This week saw the launch of “Thrive for Fintech”, an investment programme focused on Financial Inclusion. Green Shores Capital (my fund) have partnered with Crowdcube for this and it is sponsored by Deloitte. The applicants will be funnelled through a competitive evaluation criteria and six of them will be shortlisted. Via this initiative, we will identify and invest in up to three top Fintech firms.

This is the programme page, that talks about the criteria in detail

“Successful applicants will also receive a legal support package to cover areas such as company structure, employment and incentives, data and IP, as well as receiving exclusive access to an online platform with a host of free legal resources. All finalists will also be invited along to a legal workshop that is specifically tailored to Fintech businesses.

Lastly, the successful applicants will also receive an accounting support package from Deloitte finance experts, covering areas such as raising investment and financial strategy. Along with a free, bespoke online accounting package and customised analytics dashboard.”

So how did this happen?

All three partners at Green Shores, Deepak Ahuja, Banesh Prabhu and yours truly, have all had decades of Financial services experience. We have had years of global exposure and have seen real world challenges especially in Emerging markets due to lack of Financial Services at the last mile. When we set up Green Shores earlier this year, we identified Financial Inclusion as a core theme for our investment thesis.  

We have made several investments through our previous fund in this space and want to further this cause via Green Shores. This was and is critical as many use cases we see in the UK and in the west are focused on impactful themes, however in order to create impact at scale they need to expand into emerging markets. 2.7 Billion people in the world live outside the conventional financial services system.

This programme also demonstrates that its critical to bring together multiple ecosystem players to create meaningful impact. And we believe, this is a model that can be replicated across different innovation clusters where there is a dire need for capital.

Access to capital is not a goal in itself – it is a means to end poverty and economically empower people – the first step towards achieving healthcare and education, a means to help grow enterprises and create jobs, a means to tackle unemployment, and so much more. 

Arunkumar Krishnakumar is a Venture Capital investor at Green Shores Capital focusing on Inclusion and a podcast host.

Get fresh daily insights from an amazing team of Fintech thought leaders around the world. Ride the Fintech wave by reading us daily in your email

How many times have you read one of our posts and thought “I would like to pick up the phone and talk to the person with that knowledge and network”. Well now you can. You can book one hour for CHF 380 by simply sending an email to our Chief Commercial Officer (Julia Spiegel) requesting an hour’s consultation. We will schedule a time by email (we are in Europe, so we are time zone friendly for most of the world).  We will send you an invoice for your records by email and you pay for the hour by PayPal.

We start with one of the 6 Experts who write regularly on Daily Fintech. Bernard Lunn writes on Saturday from Switzerland about the Blockchain Economy. Bernard, CEO of Daily Fintech, is a serial entrepreneur, senior executive, adviser and strategic deal maker. He started in the engine room of Fintech for enterprise software companies (such as Misys, Temenos and ITRS). Bernard is the author of Mindshare to Marketshare and The Blockchain Economy and has used his media experience (for example as COO of ReadWriteWeb) to guide Daily Fintech since the first post on 29 June 2014. Bernard is a Brit who has lived in America, Singapore, India, London and Amsterdam and has done business in 40 countries. He currently lives in Switzerland.

We will be onboarding all the other people who write for Daily Fintech onto our Book an Expert for an Hour Service Service in the coming weeks:

Ilias Louis Hatzis writes on Monday from Greece about Blockchain, Bitcoin & Crypto. Ilias is an Internet entrepreneur who started his first company, an internet search engine, in the mid 90s during the dot-com era. Later on he founded several Consumer Internet and AdTech startups and went to work for Google and JWT. As well as still being an active entrepreneur, he mentors startups at the MassChallenge, MITEF and other startup accelerators and competitions. Having lived and worked in America, Ilias is currently back in his native Greece and is the Founder/CEO of Mercato Blockchain Corporation AG.

Efi Pylarinou writes on Tuesday from Switzerland about WealthTech and Capital Markets. Efi brings bold Wall Street experience (Salomon Brothers, Bankers Trust, SGCowen) in a broad range of asset classes (fixed income, structured products, hedge funds). She has lived and worked in the US, France, Greece, Canada, and Switzerland in investment companies, a university, an online education provider, and an executive consulting firm. She brings a strong academic background combined with a focus on breakthrough results. Efi is the author of Fixed income books with Frank Fabozzi.

 Jessica Ellerm writes on Wednesday from Australia about Small Business Finance. Jessica is CEO & Co-Founder of Zuper Superannuation, taking a new approach to superannuation savings. Previously she worked for Australia’s flagship Fintech startup and small business banking provider, Tyro. She is also a well-known expert on digital growth hacking and presents financial news and market updates for Australia’s leading online finance news provider, Finance News Network.

Zarc Gin writes on Thursday from China about Insurtech. Zarc is an analyst for Warp Speed Fintech, a Fintech, especially InsurTech-focused Venture Capital based in China.

Arunkumar Krishnakumar writes on Friday from UK about consumer banking.Arun has the experience and global mindset to cover innovation wherever it comes from globally and is equally comfortable in the world of big agile companies as well as scrappy upstarts. His big company experience includes Barclays and PWC. In his current role at Angels Unleashed, StartUp Bootcamp and Funding XChange, Arun works in the world of the scrappy upstart.

For those not familiar with CHF (the famously stable Swiss Franc) it is about par with the US$ today.

Many people requested an easy engagement model for our advisory service. Now you can start working with us by simply paying CHF 380 for an hour with one of our Experts. One day all consulting firms will make it this easy.

Request one hour of Bernard’s time for CHF380 by sending an email to Julia Spiegel (our Chief Commercial Officer)

Editors note. This post is written by Sheldon Freedman, a fintech and funds lawyer at Hassans in Gibraltar.  Security Tokens is a big, complex subject that requires legal, technical and commercial  knowledge. We found that rare combination in Sheldon Freedman, member of the Bars of New York, Ontario (Canada) and Israel, former FINRA-registered representative, and asked him to write a 4 part series, because Daily Fintech’s job is to explain complex subjects in an engaging way. This is the first post. Tune in (subscribe by email) to get the the rest of the series over the next 3 weeks.

A blockchain token is a unique digital token created on a blockchain as part of a decentralized software protocol.  Some tokens function as digital currencies, like Bitcoin.

A utility token is digital coupon or ticket redeemable by the holder for a good or service.  A utility token, or user token or app coin as it is sometimes called, can entitle the holder upon redemption to a cup of coffee, an advanced medical device or admission to the World Cup championship game.  A utility token functions in a closed system according to the token economics designed for the system.  For more on utility tokens, please see this chapter in The Blockchain Economy.

Though utility token prices may fluctuate in value as demand for the redeemable goods or services fluctuates, utility tokens do not provide holders with, or relate to, ownership or assets relating to the entity issuing the tokens other than the redeemable goods or services. Security tokens, also known as securitized tokens or tokenized securities, are a digital investment asset with security aspects that do relate to ownership or other assets. For more on security tokens, please see this chapter in The Blockchain Economy.

Security tokens are blockchain-based value tokens that provide holders with value relating to investment assets, which may include rights in the issuing entity such as rights to voting, equity ownership, debt, derivatives, real estate, dividends, profit sharing, buy-back options, cash flow – anything related to assets or performance of the issuing entity, or any real-word asset. The spectacular promise of blockchain and related decentralizing technologies to support the reliable recording, trading and mass adoption of security tokens will undoubtedly lead to the digitization of securities becoming adopted on a massive global scale that will revolutionize finance – limited only by the imagination and daring of financial engineers.  Security tokens will have the advantages over conventional securities markets of:

• functioning 24/7 at low transaction cost

• high liquidity

• rapid settlement

• great market depth

• automated compliance

• transparency

• asset interoperability (different types of assets in same wallet)

• continuous expansion of design space for security contracts and unlimited varieties of features. 

Security tokens are programmable by sophisticated architectures deploying rapidly-developing mechanics, employing dramatic efficiencies to process large capital pools.

The versatility and seemingly limitless varieties of deployment of security tokens suddenly presents the world’s regulators with a new digital security asset that they are only beginning to understand.  Securities regulators, in their perceived role to protect the investing public (and economies in general), establish regimes of disclosure, registration and reporting to regulate the viable issuance and exchange of securities.  Understanding how security tokens markets and smart contracts function – and the complex ramifications elicited thereby- is obviously requisite to regulating them. Some notable small, nimble jurisdictions in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean have been vigorously investing since 2015 in studying and establishing early regulatory blockchain finance-related frameworks to capture early leading industry activity, while the major national jurisdiction are in the committee stages in the process of deciding what to do about the coming golden age of security token innovation, which will be no less revolutionary than the invention of the railroad. 

The United States Securities & Exchange Commission has taken the view that security tokens are securities fully subject securities regulation. Thus, the issuance and exchange of security tokens in the United States is subject to registration or must come under an exemption from registration (typically, exemptions pertaining to investors deemed sufficiently sophisticated to analyze the risks and merits of an investment, or of sufficient means capable of sustaining losses).  Other major jurisdictions are taking note of the United States position, some following, others embarking on their own regulatory reforms to address regulating of security tokens.  Since blockchain infrastructure is trans-jurisdictional and anonymous, there is an added dimension of the need for global cooperation, and for the involvement of agencies that regulate much more than securities:  banking, taxation, anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist and other crime financing, tariffs and trade finance. There is not an industry that will be left unaffected by the advent of security tokens.  From mining to pharmaceuticals to retailing to aerospace – security tokens will play a role.  The ability of small investors to participate globally will democratize investor bases. Tokenized funds and other collective investment schemes will emerge to attract passive investors.

Over the next three articles we will examine how the global security token “rails” are being laid to provide for the imminent securities token global express train. Dozens of fabulous companies are building rails of scalable, standardized, interoperable token solutions ushering in a Golden Age of securities innovation.  We will survey the many platforms available and being built for the launching and trading of security tokens.  We will also analyze the regulatory approaches major jurisdictions are taking to the challenges of regulating security tokens, taking notice of existing laws and trends. 

The schedule of the other 3 posts in this series is as follows:

• 3rd November: Platforms for launching Security Tokens.

• 10th November: Jurisdictional and Legal issues related to Security Tokens.

• 17th November: The current state of the art in Security Tokens and where the puck is headed.

Tune in to receive the rest of the series by subscribing to Daily Fintech by email.

Bernard Lunn is a Fintech deal-maker, investor and advisor. He is the author of The Blockchain Economy and CEO of Daily Fintech.

Get fresh daily insights from an amazing team of Fintech thought leaders around the world. Ride the Fintech wave by reading us daily in your email.

Its a bit counter-intuitive when we tag a country (Brazil) to a crypto start-up. While the operational capability for Moeda is currently based in Brazil, the entire world can invest into their projects using the MDA token.

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Moeda was launched in 2017 at a UN hackathon with a view to address the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Their vision is to facilitate capital for social entrepreneurs who have had challenges financing their business via the traditional banking system. With their platform, where they bring the community of social entrepreneurs to the world stage, investors across the world can invest in projects, while having complete transparency on the project details.

This year Moeda have onboarded 18 projects involving family farming cooperatives in Brazil. They are also developing the Moeda Seeds App that will help global investments to arrive. In Q2 this year Moeda moved its transactions to IBM’s Hyperledger fabric composer.

In the past 18 months, Moeda have made significant progress not just in Brazil, but across other neighbouring countries.

• They opened up operations in Uruguay and became the first blockchain firm in a free trade zone.
• Moeda’s CEO Taynah Reis, joined Brazil’s Parliamentary Special Committee on the legislation of virtual currency.
• Moeda presented their proposition at the UN General Assembly on Sustainable Development Goals Impact Zones.
• In Jan 2018, Moeda started funding its first set of projects for rural Brazil
• Taynah has also spent time with UN leaders, Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, and several top world organisations including the World Economic Forum, where they showcased and validated their business model
• More recently Moeda implemented a fiat pegged token (MDABRL) to be used in its ecosystem.

One of the projects that Moeda have taken on board their seed programme is that of Divinia. For more than 10 years, Divina from Cooperval produced and sold frozen fruit pulp, vegetables and baked goods to schools in Formosa, Goias. The group now wants to boost production and increase their income.

For the financing of the expansion, Moeda developed a Seed Project focused on the Baru, a traditional chestnut from the region. Through this project the cooperative in partnership with a local beer company will produce 1500 bottles of Baru nut beer. Moeda have helped them establish the partnership, in marketing the product and with the entire business plan to ensure investors make returns. This project, thats planned to go on for 4 months, will give investors a 10% return within that period.

Moeda are also working with a group of women that focused on 21 local projects from more than 8 states in the region developing 25 value chains pertaining to extractivism, agricultural extractivism and traditional family farming, including the Babassu palm production chain.

These are some inspiring coming out of the blockchain world, and for people asking for real world implementations of the technology, all I would say is, look at the emerging markets – its all happening there.

Arunkumar Krishnakumar is a VC investor focusing on Inclusion, a writer and a podcast host.

Get fresh daily insights from an amazing team of Fintech thought leaders around the world. Ride the Fintech wave by reading us daily in your email

The 2018 Yunqi Conference is being hosted by Alibaba during 19th to 22nd in September. The conference is one of the biggest digital meetup in China’s Internet community. And Ant Financial is also hosting its ATEC (Ant Technology Exploration Conference) in the same venue.

In the ATEC, both the CEO and VP of Ant Financial have explained their visions into Blockchain application.

Jing Xiandong, CEO and chairman of Ant Financial has announced a Blockchain Partnership Plan in the Yunqi Conference on September 20th. According to the plan, Ant Financial will open its Blockchain-as-a-Service platform in an attempt to create more values for the underlying financial systems and to lower trade costs.

The first batch of partners includes PwC, Tsinghua Smart Cloud, Accenture, Standard Chartered Bank etc. And their cooperation will be implemented in various verticals including auditing, consultancy, banking, tax etc.

Jiang Guofei, vice president of Ant Financial also shared his perspective on blockchain in the ATEC speech. He explained that the blockchain team inside Ant Financial was established in 2016 and has been working very hard since the inception. They have built a blockchain platform for financial industry and also been speeding up the application in every industry.

Jiang also stressed the values Ant Financial blockchain is holding – create values for the actual world. He thought that the blockchain market is in a chaotic state during the past 12 months, but they have been committed to addressing actual problems in our world. Creating value for users is the only goal they are pursuing through blockchain.

Jiang believes blockchain technology can promote the credible transfer of data on the chain, making the society more efficient and lives easier. For example, in a consortium, the companies of one single industry chain can jointly provide integrated services customers. Blockchain as an infrastructure can connect service providers with end users.

As a matter of fact, Ant Financial has already implemented various blockchain applications in different industries. Here is a list of these applications.

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Zarc Gin is an analyst for Warp Speed Fintech, a Fintech, especially InsurTech-focused Venture Capital based in China.

Get fresh daily insights from an amazing team of Fintech thought leaders around the world. Ride the Fintech wave by reading us daily in your email.

Since the Fintech boom started across the world, two Asian giants Singapore and Hongkong have always fought hard for the lead in the region. Singapore had better access to the ASEAN community to help Fintechs expand seamlessly, while Hong Kong has been historically seen as the gateway to China.

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However, in my opinion, what gave Singapore a clear edge is the proactive and collaborative regulatory regime. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) along with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have perhaps been the two most forward thinking regulators, who have helped Fintech boom in their markets.

The regulatory regime and its effectiveness (or the lack of it) on the innovation ecosystem has been a real case study with Blockchain. This is a detailed break down of what regulatory stance countries took on Blockchain. MAS have been quite collaborative when it came to both Blockchain and Cryptos.

China have shocked the world (as they do every other day), with their focus on AI and Blockchain. According to a study by Reuters, they have the highest number of Blockchain patents in the world in 2017 (225 of 406). In AI they are only second to the US with 23% of Global patents granted in 2017 in the field. However, China have taken a binary stand with Cryptos.

In contrast, MAS had published a set of guidelines for token offerings in 2017.

This may not be the most popular stance today: I believe, every country that has banned Cryptos and ICOs have pushed themselves behind in both technology innovation, and in the evolution of new capital markets, at least by half a decade.

China, perhaps may be an exception to that, as the innovation in Blockchain coming out of the country is mind boggling. But in general, it shows ignorance in the potential of the technology or even laziness to work with this ecosystem. The MAS on the other hand, haven’t banned cryptos. They have worked closely with the innovators to understand the potential and help them get it right.

While Blockchain is meant to be trustless, its hard for counterparties in a value network to trust each other primarily because of the technology involved. Its like asking someone to allow a self driving car to do the job on a busy motorway on day 1 (with eyes closed).

To jump through the trust barrier, MAS are setting up a secure platform to sell tokenised securities. MAS, SGX (Singapore Exchange), Deloitte and Nasdaq are working on this Delivery Versus Payments (DvP) platform to add trust to this ecosystem. This is a continuation of Project Ubin – whose first phase tested Digital currency (for SGD) and the second phase focused on RTGS.

With the five phased approach to Project Ubin, we may soon see a state issued digital currency. That would not only put Singapore ahead of its Asian peers, it may be a Global first.

Arunkumar Krishnakumar is a VC investor focusing on Inclusion, a writer and a speaker.

Get fresh daily insights from an amazing team of Fintech thought leaders around the world. Ride the Fintech wave by reading us daily in your email.