EMPOWERING THE FINTECH ECOSYSTEM

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52 António Horta Osório
58 Nuno Sebastião Feedzai
64 Carlos Silva Seedrs
70 Luís Pedro Duarte Accenture
72 Paulo Rodrigues Blockchain Expert
74 Paulo Rodrigues da Silva Euronext
77 Helena Brandão Refinitiv
79 João Freire de Andrade BiG Start Ventures
81 Marin Cauvas Anthemis Group
84 Gaël De Boissard Fintech Investor
Henry Ritchotte Fintech Investor

88 The Portugal FinLab

90 Portuguese Regulators
José Figueiredo Almaça ASF
Hélder Rosalino Banco de Portugal
Filomena Oliveira CMVM
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 >20 38 %
10 - 20 17 %
1 - 10 46 %

43% €
13% € €
26% € € €
17% € € € €

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 OMNI-EXPERIENCE NEXT-GENERATION CORPORATE BANKING DIGITAL TRUST AND EFFICIENCY AND EXTERNAL
CUSTOMER PAYMENTS STEWARDSHIP AGILLITY ECOSYSTEMS
ENGAGEMENT

Branch Unified payments Client value and Data-enhanced Core Connectivity

Transformation infrastructure data-driving pricing identidy transformation infrastructure
management

Digital Banking Omni-channel Distributed and Financial crime Process API and data
payments direct connectivity prevention and optimization monetization
networks detection

Growing and Alternate payment Business model Cybersecurity Right sourcing Ecosystem
expanding rails innovation threat detection platforms
relationships and compliance

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 REGTECH

OFFICES FOUNDATION WEBSITE

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 ALTERNATIVE FINANCING

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 ALTERNATIVE FINANCING

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 LENDING & CREDIT LENDING & CREDIT

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 LENDING & CREDIT

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 PAYMENTS PAYMENTS
& MONEY TRANSFERS & MONEY TRANSFERS

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 PAYMENTS CAPITAL MARKETS
& MONEY TRANSFERS & WEALTH MANAGEMENT

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 CAPITAL MARKETS CAPITAL MARKETS
& WEALTH MANAGEMENT & WEALTH MANAGEMENT

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 PERSONAL FINANCE PERSONAL FINANCE

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 PERSONAL FINANCE BLOCKCHAIN & CRYPTO

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 BLOCKCHAIN & CRYPTO BLOCKCHAIN & CRYPTO

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 BLOCKCHAIN & CRYPTO INSURTECH

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 INSURTECH

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 THE AIM IS TO CREATE A
BLOCKCHAIN ENABLED
MARKETPLACE, ADEQUATE FOR
SME, SIMPLE, LOW COST END-
TO-END IN THE FULL VALUE
CHAIN

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 Global Network of five innovations labs
Innovation Labs Formula
Startup relationships
Partners
Early costumer engagement

London

San Francisco New York

Singapore

Cape Town

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GAËL DE BOISSARD
& HENRY RITCHOTTE
Fintech Investor (former Executive Board Member at Credit Suisse)
Fintech Investor (former COO and Head of Digital Bank at Deutsche Bank)
Gaël and Henry are both investors of a Portuguese startups, and also played leading roles on European Investment
Banks – Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, respectively. In order to understand their insights as international players
looking a Portuguese startup, we asked them a few questions.
After playing leading roles on
European Investment Banks
– Credit Suisse and Deutsche
Bank – you started investing
in seed financial services
startups. In a nutshell, what is
your investment thesis? What
are you looking for?
The thesis was simple: that large
financial institutions are weighed
down by old and clunky tech
stacks. They know the answer is
tech investment, but they need to
cut costs and improve efficiency,
making it hard to do this work
internally. So FinTech is where
the innovation will occur; the new
companies will sell services, or
maybe even be bought out by the
larger ones, once the hard work
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and test cases have been made.
You invested in Portuguese
entrepreneurs in 2017. This
was not the most common
region for UK based investors
to invest in tech, how did it
happen?
In the case of James, we
weren’t looking for Portuguese
entrepreneurs. We were looking
for great credit platforms, and
specifically Machine Learning
in the space. In fact, this fits
with the point above; in large
banks, the credit work is done
by humans, in a labor intensive
but intellectually relatively simple
framework. And I always thought
it could be done better, with ML,
and processes. While at CS, I had
actually looked for companies like
James, but never found them – big
firms find it hard to spot smaller
ones... It turned out James was
that company I had been looking
for! Long story short, the best ML
credit platform was what we were
looking for, and it turned out to
have Portuguese founders.
Do you have any advice to
investors looking to invest in
Portuguese tech companies?
I’d say the quality of the engineers
is very high, and the cost base
of companies lower than other
locations, which is a great
SO THE ADVICE IS INVESTORS SHOULD BE LOOKING INTO TECH COMPANIES IN PORTUGAL
advantage in the early years. So
the advice is investors should be
looking into tech companies in
Portugal – after that, I think it’s
important that the company be
broad in its appeal, and know how
to sell across the world, or parts
of it at least.
Do you find any specific
characteristic of Portuguese
entrepreneurs that differ
from others? What are the key
characteristics of this team
that made you invest in the
project?
I am not sure the national
characteristic was evident – what
I saw was determined, super
competent, and thoughtful
founders. I think the Portuguese
angle gave them a different feel
to the typical UK or US founders.
I’d say they were more grounded
– and yet very international. Very
fast, very direct.
Taking your profound
professional experience
in senior executive roles
of incumbent Investment
Banks what is your view on
the future of global financial
LOVE WHAT’S GOING ON IN PORTUGAL AND LOOKING FORWARD TO MORE INVESTMENTS HERE!
services companies? What role
do Fintech startups play in it?
Global financial companies have
a huge tech challenge – amongst
others. So many new things
going on, and these changes
are occurring very fast. So the
global firms struggle to follow;
the biggest and smartest will
probably do all their investing
and re engineering internally, but
many, if not most, will have to
buy/consult/outsource and that’s
where all this work coming from
the Fintechs will help. They are the
answer.
What type of advice can you
give Portuguese startups
looking for funding in the
UK? How to give confidence
or comfort to investors if you
are not in the same country
as them? Would you give
different advice to a Seed
startup than you would to a
Series A?
I think its just a matter of working
the network, and being present on
a regular basis, but I am not sure
UK investors have any particular
concerns with the Portuguese
scene. They are clearly creative
and strong companies being
seeded here, lots of enterprising
individuals, and it’s a welcome
addition to the London scene.
Also, I loved coming here to visit
the team, and see what goes on.
On an ending note, what would
you say you have learned
personally about investing
in startups? For instance, are
you a “gut feeling” person or
an extreme analyzer? What is
it that makes you tick?
I think gut feeling can apply to the
general field, for example – I think
there will be plenty of interest
in ML for credit but after that,
it’s about analysis and careful
thinking, running high level math,
and getting the basics of the
commercial proposition right. It’s
both. Gut first, and then dig dig
dig...
Is there anything else you’d
like to add beyond what we
have asked?
Love what’s going on in Portugal
and looking forward to more
investments here!
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