
FinTech: Byte-Sized
By Global FinTech Network
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FinTech: Byte-SizedNov 11, 2020

Colombian unicorn Rappi´s entrance into Fintech with RappiPay
For today´s episode, I had the privilege of interviewing Gabriel Migowski, the current CEO of RappiPay. (RappiPay was founded by Colombian Unicorn Rappi, worth over 5.2B USD). In this episode, Gabriel and I spoke about the current and future perspective of the fintech ecosystem in Latin America, the operational challenges of the pandemic and being a Fintech CEO, soft and technical skills required to work in fintech, advice about how to start a Fintech and much more!
¡ We truly hope you enjoy this episode!

Challenges, opportunities and growth of Fintech in Latin America
This week we had the privilege of speaking with Angelica Castellanos, Harvard MBA, and COO of Konfío, a prominent Mexican digital banking and software solutions fintech focused on small and medium businesses that is recognized for being one of the biggest and fastest growing fintech’s in Latin America, with over $400 million USD in funding across four venture rounds.
In this episode, we spoke with Angélica about the challenges and opportunities for Fintech in Latin America, her perspective on the future of fintech in the region, her challenges, and responsibilities as a COO for a fintech, advice for young entrepreneurs in the fintech industry and much more!
We hope you enjoy this episode!

Chinese Digital Yuan: Analysis and Opportunities for Hong Kong & GBA
The GFTN & HKU FinTech Student Association bring Dr. Oriol Caudevilla to talk about how China is leading the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) race in Asia and the globe.
Oriol works as a Management Consultant at AirHelp, Advisor for ixFintech (HKG), Strategic Advisor at WealthTech company ETFCool (HKG), Strategic Advisor at Alpha Bright Asset Management (HK) Strategic Advisor at ScallopX, Scientific Advisor at the Israeli Blockchain Association, Mentor at R3 (Singapore), Mentor at Cyberport (Hong Kong), FinTech Mentor at F10 Incubator & Accelerator (Singapore), Blockchain Mentor at Tribe (Singapore) and also FinTech Mentor at Rise by Barclays (London and Mumbai).
Oriol is Fellow at the Digital Euro Association (D€A) and at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), as well as Honorary Fellow at the Asian Institute of International Financial Law at HKU. He is member of the Singapore Fintech Association (SFA) as well as FinTech Australia. Furthermore, he is a columnist at China Daily (Global & Hong Kong Edition) and Macau Business.
He has given talks and seminars on the Chinese Financial System, Central Bank Digital Currencies and the Digital Yuan in several universities in the US, Canada, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as in international conferences, e.g. Israel/UAE Fintech Week, the Future of Fintech Saudi Arabia event and the Greater Bay Area Blockchain Week.
Last April, China announced the pilot testing of Digital Yuan in 4 major cities (Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu, Xiong'an), notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic -- and the tests have proven to be very successful. Tune in to learn about what CBDC is and its potential to change the future of money, while analysing the Digital Yuan & the its implications to the Greater Bay Area.

Diving into Robo-Advisory
Welcome to the new season of FinTech: Byte-Sized!
This week we have an incredibly exciting guest! The GFTN & The CityU FinTech Society are proud to introduce Mr Kelvin Lei is the CEO and Co-founder of one of AQUMON. Inspired by a need for change and the lack of access to financial advice, Kelvin left his job in the financial sector to found his own company. Join us as we explore the who, what and how of Robo-advisory and the journey Kelvin took as an entrepreneur.

Wealth management in Fintech: A CEO’s perspective
This week’s episode features Valdemaro Mendoza - Co-founder and CEO of Tyba, a wealth management Fintech company focused on bringing accesible investing opportunities to people in latin America. It achieves this by selecting the best investment portfolio according to your risk profile and the time you wish to invest and then helping you manage it through their app.
Valdemaro´s motivation to start this Fintech came from his prior experience in the traditional banking sector, where he realized investment opportunities were complex and hard to access for all the Colombian population.
Tune into this episode to find out more about the process of starting a Fintech, the challenges and favourite memories of Valdemaro throghout this journey, his perspective of Fintech in Colombia and Latin America and his advice for new entrepeneurs looking to dive into the fintech world!

Starting a LegalTech in the UK
“My inspiration for Casedo came from both my needs as a lawyer and from my experience of comparable software as a video editor”
Ross is a barrister. In his journey from video editing to law, he realised he was lacking a legal toolkit comparable to that available to him in the audiovisual world. So he created one, and Casedo was born.
Tune in to this episode to find out his path to date and how a video editor becomes a lawyer and start-up founder. The most important takeaway from this video: it takes all sorts to make the (LegalTech) world!

RegTech as FinTech's Secret Sauce
Regulatory Technology – RegTech is undoubtedly an area with rising importance in the FinTech landscape. In this episode by The University of Hong Kong, we are proud to have Brian Tang as our guest. Brian is the co-chair of FinTech Association Hong Kong’s RegTech Committee, co-founder of APAC RegTech Network, the executive director or LITE Lab @ HKU, and the Chairman of World RegTech Summit 2020, among other great achievements.
Tune in to learn about the RegTech ecosystem in Hong Kong in comparison to other parts of the world, how exactly RegTech is positively shaping the FinTech ecosystem, post Covid-19 regulatory shift, and finally, what Brian aspires to see in the future of RegTech!
Visit worldregtech.com to learn more about RegTech too!
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FinTech in the UK
UCL FinTech Society and GFTN were proud to host Antony Ruddenklau. Antony is the Global Co-Head of FinTech, Head of Digital & Innovation for Financial Services, and Partner of KPMG. In this episode we hear this thoughts on FinTech as a whole. Tune in to hear his thoughts on what makes London a hotspot of financial innovation, which sector of finance is the least sexy (spoiler alert: it's insurance), and why he feels Blockchain enthusiasts can sometimes go too far in their worship of it. Last, but certainly not least, hear advice on the best resources to stay up to date on the latest in finance, as well as general advice for people early on in their careers.

Fintech and African Opportunities
Africa is contrary to belief one of the single greatest opportunities for fintech to grow and develop. Across the continent, banks, companies and startups are racing to serve Africa's severely underbanked population. Today, I am joined by Arno Von Helden, the head of Digital Solutions for Forex and Standard Bank - Africa's largest lender. He is also the founder and executive business head of Standard Banks SHYFT a global easy to use e-wallet. Listen as we discuss the future of Africa. and its road to digitalizing financial services.

Cryptocurrency & Blockchain in Hong Kong
How is the current Bitcoin ecosystem in Hong Kong? What is the technology behind Bitcoin – and how has it developed throughout the years? What are the reasons behind governments’ fear surrounding Bitcoin? How ‘private’ Bitcoin protocol actually is? How has COVID-19 affected the Bitcoin market?
In this episode hosted by The University of Hong Kong, we will feature Leonhard Weese, the co-founder and President of Bitcoin Association Hong Kong and unlock these questions on blockchain and cryptocurrency together.
Leo has been a key-figure in Hong Kong’s crypto community, where as a president, he has accumulated over 6000 members and hosted over 250 bitcoin-related events, bringing the Hong Kong community together to explore what the cryptocurrency ecosystem has to offer.
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FinTech in Latin America
This episode will feature Jorge Vollrath, the ex-chief of staff for one of Colombia's biggest Fintech companies: Finaktiva and founder of Colombian Fintech Corteza. In this episode we will explore the fintech industry in Colombia and Latin America covering broad topics such as regulations, obstacles and opportunities surrounding the region and discuss Jorge’s career and his advice for future professionals that wish to grow the Fintech industry.

FinTech Worldwide
Members of the Global FinTech Network (GFTN) introduce themselves and share their stories of the what, how and why of FinTech. Despite coming from South Africa, Hong Kong, Colombia and the UK – there are many similarities behind their stories. In this episode, the GFTN team explores their passions, ideals and why now is the perfect time to dive head-first into the world of FinTech.