reach in Nigeria. Also, we see more and more alternative payment methods popping up, such as Nigeria’s Verve and Egypt’s Fawry. In short, those with a finger on the fintech and eCommerce pulse see venturing into Africa as the next big thing. It’s an insight we’ve been aware of for some time. In 2018, we launched in South Africa and then, soon after, Nigeria. Today, we also have customers doing business in Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Kenya, and Senegal — and we’re continuing to work with global online merchants and financial institutions to support them as they expand into other parts of the continent. To get an idea of just how burgeoning the African market is, look no further than mobile money. Mobile money payment deployments in Sub-Saharan Africa are increasing by nearly 40% each year. As an example, Kenya-based M-Pesa is now the world’s largest mobile money network.

Challenges ahead While it’s exciting to see such promising economic growth, merchants need to be aware of challenges when expanding their operations into emerging markets. If you think it’s a simple pivot from doing business in, say, the US and Europe to emerging markets, you’re in for a big and unpleasant surprise. There are all kinds of potential issues that lie in wait in Latin America, Africa, and Asia that don’t exist in mature economies. Examples include a lack of technology readiness, complicated regulations, and weak eCommerce infrastructures, to name just a few.

Here are a few of the most severe problems you’ll run into: Lack of infrastructure. The lack of legacy infrastructure makes the overall ecosystem, in each country, hyperdynamic, with many innovative players keep disrupting the way people shop and transact. You’d be hard-pressed to find many consumers who own an international credit card or even a bank account, but still are part of the internet economy. Most pay with cash, local credit cards, or alternative methods such as mobile money. You must know how to reach the unbanked, deploy payment methods consumers are used to, and keep up with the innovation. Confusing tax laws. Discussion of this topic is enough to make any merchant either fall asleep or start to panic. Tax laws in emerging markets are complicated, vary by country, and are often in a state of flux. Of course, this poses a severe problem for merchants, as it takes a great deal of time to learn and keep up with these laws, and most merchants lack the resources to do that. It’s why you should seriously consider consulting with an outside vendor with expertise in international commerce tax law. Fraud and cybercrimes. Global eCommerce and cybercrimes are on the rise, especially now with the pandemic in full swing. Last March, for instance, cybercriminal attacks rose by more than 667%. What can make containing fraud in emerging markets intimidating is each market and region has its particular fraud patterns, and some industries are especially prone to fraud. For example, the MEA region saw a 144% year-over-year increase in email fraud attacks on the retail sector in 2018. In LATAM, apparel, and accessories chargeback fraud cases increased by 60% in 2019. Fraud cases relating to digital goods, such as gift cards and electronics, have risen by 37% in the APAC region.

Partnering with dLocal

Why dLocal came to be

If I haven’t scared you off from processing payins and payouts in emerging markets, this is a good time to describe dLocal’s solution, because it expertly addresses these challenges. It’s why more than 450 global eCommerce retailers, SaaS companies, online travel providers, marketplaces, and financial institutions rely on dLocal to accept over 300 locally-relevant payment methods, as well as issue millions of payments to their contractors, agents, and sellers in growth markets around the world.

It’s because of the complexities I mentioned earlier that dLocal got started in 2016. We saw emerging markets’ opportunities and knew that merchants wanting to tap into them could suffer financially if they tried a do-it-yourself approach. So we set our minds to become intimately familiar with every emergingmarket country that felt “ripe” for this connection. The vision was clear from day one: We wanted to offer a pain-free, seamless, and profitable way for global merchants to receive payins and process payouts in growth regions.

What does dLocal bring to the eCommerce table? Our platform is the most effective solution to fill the need of global merchants to reach emerging markets. Our $1.2B valuation from last September not only recognised dLocal as Uruguay’s first unicorn, but it also reflected that we meet that need in a way that’s global and unabashedly robust. But what does that mean? Suppose I had to distil our value and corporate philosophy. In that case, I’d say we can connect merchants to emerging-market consumers in a manner that allows both parties to keep doing business the way they’ve been doing it. That requires dLocal to have an in-depth understanding of both the merchants’ and local consumers’ experiences and needs. In short, we see their success as being able to “see” each other while the dLocal technology is virtually invisible. Merchants enjoy higher conversions; consumers see near-zero disruption to their lifestyles.

In short, those with a finger on the fintech and eCommerce pulse see venturing into Africa as the next big thing. It’s an insight we’ve been aware of for some time.

Today, we’re working with many merchants, including Google, Uber, Spotify, and others, providing them with the tools they need to reach populations they would have found nearly impossible to reach before. And those tax headaches? dLocal has on-the-ground tax experts who ensure that merchants are operating according to local tax laws. Perhaps our most effective superpower, however, is our familiarity with consumer behaviours. We’ve already talked about how emerging-market consumers tend not to be tied to financial institutions and instead prefer local payment methods. I should add, too, that these shoppers often like paying with instalments. The Pay-Later option is increasing in popularity across emerging regions. Our platform is designed to meet these consumer needs, and merchants benefit with high conversion rates and fewer transaction failures, while at the same time responding to legal and regulatory requirements from their headquarters.

The nasty business of preventing fraud The last issue that’s critical to discuss is fraud. From day one, we’ve been vigilant about protecting user data both for payins and payouts. Our team, which has more than nine years of expertise in detecting and managing fraud in emerging markets, is continuously improving our fraud prevention module, dLocal Defense. dLocal Defense is designed to prevent fraud while minimising the impact on legitimate transactions. Our models are fed with behavioural data from hundreds of our partner merchants. Combined with the use of external tools, dLocal Defense is highly efficient in detecting and preventing fraud. For clients who require additional protection from fraud incidents, dLocal’s Chargeback Protection offers 100% coverage for all fraud-related chargebacks received in any of our operating countries. Any transactions turning into a chargeback that we fail to reject are covered in their full amount. When your company is considered a disruptor, many don’t know what to make of the evolution in a particular industry. To those of us at dLocal, however, this change is necessary and by design. We’re excited to offer tools that can open new areas of opportunity for eCommerce merchants worldwide.

Most pay with cash, local credit cards, or alternative methods such as mobile money. You must know how to reach the unbanked, deploy payment methods consumers are used to, and keep up with the innovation.

By Meirav Adi, VP of Sales for dLocal

About dLocal: dLocal is the world’s leading payments-processing company that allows global merchants to reach consumers in emerging markets. Using the dLocal platform, our partners process payins and payouts using local methods — all from within a single API — as well as increase conversion rates and reduce transaction failures. dlocal.com

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Podcasts are hosted by Lewis Michael Howard, Rogier Rouppe van der Voort and Fabien Le Pichon with a range of special guests.

PCN Podcast: The round up PCN hosts the In Check with Fintech podcast series. Here are a few of the most popular shows we had last year hosted by PCN’s very own Lewis Michael Howard and Rogier Rouppe van der Voort.

Interview with Nico Strauss, Tribe Leader B2B Services at Rabobank, Part 1 & 2

Interview with Ian Johnson, Head of Europe at Marqeta

In this two-part series, we sat down with Nico Strauss from Rabobank to discuss Banking as a Service (BaaS), payments, and identity. Part 1 covered Rabobank’s take on BaaS, the opportunities afforded, and the impact it can have on our society on a broader consideration.

This week’s guest was Ian Johnson, Head of Europe at Marqeta since 2018. We discussed Marqeta’s rocket growth in Europe, some key partnership success stories in the Czech Republic and Switzerland, what makes Ian the perfect candidate for running the European operation, the latest mega funding round, and more!

Part 2 we dove into payments and identity. These mature markets are still seeing immense growth and potential.

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Interview with Michael Mueller, CEO at Form3

Interview with Daniel Doderlein, CEO of Auka/Settle

This week we had Michael Mueller, Chief Executive Officer at Form3 to share his extensive experience, knowledge, and insights. Michael set up Form3 after spending more than 25 years in various executive management positions at Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays. He was previously Global Head of Cash Management and a Member of the Corporate Banking Executive at Barclays. Topics covered include; Disrupting the payments ecosystem, why NOW is the time to move critical payments infrastructure from the complex, costly on-premise systems in the back-office to a Payments -as-a-Service model in the cloud, and Legacy infrastructure creaking at the seams.

This instalment of In Check with Fintech, our host Lewis is in conversation with Daniel Döderlein, Norwegian fintech pioneer, European Fintech influencer, Founder and CEO of Auka. He was the first to develop mobile payments technology in Scandinavia, the first to launch a mobile payment service in Norway (mCASH) and create and run a regulated financial services platform on a public cloud. Listen in on their discussion about his background, the Scandinavian payments markets, and empower new businesses.

Click to play

Click to play 21

Paulo Caffarelli, CEO of Cielo, believes that the pandemic has accelerated the digitalization of payment methods

Open innovation with Cielo: A story of transformation Open Banking, innovation and adversity

Digital glue

When the EU’s 2007 Payment Services Directive (PSD) called for a single payment market with more innovation and security, it heralded the start of a new beginning for businesses in the electronic payments sector.

So what is an API? It’s the digital glue that connects different systems, enabling businesses to: better connect with partner clients and the whole ecosystem, reach new channels, monetize data and services, provide customers with digital and omnichannel experiences, develop platforms for partners, boost innovation and create viable products that reach the market quickly, enhancing the customer experience.

However, it wasn’t until 2018 when the real catalyst for change - PSD2 legislation calling for a new framework for payment and accounting services – bared its teeth, prioritising data sharing, enabling third-parties to access account information. This coupled with diktats from the European Banking Authority for businesses to offer online payment services and tighten their security protocols, prompted many financial services providers to rethink their business models. The new Open Banking (OB) environment was to transform the way people use and move money, putting businesses under pressure to develop new products, consider new ways to engage with customers and reach new revenue streams. And as people began to share information about themselves, they wanted access to more value-added and affordable services. The goal of OB is to prompt innovation, increase competitiveness and help businesses/consumers better understand and utilise their finances. Central to this is technology and particularly the use of an Application Programming Interface (API), which in this new ‘open’ world serves to integrate the whole value chain, putting users ahead of the pack. 22

An API moves a business from single/multi-channel customer communications (company, branch, web and app-based) to multi-experience ecosystems (IoT, virtual reality, thirdparty online portals/marketplaces). It also ensures firms meet security, performance, governance and access-control guidelines, protecting customer data and their technology. Businesses that use APIs to add value to their business, aligning them to strategic goals and objectives, can become market-leaders. This is clearly demonstrated by Brazil’s electronic payment sector leader, Cielo, who in light of the new Open Banking environment, changed its business model and transformed itself from a simple Point Of Sale (POS) payment provider to a widely-recognised tech facilitator and innovator.

Key focus Areas of focus centred upon: customer acquisition and enhancing customer satisfaction as soon as a relationship is entered into; investing in the customer experience, developing digital channels (while acknowledging the importance of the physical retail environment) and separating commercial channels into in-house, third-party and partnership arrangements. Introducing value-added business services to complement existing solutions and add new revenue sources, was an equal priority.

Merchant and consumer carry out NFC transaction on Cielo machine. Contactless solutions had a significant increase in 2020

The Cielo story Cielo launched in 1995 as Visanet, a brand created by a number of Brazilian banks tired of using separate cards, merchants, data capture processes and marketing strategies for their network of 100,000 retail partners. Nine years later Visanet had 500,000 customers and by 2007, one million POS machines were in operation. Visanet rebranded Cielo in 2009 and in the same year, 99% of Brazil’s territories could access its services. Cielo closed 2019 with 1.6million customers (from microentrepreneurs to large corporations), having captured more than 7 billion transactions and R$660 billion in financial volume on its platforms. The name change in 2009 heralded the start of an open innovation journey that transformed Cielo to the technology facilitator it is today, offering an unrivalled range of customer solutions. Keen to lose its image as purely a POS provider, Cielo changed its business model and restructured the architecture supporting its online solutions. This included programming languages, adopting microservices and APIs, cloud-data processing, using different big data providers, rolling out developer apps and ensuring its teams could work within a more agile environment. Since 2014, there have been around 300 entrants in the market and Cielo realised in order to be ahead of the pack, it needed to reinvent itself and expand its portfolio and business reach, particularly into the small business segment. Its goal was to develop a business platform that enhanced the digital end-to-end customer experience and supported informed decision-making using analytics and big data. This in turn would allow customers to predict sales figures and trends, enabling retailers to make informed decisions and government agencies to develop economic policies. As consumer demands and technological innovations expanded, so too did Cielo’s range of new models and machine concepts. Portable machines with QR code reading and NFC technology, plus intelligent terminals, became the norm. Cielo also provided white label technology for brands with digital wallets, from Bitz to Bradesco, and new payment and transfer solutions, including the soon-to-launch WhatsApp payment tool. Cielo views digital wallets as an initiative to reinforce its value proposition. And while there’s a high customer acquisition cost, this is offset by the value gained from the customer engagement and relationship potential. Bitz for example, targets around a third of the population without a bank account, providing a new digital way to store and transfer money and make payments and online purchases.

Cielo’s online solutions now include: •• Superlink – a value-added service for people selling goods without a website. In addition, by partnering with a logistics company, Cielo can deliver customers’ goods within 24 hours •• Checkout Cielo – for those wanting to add a payment page to their website •• Cielo e-commerce API – for websites/apps with transaction analysis, support features and data intelligence •• Promo – systems to create events, gifts, discounts and loyalty programmes •• Mobile – recharge payment facilities •• Currency converter •• Cielo Management – an online sales app with predictive sales and receipt tracking functions •• Cielo Pay – a digital wallet app focused on a ‘long tail’ audience which can do everything in a single application, including issuing debit cards (Cielo is authorised by Brazils’ regulator to provide credit) •• Lighthouse – throws light on what’s happening within the users’ peer group and gives insights into customers’ income profiles, purchasing behaviour and sales patterns. Data intelligence is supported with e-newsletters •• Cielo store – a series of personalised apps offering: digital web tools (integrating sales &management, inventory control, receipt printing, product registration and reports), sector specific support, PD Vend (complete management tracking system), POS control tools, Finder (tracking Cielo POS equipment) and media & sales support.

As consumer demands and technological innovations expanded, so too did Cielo’s range of new models and machine concepts.

The open innovation journey

Pandemic pressure

Cielo’s chameleon-like ability to reinvent itself can be attributed to an open innovation strategy and the work of its mergers/ acquisition team to identify new opportunities. Included within this is a ‘garage’ programme with three pillars:

While Cielo could never have predicted the arrival of Covid-19, its investment in technology and innovation left it well-placed to cope with the inevitable increase in online sales. As the pandemic took hold and people moved from physical to online shopping, Cielo reported:

•• Innovation Labs – developing proof of concept, testing hypotheses with new technologies and implementing scalable solutions for customers •• Open innovation – developing added-value services for start-up customers and providing a mentoring service (which recently had more than 140 registrations from Brazil, Portugal and Costa Rica). Senior management teams mentor start-ups, helping with scalability and bringing products to market faster, and they host hackathons and developer meetings •• Internal innovation – qualifying the technology content. Cielo’s president, Paulo Caffarelli comments: “Open Innovation is gaining momentum in large corporations and Cielo is no different. This advance is very much related to technology and agility in integrating start-ups within companies. In recent years, the OI concept has permeated throughout Cielo and we expect our start-up partnerships to grow. OI is an important tool that makes ideas viable, enables us to reach new markets, expands our models of operation and strengthens our portfolio.”

•• A 45% increase in e-commerce revenue •• A 1000% increase in QR code payments from customers scanning the Cielo Pay app (between March and August 2020, 52 million transactions were recorded) •• A 300% increase in demand for Superlink. There was also increased support for under-privileged people – by working in partnership with Brazil’s financial support agency and providing a tech stack to support QR codes, Cielo’s technology enabled people to make multiple transactions without having to go to the bank during the Covid period. This included accessing digital wallets, such as Pic Pay and Ame, making direct purchases, without having to make withdrawals, and transferring money into accounts. Between May and November, some 4.5million transactions per month were recorded. Having demonstrated it can cope with the pandemic pressure, offering solutions that evolved in line with customer behaviour and needs, Cielo’s journey is set to continue.

Developer portal

Future innovation

In recognition APIs are the tech tool to share digital products with partners and customers, Cielo started using external REST APIs at the end of 2015. Now an integral part of its business strategy, Cielo has a developer portal with over 15,000 external developers using its APIs to integrate their apps and products. And with over 60 APIs in production, out of these, 10 are openly documented in Cielo’s open portal. They mainly include:

Cielo has been chosen by Facebook to develop technology for a WhatsApp payment platform. Recognised as a market leader for innovation and market knowledge, WhatsApp Pay is set to trial in Brazil in 2021. There’s an Acceleration programme where six start-ups will work within Cielo’s business to support its growth and the firm is set to introduce a digital currency, whitelabel platforms for digital accounts and wallets, new credit products, more value-added services and innovation events for employees and the wider market.

•• E-Commerce API •• QRCode Payments API •• Omni channel Payments API •• Promotions platform API •• LIO Smart Terminal APIs (integrated to our LIO platform Application Store) •• Dealers partners API •• Statements Onboard API.

Paulo Caffarelli continues: “The digital transformation in Brazil will come in different ways and at varying speed, but what is clear is that we’re operating in an environment where the machinery itself is less important; top priority is how the consumer will make the payment. “Today we work across all sectors and with all audiences, and for each we have customised our products and services. We’ve grown our medium and small retailer base, which was our intention, and are well-placed to compete with other firms.” Thousands of Cielo’s customers were forced to join the online retail world or increase their presence as a way to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and as a result, the business reports a 27% growth, over nine months of the pandemic, in online sales and contactless transactions.

Cielo has been chosen by Facebook to develop technology for a WhatsApp payment platform. 24

Sensedia has offices in the UK, Brazil and Peru and is recognised by Gartner in its Magic Quadrant as ‘visionary’ and by Forrester Wave as a ‘strong performer’. sensedia.com

Central to Cielo’s success is its relationship with API specialist, Sensedia. The firm has extensive experience in helping financial services providers develop and implement online solutions that enable them to compete in an Open Banking environment. Cielo started working with Sensedia in 2012, supporting its legacy systems. By 2014, Cielo moved to an API Management platform and since then Sensedia has been at the core of its technology strategy.

Today Sensedia manages and runs: •• Cielo’s SaaS API Management platform •• The developer experience – via a dedicated team supporting external developers •• An API monitoring service •• API exposure and microservices development consultancy services.

Cielo stats

Increase in SME income contribution

•• 6.9 billion transactions – around 15% of Brazilian householders – captured every year

•• Q419 - 33.1%

•• Accounts for 9% of Brazil’s GDP

•• Q220 - 35.7%

•• Covers 99% of Brazil’s territories •• 100% availability •• Technical capacity to support 14,000 sales per second •• 100% of sales monitored 24/7

•• Q120 - 34.1% •• Q320 - 36.7%

Cielo API use

•• Around 50% of Brazil’s online businesses use a Cielo e-commerce solution

•• 15,000 registered external developers

•• Has capacity to support 8 x the volume of Brazilian e-commerce transactions

•• 10 freely-documented in open portal

•• Uses AI system with machine learning and best anti-fraud tool in the market

•• 60 APIs in production •• 300 partners using APIs

An Insider’s Guide Image by Brian McGowan

An Insider’s Guide to Nailing Your LinkedIn Profile LinkedIn is, without a doubt, the most effective platform for professional branding. For recruiters, the platform enables head-hunting the very best talent. For candidates, it allows you to market your skills and interests to a professional network, all while giving you access to a range of opportunities and exposure. Here we share some pro and insider tips when building your LinkedIn profile.

How important is LinkedIn to the job search? Love it or hate it, LinkedIn is the best tool out there to help you find a new job. Yes, job boards are still heavily used by recruiters and companies alike, but LinkedIn enables you to advertise yourself far better than by merely submitting a CV.

Here are some of the most significant advantages of a good LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn allows you to express yourself professionally and uniquely, enabling you to stand out from the crowd of similarly skilled job hunting rivals. You can demonstrate y our personality, your enthusiasm, your pragmatism, and even your sense of humour with LinkedIn. Trying this approach in a CV may not be beneficial depending on the industry you’re in! We’ve come across a multitude of quotes in job title sections of Linkedin profiles. While these showcase personality and aspirations - be aware of the industry you’re in and what level of professionalism you’d need to display. 26

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value” – Albert Einstein – 1320 profiles.

“Do or do not. There is no try” Yoda - 1368 profiles.

This one is a nailbiter. Yoda’s passionate speech, addressing a doubtful Luke Skywalker, inspired a mere 48 people more than Albert Einstein’s wisdom. You might think that Star Wars quotes are particularly popular among the IT crowd, many of whom were around in 1980 to witness this moment live, in the movies – and you’d be right!

Here’s what most of the recruiters are paying attention to: Your attention to detail when describing yourself is what is paid attention to most on your profile. Spelling mstakes on a profile/CV stand out like a broken pixel on a TV and don’t give assurances you’re not going to make these mistakes in your work. Ensuring you’re accurate with your spelling and grammar is fundamental when putting yourself out there on the job market. It’s also important to nail that summary section. Believe it or not, bullet points are beneficial. Some of the most useful summaries are those which include a short introduction in the first person. Around five lines are enough, which notes your primary experience, what you’re most skilled at and enjoy most, and what your current role entails. Don’t be afraid to mention tech here too. Below the summary, you should bullet point list your primary skills in descending order. Recruiters head-hunt talent using keywords, so make sure to highlight keywords that accurately demonstrate your core values and skill-set.

Presenting your job history concisely & effectively. The most effective way of doing this is to chronologically list your job history and your current/most recent role at the top. Most companies don’t care what you were doing 20 years ago, especially if it was an unrelated role to what you would be doing for them. Within this list, the most effective way of demonstrating that you could be a potential candidate is to give an overview of what you’re doing within that role. A short bullet point list of the tech/duties involved, then finish it off with a couple of lines about your achievements - the best way of piquing interest. Be sure to have consistency between your LI profile and your CV.

Posting content & what not to do Candidates don’t need to worry about doing lots of posting on LinkedIn. If it’s a requirement of your day to day job, i.e. you’re a marketer or spokesperson for your company you should be mindful of that. If so, post relevant content, not quizzes about what type of bread you are, your personality, or your daily routine. No one goes on LinkedIn to find out what time you usually wake up.

“Work hard, play hard” - Unknown – 12.909 profiles. Did you expect this one? This phrase indeed leaves room for interpretation. Does it mean that after working hard, you enjoy a lavish lifestyle? Does it mean that you also tend to be especially attracted to leisure when you believe in hard work as a recent study suggests? Or are some people who use this phrase inspired by Wiz Khalifa’s and Dj Tiesto’s lyrics? In absolute numbers, Amazon employs the most people with this quote. But while Amazon is simply a gigantic company, another company called “Rock Central” employs a whopping 22 people with this quote on their profile. That is nearly 7% of their staff! Can you imagine that work environment? Neither can we.

Pro Tip! If you’re a .NET Developer, for example, it would be welcome to post material that your community would find useful, articles discussing best practice or upcoming version releases and so on. A content strategy makes you stand out, shows real enthusiasm when interviewing for your next position, and shows conceptual aptitude for your new job.

The best way to make that headline stand out? Emojis! No, obviously joking. Whilst putting emojis in a headline is different from what most people do, it makes one stand out for the wrong reasons. Your headline should be short, accurate and truthful. You’ll see many people on LinkedIn proclaiming that they’re Entrepreneurs or Gurus or the Mandalorians of their industry. Only those people believe that, so if you want to be taken seriously, be honest. You’re not going to get hired because you’ve invented a snazzy title for yourself.

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do” – Steve Jobs - 4.909 profiles.

Updating your LinkedIn profile for 2021: 3 key takeaways •

Don’t make your LI profile a carbon copy of your CV. LinkedIn is an online platform for professionals to share their experiences and get noticed for their work. If it’s a copy of your CV, you’re missing the point of LinkedIn. If a CV is a picture, think of LinkedIn as a video.

•

Be honest about who you are and what you do. Don’t create job titles or positions which you think are niche or cool. LinkedIn is far more transparent and is not social media. If someone reads your fictional job title and still wonders what you do, you’re missing the point of LinkedIn.

•

Try not to overdo the emojis; you’re an adult. No one likes to see a profile full of the eggplant emoji unless you sell eggplants for a living. And even then, what are you doing on LinkedIn? Also, a good and sensible recent photo helps. Remember why Kennedy beat Nixon; that reason is still a subliminally present factor.

We agree with Steve. You need to love what you do to do great work. You need to work for it - and likely a lot. But as Marc Anthony and many others already knew: “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life” (83 profiles). A quick reminder that Marc was married with J.Lo for ten years.

A Brief History of Disruption:

Through the Eyes of a Blockchain Startup

About Aikon: We believe in the decentralised future. A world where everything will be digitised - and tokenised. Where every asset and service can be managed more safely, easily, and without middlemen.

“Will blockchain disrupt my industry?” is one of the most asked questions since the technology’s inception in 2008. And rightfully so. With transparency and increased security being at the core of the blockchain concept, solving many of the current issues for corporations and individuals alike, blockchain seems to be positioned correctly for triggering fundamental changes all around. The core blockchain concept of a decentralised network provides increased transaction transparency and security than any existing information system. Hence, this technology offers answers to many of the contemporary issues corporations and individuals both face at the moment. In this sense, blockchain seems to be perfectly positioned for triggering fundamental changes all around. However, to fully understand the term disruption and distinguish it from buzzwords companies use to stand out, it’s essential to look at some of the most famous disruptive innovation examples and understand how people chasing dreams took their respective industries by storm.

Nikola Tesla: Alternating Current (AC)

Shigeru Miyamoto: Wii

At the sunset of the 19th century, electric companies have been aggressively competing in a promising new industry that was drawing much capital. It inevitably led to what is now known as the war of the currents — a battle between two high-profile figures of the time, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison and their inventions — high voltage alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) systems, respectively.

During the 1980s, Nintendo became a household name. Still, the truly disruptive innovation by one of the most famous people in tech came two decades later with the introduction of an entirely new way of playing video games.

One of Nikola Tesla’s inventions, AC, was first deemed too dangerous for everyday use, especially after being promoted as such by the competition. However, the advantages of long-distance, high-voltage current transmission and low-cost maintenance soon gained traction as electricity was slowly entering homes at large. Moreover, it opened the possibility of achieving more significant scaling of economies and boosting industrial development further and faster than anyone anticipated at that time.

Alexander Graham Bell: Telephone Although a constant in our lives today, when it first appeared, the telephone represented groundbreaking technology — a means of transmitting information vocally across great distances in a quick manner. It allowed for efficient communication between towns, countries, and finally continents which translated into social decentralisation, more flexible work arrangements, aid to first responders, and more. The change in people’s everyday habits was enormous, but it also created opportunities for a completely new industry to be born and grown around Bell’s invention.

Miyamoto made video games much easier to control via hand gestures - an idea that practically rebooted the videogame industry and made Nintendo’s competitors follow its lead in future developments. It also created a fantastic opportunity for video games to remain the favourite pastime by creating new player experiences. Even though the future improvements surpassed it, Shigeru Miyamoto’s inventions made a permanent mark on a generation and created a demand for decades to come.

Marc Randolf: Netflix With the idea of making renting movies easier, Marc Randolf and Reed Hastings started a movie rental company in 1997. The concept was simple - order movies online, get them in the mail, return them the same way when done. Even then, it was a new take on video rental stores and an especially convenient option for those who didn’t have one nearby. However, the two have gotten their names on the list of innovators with the idea of turning Netflix into a video content streaming platform. It seemed so simple, yet so ridiculous — why would movie studios even want to get in on that? Would users pay to watch movies and TV shows in an entirely new way? As it turned out, yes, users saw the value and started flocking to subscribe to the service.

Although it has changed and significantly improved over the century and a half, the telephone’s influence has been as disruptive to people’s everyday lives then as blockchain commercialisation is today.

The level of disruption Netflix has initiated in the rental movie industry is seen because it has reduced its fiercest competitor Blockbuster to one final store out of 9,000. Netflix forever changed how we accessed video content and became a need for numerous movie buffs out there.

Steve Jobs: Macintosh, iPod, iPad, iPhone

So What Does Disruption Mean?

In more recent history, one of the legendary inventor figures certainly has been Steve Jobs. Jobs and his business partner Steve Wozniak made complex computer technology more user-friendly and comprehensible with a long list of devices that revolutionised the computer and mobile communications industry.

Based on the industry disruption examples, an idea at the bottom of the market is undervalued and with a low-class reputation — but with enough advantages over well-established products or services to become more appealing to the same consumer to displace them altogether.

It also popularised the use of technology outside of strictly scientific or business-related environments. For instance, one of Steve Jobs’s inventions — the iPod, with its small dimensions, made music more available to people on the go. And while it may not sound like such a disruptive invention, music lovers who were once towing cassette players or confined to enjoying their favourite tunes in their homes, now had practically unlimited possibilities - and to them, that was positively disruptive.

These are precisely the characteristics that blockchain can contribute to various industries and thus drastically change their landscapes and force companies to adapt quickly or perish.

Not to mention the increased reach music now possessed, which ultimately upturned the entire industry.

It seemed so simple, yet so ridiculous — why would movie studios even want to get in on that?

For instance, companies like Shutterstock can reduce tax liability by implementing smart contracts and reducing the fees associated with international financial transactions.

Industries Blockchain Will Disrupt There have been significant changes in several industries already, and more are expected to take place. Here are the most affected sectors by blockchain-brought innovations: •• Financial services: This sector provides some of the most visible disruptive innovation examples. Blockchainbased systems have already improved the speed and cost of financial transactions while offering a more transparent and secure accounting form. Distributed architecture and decentralisation concepts continue to modernise conventional financial services, with the idea of “decentralised finance” (Defi) taking shape through directly connected participants as equals.

Without the need for intermediaries or centralised institutions, people are engaging in P2P lending and borrowing with complete control over assets via non-custodial wallets. Users maintain control over their rights to assets and identity through its safekeeping. Blockchain changing all aspects of existing financial services is one of the most notable avenues of disruption for blockchain. Most significant financial service disruption from blockchain has already begun with the DeFi (Decentralized Finance) movement. The decentralised financial system allows all actors to conduct transactions wholly transparent and accessible and within fair governance standards. •• Healthcare: Turning back to more providing more reliable and personalised service are the primary healthcare systems. Patients feel more comfortable managing and treating health issues from their homes with technology, leading to remote monitoring and self-checkup technologies (e.g. smartwatch, smart band). Blockchain provides the opportunity for patients to share anonymised data while still protecting their privacy.

•• Logistics: To stop wasting resources and improve process efficiency, logistics companies are rapidly turning to blockchain technology for sharing information among a whole ecosystem of partners, while still preserving data privacy. •• Energy trading and renewables: Blockchain commercialisation is slowly paving the way for smart contract-based local renewable energy markets to trade energy with significant financial benefits. •• Adtech and privacy: Using the blockchain network for consumer information, the opt-in/out data can be shared between publishers and advertisers via a standardised consent management solution. Utilising consent provenance this way also aids companies to comply with various privacy legislations.

Conclusion Given the speed with which blockchain technology is developing and the variety of uses it brings, it’s inevitable that it touches all aspects of business development. Bearing this in mind, it makes sense for your company to proactively take on the role of disruptor and make changes on your terms.

Blockchain will disrupt every industry — will your company be ready?

aikon.com 30

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The Fintech Watchlist: Companies making waves in our industry with unique and disruptive solutions.

Launched a freemium open-banking network challenging the expensive established. The Latvian fintech is following through with the democratisation of banking information, with further value-adding insights available for a price. — nordigen.com

An Israeli blockchain security platform serving financial organisations raised a series B of $30 million, totalling $46 million raised in total. Fireblocks has secured the transfer of over $150 billion in digital assets. — fireblocks.com

A platform for scaling machine learning AI platforms, initially for autonomous vehicles, has now expanded into government and eCommerce. The new funding raise of $155 million landing the company at a monster valuation of $3.5 billion.

The Amsterdam-based startup is delivering an advanced AI-driven patented super brain fraud-fighting innovation. The network effects and future proof system scales growing business - not costs. —

— scale.com

www.fraudio.com

Neos The London-based Insurtech delivers smart home insurance with leak and home monitoring technology. Neos ushers in a new age of digital disruption with prevention at its core. — neos.co.uk

African cross-border transfer FinTech startup has raised $30M in Series B led by Ribbit Capital with the participation of Amazon’s own Jeff Bezos. — chippercash.com

Grab leads the Series B round of up to US$100m into Indonesian state-backed e-wallet. The Sharia specific ecosystem covers 88 municipalities and 383 districts throughout Indonesia. LinkAja is the only e-money with a Shariah feature certified by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI). — linkaja.id

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Top 8 Amsterdam and Berlin Fintechs to watch in 2021 Amsterdam

Amsterdam Amsterdam, Netherlandsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; capital, known for its artistic heritage, elaborate canal system and narrow houses with gabled facades. Now the home to many tech giants and media platforms, Amsterdam is a place for opportunity.

CEO and founder Chris Zadeh launched Ohpen in 2009 with a simple idea: developing the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first cloud-based core banking engine. After initially struggling to find clients, the investment company Robeco took the chance and bought their product. Since then, Ohpen has established itself as a market leader; with more than 150 employees and offices in three European countries, it is only continuing to expand. Their belief in a single, centralised system across countries is knitted into the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s DNA and has brought on rapid growth over the last 10 years. ohpen.com 34

Backed by ING, PayVision and VivaWallet, this Amsterdam Startup is all about fighting payment fraud. Accomplished using innovative technologies, such as AI, machine learning, and multidataset network effects - there is no barrier for entry; the service is provided on a pay-per-use basis. Founded in 2019 by CEO Joao Moura, the future of Fraudio looks bright; their products have already proven to make 40% fewer false positives than one of the top 3 market leaders serving Dutch acquirers. fraudio.com

Mollie made headlines as fintech’s latest unicorn in 2020, having crossed the $1 Billion threshold with their Series B funding round that brought them an additional 90 Million $. With more than a 100.000 customers across Europe and four additional branches outside of Amsterdam, Mollie is arguably the largest fintech company coming out of the Venice of the North. With CEO Adriaan Mol’s leadership, the payments pioneer employs an international team of more than 300 employees. Together, they work on revolutionising payment integration for businesses, supporting all major markets and utilising a wide variety of payment methods ranging from traditional credit card payments to new fintech technologies such as PayPal or Klarna. mollie.com

Since 2006 Adyen, a payments provider for businesses allows the acceptance of point-of-sale, mobile payments, and e-commerce transactions has been steadily growing through the leadership of founders Pieter van der Does and Arnout Schuijff, CEO and CTO. Having become a fintech unicorn in 2015 and a part of Forbes’ Cloud 100 list in 2016 and 2017, Adyen is perhaps one of the most household names on this list. Their offices span across 22 countries, which are the workplace of more than 1000 international employees. The online payment platform links to various payment methods across the world, including online banking methods and cash-based methods alike. adyen.com

With a recent raise of €50 million through debt financing, Factris becomes a prominent member of the Amsterdam fintech scene after being founded in 2017 by Brice Laurent and Marcel Meijer. The company specialises, among others, in financing SMEs and invoicing. But central to their repertoire is the process of factoring; small businesses can apply for their unpaid invoices to settle immediately to gain capital for growth. Their philosophy of saying ‘yes’ accompanies their mission to embrace new businesses and help them grow. factris.com

Offering a single-destination finance app to make participation in the financial market easier, accessible, and commission-free to everyone. CEO Nick Bortot launched the project in 2014, and the company has since amassed a user base of nearly 2.5 million across 9 European countries. If you’d like to hear more about BUX and Nick Bortot’s vision check out this episode of ‘In Check with Fintech’ with one of our stellar hosts Rogier Van Der Voort. getbux.com

The concept of Rabobank-backed fintech Peaks could not possibly be any more grounded in Dutch culture. The name derives from the Old Dutch’ piekenpijp’ (Peaks pipe), a tube designed to collect coins and make saving spare change easier which is precisely what the Peaks application accomplishes. It allows easy saving and investing through an accessible and user-friendly interface. Founded in 2016 the app is currently only accessible in the Netherlands, though it is quickly growing, with access in the rest of Europe being the next goal.

Founded in 2017 by Jeroen Bosch van Rosenthal and Jeroen Mulder, CreditClick’s mission is to bring an easy payment solution facilitating immediate, real-time online credit for consumers by credit suppliers. With no additional expense to the merchant or the consumer, and instant availability, this now Europe-wide application can be used immediately through a one-time registration, after which no transaction costs apply. creditclick.com

peaks.com 35

Berlin Berlin’s young, enthusiastic and creative energy and business mindset is nearly unmatched in mainland Europe. Comparisons to the US’ Silicon Valley are becoming increasingly justified: with more than 2.500 active startups, Berlin is attracting more young minds than any other city in the EU. Berlin’s distinct lack of significant banking presences like you find in London creates an atmosphere accommodating for fintech specifically.

With the rapid speed of digitisation, N26 sets the scene for the next step in the banking world by establishing a fully digital bank; Since 2013, the Berlin-based company has had a globalised worldview serving the purpose of transforming the financial landscape from an outdated industry into one that uses the latest technology to offer an optimised customer experience. With Co-Founders Valentin Stalf (CEO) and Maximilian Tayenthal (CFO) leadership, they have expanded their business across multiple continents and 25 markets with more than 1,500 employees, crossing the 5 million customer mark earlier this year. n26.com

Fueled by frustration in a company story reminiscent of Ferrucio Lamborghini’s infamous dissatisfaction with Ferraris, the six founders of Penta collectively decided that the banking landscape before 2017 was not accommodating enough for small businesses. Discontent with their efficiency, speed and support, they decided it was time to build a bank providing better solutions for SMEs. Since December 2017 it has been available in Germany, but Penta isn’t stopping there: expansion into more European countries will follow soon. Fun fact: Penta is powered by one of our earlier entries: SolarisBank. One of the founders of SolarisBank, Marko Wenthin, also happened to be Penta’s CEO at one point. getpenta.com

This Berlin fintech, led by CEO Dr Roland Folz, is not your everyday bank. Solarisbank offers Banking as a Service (BaaS), a business model providing businesses outside of banking and finance sectors with solutions for financial services that would usually take extensive banking licenses. Solarisbank removes this barrier to enable their financial services to move into new industries and contexts. The solution allows the empowerment of businesses to launch their own banking products. With the fintech’s latest funding round in Summer 2020, bringing in 60 million EUR, the future of Solarisbank looks exciting.

Berlin

solarisbank.com

The B2B-Payments specialist Billie is all about innovation: the company’s philosophy dictates that technology must be used to lift the weight of repetitive and unnecessarily frustrating tasks to enable humanity to innovate and open up new opportunities. For this, Billie offers seamless business transactions through an improved workflow, secured liquidity and equal access to large and small businesses alike. Thus, the often challenging chore of B2B-payments is updated to fit the digital age’s speed and ease. The buyer is also free to choose conditions of their preference, while the seller does not have to wait for payment. The company was founded in 2016 by Aiga Senftleben, Dr Matthias Knecht, and Dr Christian Grobe. billie.io

The Berlin fintech Raisin is not named after dried up grapes, but conveys a more literal meaning in its title: the company works on raisin’ interest rates across Europe. From the comfort of your home, this app provides a service allowing customers to safely deposit up to 100.000€ in any of their 97 partner banks. Being active since 2014 the online banking platform now stretches across more than 30 countries with the leadership of founders Dr Tamaz Georgadze (CEO), Dr Frank Freund (CFO), and Michael Stephan (COO). raisin.com

1027. That is how many Euros the average employed individual in Germany overpays their taxes each year. 1027€ that can be regained through a process that many people find irritating and don’t fully understand. Taxfix’ founders Lino Teuteberg (CPO) and Mathis Büchi (CEO) recognised this as unjust. They set out to fix this problem: their product allows customers to get their tax refunds through an easy chat-like interface. With a funding round of $65 million in April 2020, the company undoubtedly intends to grow and expand into new markets in the coming years. taxfix.de

The name can be taken more or less literal; Finleap allows other fintech enthusiasts the leap into the industry. Since 2014, CEO Ramin Niroumand has expanded a fintech ecosystem, allowing them to build fintech companies to solve customers’ pain points surgically. Since then, 17 companies emerged through Finleap in 15 different countries; more than 1300 employees work in H:32 in Berlin, now Europe’s largest fintech hub. finleap.com

The German fintech was founded in 2015 by Christian Hecker, Thomas Pischke und Marco Cancellieri to bring brokerage closer to the average citizen. Leaving commissions behind, the company is revolutionising trading by enabling customers to take it into their own hands. This empowerment for individuals to handle brokerage without a broker changes the trading landscape, putting the industry in new contexts and setting the Trade Republic apart. Since obtaining a trading bank license in 2019, the company has been steadily growing, finally expanding into Austria this year, thereby setting the first step towards international expansion. traderepublic.com 37

Industry Events WFA-WEB Virtual Summit 3 February, 2021 Online event

Open Banking and SCA Forum (Europe) 25th-26th February 2021 Online event

IFINTEC Finance Technologies Conference and Exhibition 09 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 10 March 2021

Venture Summit Virtual Connect March 16-18, 2021 Online event

Istanbul, Turkey

Finnosec Middle East March 17th-18th

Finnovex Europe May 11 - 12, 2021

Hybrid event - Conrad Dubai,UAE & Online

Hybrid event - Intercontinental Warsaw, Poland & Online

IFINTEC Finance Technologies Conference and Exhibition 09 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 10 March 2021

Finnovex Southern Africa July 27th -28th, 2021 Hybrid event - Hilton, Johannesburg South Africa & Online

Istanbul, Turkey

Your future webinar with PCN Date to be announced Online webinar Interested to collaborate on a webinar with us? Contact us at marketing@teampcn.com 38

HOT JOBS Here are some of the latest job offerings from Payments and Cards Network. Take your fintech career to the stratosphere.

Berlin, Germany

Head of Sales

Paris, France

Chef de projet technique

Copenhagen, Denmark

Senior Delivery Manager

London, UK

Marketing Manager

Copenhagen, Denmark

Senior Commercial Manager (Director)

Singapore

VP of MLaaS Engineering (Predictive HealthTech A.I)

Berlin, Germany

Senior Platforms Partner Manager (Payments)

New York, USA

Head of Compliance – FinTech Challenger Bank

Annecy, France

Manager Analyste Contrat d’Assurance (H/F) – Insurtech

EU & UK

Teamlead Delivery & Deployment (PayTech)

Find out more at: teampcn.com 39

New Year. Same Opportunities. The fintech space grew like never before in 2020 - and it is not stopping anytime soon. Last year was the second-best time to enter the industry. The best time? Right now. More than 80.000 industry contacts are not the only thing making us the leading supplier of executive recruitment, RPO services and headhunting in the fintech and payments industry. Our dedication to our clients, our passion for payments, and our commitment to finding the best possible opportunities for you that defines who we are. PCN is here to fulfil all your recruitment needs. m +31 203 030 257 40

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PCN Magazine - Volume 6, Issue 4

Articles inside

PCN Podcast: The round up

Insiders guide to LinkedIn

The Fintech Watchlist

Emerging markets with Meirav from dLocal

The Financial revolution

PCN Webinar Success