In the selection of professionals that we have made at the disposal of our community through the FD Marketplace there is also Joost Bergen, from Startupbootcamp. With his international professional experience we are sure that he will be able to make a great contribution to the growth of the emergent companies in the Italian fintech scenario. Let’s get to know him better!

From your point of view how is the fintech sector changing in these months and what will be the major trends?

• Due to Corona, Fintechs are gaining more traction as banks see the urgent need to digitize their processes, for example, take their ability to process loan applications from SME clients quickly
• Technology that enables working remotely with multi-cultural and multi-location professionals teams and that helps to engage with clients in a remote manner is becoming paramount
• Many organizations are in survival mode and not exploring new things. Only those with a strategic focus and of course those that deal with regulation
• Many investors are playing the waiting came. That said, some of them are putting more money in the companies in their portfolio that are more likely to make it.

How is the Italian Fintech ecosystem growing and how can it improve?

Since we have known the Fintech District we see that you continue to attract both local Fintechs and international ones. We believe that the links that the Fintech District has created in the past year to international ecosystems has and will continue to help the Italian fintechs to grow. An example is that based on discussions we had with one of the fintechs at the Fintech Distrct, we were able to link them to a Tier 1 international bank. We believe that there is a lot of potential to not only help the Italian Fintechs but also to bring more international players who want to scale to Italy to the Fintech District.

Four tips for startups and scale ups who want to collaborate with financial institutions?

• Be clear and very focused what you offer and what you don’t offer
• Partnerships are the name of the game—see how you can partner with other Bigtechs/ fintechs to be able to offer more and gain credibility
• Understand which problem you solve and how you add value and at what part of the value chain you do so
• Have you story ready end to end

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Copenhagen FinTech is the Danish cluster organization for Fintech, Finance and IT. Copenhagen FinTech is one of the international hubs we collaborate with to enhance the Italian fintech ecosystem and to strengthen the European one, to attract capital in Italy and support the startups of our community in their internationalization.

Copenhagen FinTech was founded in 2009 and has developed different projects, research and educational programs within areas such as high-performance computing, IT security, future of money and payments, processes and digitization and fintech.

After the signing of the MoU between Copenhagen Fintech and Fintech District, we asked Simon Schou, Chief Innovation Officer of this hub, to tell us about their activities and expectations.

What is Copenhagen Fintech ’s mission? What are your key values?

Copenhagen FinTech is a nonprofit organization in Copenhagen working to boost its fintech ecosystem centred there. We aim to be the world’s most inclusive and expansive financial ecosystem by connecting FinTech startups and financial institutions with superior research and consumer needs – and scaling the resulting solutions internationally

What activities do you offer for fintech startups?

Coworking facilities, Incubation Programs, Investor connect programs, Partner matchmaking, Acceleration programs, Global scaling programs.

What do you expect from the MoU with the Fintech District?

The strengthening of the “bridge” between Italy and Denmark – meaning to make it easier for Danish Fintech Startups to explore possibilities in Italy and for Italian Fintech Startups to explore these possibilities in Denmark

How do you consider the Italian fintech ecosystem? Are there any types of fintech startups that are of particular interest to you?

We don’t have that overview at the moment – we have banks and insurance partners looking for talented solutions in every segment of fintech and at the same time, we have startups looking for Italian partners/Clients in every segment.

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