European eXPERTS, bankers AND INVESTORS IN FINTECH - PANEL OF JUDGES
The panel of judges consists of seasoned investors, academics, marketeers, entrepreneurs with an extensive track record in finance and/ or technology. To suggest additional experts, email alex@vangroningen.nl or call Alex at + 31 6 50 643 283. Get listed here. These experts are more than happy to assist FinTech companies in growing their business.
Huy Nguyen Trieu (UK) is Author of Disruptive Finance and Managing Director at an international bank. He is recognised as one of the "10 Influencers in London Fintech you need to know". Furthermore he is part of the Fintech Advisory Group of the World Economic Forum, Advisory Boards of Fintech HK, Trusting Social and Fintech Connect. Ultimately he is Fintech Resident Expert at Oxford University. Linkedin |
David M. Brear (UK) is specialized in digital and next generation financial services. He is one of the brains behind the Think Different Group, an international group dedicated to advising business leaders on digital banking services. He worked in the Digital Transformation department of the Lloyds Banking Group, where he was responsible for user experience and design for mobile devices and tablets. Linkedin |
Steve McLaughlin (USA) is Founder and CEO at Financial Technology Partners. He is a FinTech banker, entrepreneur and investor, specialized in all FinTech sectors. He is focused on helping the leading companies across the broad FinTech ecosystem raise Private Equity and Debt Capital, execute IPOs and conduct stellar M&A transactions. Linkedin Only Online Judge |
Cristina Cordovez de Villeneuve (France) is Chief Digital Officer of BNP Paribas and Global Head of Hello Bank!, which is a new digital bank launched in 2013. She is passionate about the digital revolution and the business transformation it fosters. Linkedin |
Pascal Bouvier (France) is an investor and FinTech expert who has been active as a venture capitalist in the financial services industry for the past 6 years. Pascal currently serves as Venture Partner with Santander Innoventures. Prior to that, he was General Partner with Route 66 Ventures where he built and managed the firm's venture arm into a top 20 global FinTech investor. |
Vladislav Solodkiy (Russia) is CEO and Managing Partner of Life.SREDA VC, which is a venture capital firm specializing in FinTech investments. They invested $40M in 11 startups and there second fund has been announced recently. He is an internationally recognized FinTech expert and visionary, one of the industry’s main advocates. Linkedin |
Jon Pearson (Germany) is Innovation Lead Deutsche Bank Labs London. Jon is specialised in Customer Experience Strategy, Experience, Interface Design, Information Architecture, Implementation Methodology & Best Practice across multiple channels. Linkedin Only Online Judge |
Michael Treskow (Russia) is part of Accel's London team and is on the board of or works closely with several of the firm’s portfolio companies, including ClusterHQ, Funding Circle, GoCardless, Packlink, Qubit, Semmle, SpaceApe, Trufa, WeaveWorks and WorldRemit. Michael moved to London from San Francisco, where he worked at Warburg Pincus. Linkedin |
Minh Q. Tran (France) is General Partner at AXA Strategic Ventures and responsible for InsurTech and FinTech. AXA Strategic Ventures is a €200 million venture capital fund financed only by AXA Group. The fund will invest in insurance and financial services. Linkedin Only Online Judge |
Matteo Rizzi (Italy) is General Partner at SBT Venture Capital, a $100 million FinTech fund. Matteo has 6 years experience in banking technologies and interbank telecommunications. Matteo is co-founder of Innotribe, the SWIFT collaborative innovation initiative. Linkedin |
Rob Moffat (UK) is Vice-President at Balderton Capital and always looking for new investments in European online/tech companies with $B potential requiring early stage financing of $100k to $15m. The sectors he focuses on are FinTech, MarTech, Games and Marketplaces. Linkedin Only Online Judge |
Reinier Musters (Netherlands) is partner in Orange Growth Capital (OGC), a venture capital firm passionate about helping FinTech companies. OGC has 8 professionals and 25 industry advisers that operate from London and Amsterdam. |
Nicole Anderson (UK) is CEO of FinTech Circle Innovate London, which is a services and solutions provider helping established financial services firms and FinTech companies to collaborate and exploit joint opportunities. They accelerate the transaction - whether the choice is to buy, invest or partner, our programs, due diligence processes and network can help make that process frictionless for all parties. Linkedin |
Allard Luchsinger (Netherlands) leads Velocity Capital, a 60 million euro Dutch based venture capital firm that focuses on early stage FinTech companies. Velocity has investments in Asia, Europe, the US, and Africa such as Tradeking (US), 8 Securities (HK), Five Degrees (Netherlands) and Cellulant (Kenya). Linkedin |
Fidel Manolopoulos (Greece) is director at Kennet Partners, which is a technology growth equity investor. They invest in established, fast-growing companies providing IT products and business services that leverage technology. Industries Fidel is active in are Financial Services Technology, Enterprise Software, Mobile and Consumer Software. Linkedin |
Edward Schiettecatte (Belgium) is a co-founder of SmartFin Capital. SmartFin Capital is a growth stage Private Equity Fund that provides expansion and replacement capital to private growth companies in Smart Technologies with a special focus on FinTech. Linkedin |
Ruth Foxe Blader is FinTech Investor at Allianz Digital Corporate Ventures. She invests in early stage FinTech companies that strengthen Allianz' mission and investment portfolio by facilitating strategic business development opportunities. Furthermore Ruth is also mentor at Startupbootcamp and Techstars. Linkedin Only Online Judge |
Jurgen Ingels (Belgium) is not only co-founder of Smartfin Capital, but also co-founder of Clear2Pay (sold for 375 mln to FIS), NGData and Volt Ventures. SmartFin Capital is a growth stage Private Equity Fund that provides capital to private growth companies with a special focus on FinTech. Linkedin Only Online Judge |
Mircea Mihaescu (Canada) is COO at Moven and former General Partner and FinTech investor at SBT Venture Capital. He has extensive experience with startups, and the development and deployment of large-scale software systems. Held senior executive positions at Sberbank and BMO Bank of Montreal. Linkedin |
Julio Faura (Spain) is Head of R&D and Innovation of Banco Santander Group and focuses on new digital business incubation and corporate venture capital in FinTech. Focus on eCommerce, internet-based financial services, alternative (online) lending, mobile payments, and crypto-currencies. Linkedin |
Pat Wilson (USA) is a Vice-President at Quona Capital, a $100 million growth-stage venture capital firm investing in financial technology in emerging markets. Pat leads Quona’s investment activities in East and West Africa. Formerly operating as Accion's Frontier Investments Group, Quona Capital was incubated as an impact investment manager within Accion International, a global leader in microfinance. Linkedin Only Online Judge |
Mikael Munck (Denmark) is Chairman & Investor at JourneyXP. Before he was Global Head Technology & Operations at Saxo Bank. Mikael has more than 20 years of experience as leader and executive in the international financial technology space. Experienced in running companies as CEO, Technology departments as CIO and as Global Head. Linkedin |
Stefan Klestil (Austria) is Partner at SpeedInvest, an early-stage tech fund with offices in Vienna and Silicon Valley. At Speedinvest, Stefan is responsible for FinTech investments across EMEA and intensively looking at new models in factoring and lending, risk underwriting, banking and payment infrastructure, security, cryptography and blockchain. |
Menno van Leeuwen (Netherlands) heads ABN AMRO's Innovation Centre Focus Team, which is the 'corporate garage' in which the bank experiments with innovative business models that are relevant to society. His team focuses on areas such as the bank as a platform and blockchain. He is also point man for scouting of FinTech startups for collaboration with the bank. Linkedin |
Numan Numan (Turkey) currently is a Managing Director at 212, has a solid background in enterprise systems and global technology services. Numan utilizes his 20 years of experience to analyze technology venture companies, identify their needs, and provide customized solutions for each enterprise. Linkedin |
Eggert Claessen (Iceland) is Managing Partner of Frumtak Ventures, investing in post-seed companies. As such he works actively in following on investments in their portfolio companies and he is active in the start-up scene both as an investor and as a mentor. Linkedin |
Benjami Puigdevall (Spain) is Managing Director Electronic Channels at La Caixa Bank and CEO of the so-called "e-la Caixa". He is responsible for the development of all the electronic channels of Caixa Bank, including home banking, mobiles, digital network and ATMs. Linkedin Only Online Judge |
Jonathan Webster (UK) Chief Information Officer, Digital & Information at Lloyds Banking Group. He believes that digitization is central to becoming the best bank for its customers. Prior to his current job Jonathan was Chief Operating Officer, Group Digital and Partner at KPMG. Linkedin |
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Sake Bosch (Netherlands), managing director of Prime Ventures, is a well known and successful entrepreneurial investor in fast growing internet and technology companies in Europe. Sake brings over 25 years of experience in marketing and sales and venture capital to Prime. Linkedin |
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Paul Morgenthaler (Germany) is from CommerzVentures, which is the corporate venture capital fund of Commerzbank. They back early- and growth-stage companies in the financial services and insurance sectors, starting at Series A. Linkedin |
Mali Marafini (UK) is advocate at Tech London Advocate, mentor at Level 39, Startupbootcamp FinTech and Seedcamp and CEO of Interruptiv.com. Interruptiv is an innovation hub for Intrepreneurial ventures bridging gaps between emergent Fintech, challenging firms and market structures. Linkedin |
Christoffer Hernaes (Norway) is Vice President of Strategy, Innovation and Analysis from SpareBank 1 Group, which is Norways second largest financial institution. Christoffer is a renowned public speaker and thought-leader on the future of banking. Passionate about innovation and digital disruption, currently focusing on FinTech. Linkedin |
Sergio Zocchi (Italy) is Managing Partner at United Ventures and an experienced entrepreneur, having co-founded and managed several companies in the technology space. Sergio works as an expert for the European Commission on programs supporting Entrepreneurship and Innovation across Europe. Linkedin |
Massimo Bondanza (Italy) is Co-Founder at UniCredit's BuddyBank, which is the brand new capital light and mobile only bank to stand FinTech challenges. Offering a pure mobile customer experience, founded on a secure, light and adaptable Open API IT architecture, designed to transform the "FinTech Attack" into a business opportunity. Linkedin |
Alessandro Bandera (Italy) is Head of Business Development & Analysis at Banca IMI, the investment bank of Intesa Sanpaolo. From idea generation, feasibility studies, planning, economics and compliance evaluation to piloting and go to market of the project, he is fully responsible for the delivery of new products and innovation projects for different business units. Linkedin Only Online Judge |
John Meehan (Ireland) the partner responsible for FinTech at Arma Partners. John is an experienced M&A banker focused on the FinTech sector covering capital markets, banking/wealth management, insurance and payments. Before John worked for Goldman Sachs and Barclays. Linkedin |
Guillaume Dubray (Switzerland) is Managing Partner of Polytech ventures, an early stage VC investing in digital startups with a focus on FinTech. Besides Guillaume is the founder of FUSION, Switzerland's first FinTech accelerator based in Geneva. He has 15 years of experience in investment management and corporate finance. Linkedin |
Manish Madhvani (UK) is Co-Founder and MD of GP Bullhound. Manish has executed M&A and capital raising transactions since 1997, involving some of the best known global internet, software and media companies. Manish who was selected as one of the top 40 dealmakers globally by M&A Advisor, started his career at Barclays Capital’s Private Equity team. Linkedin |
Edwin Hengstmengel (Netherlands) is Partner at Endeit Capital, a venture capital firm providing growth capital for passionate internet entrepreneurs. They focus on digital media & marketing, eCommerce, advertising, educational & financial technology and mobile. Linkedin Only Online Judge |
Thibaut de Smedt (France) is Managing Partner at Bryan Garnier & Co, which is an independent investment banking firm focused on fast-growing companies and growth-oriented investors. Bryan, Garnier & Co offers the full range of investment banking capabilities and institutional brokerage resources. Linkedin |
Herwig Springer (Austria) is CEO Corporate Development at i5invest. They provide Business Development and Seed Capital and subsequent Corporate Development support with international exits that opens up opportunities for founders and acquirers alike with synergy potential based on scalable business models. Linkedin |
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Ricardo de Campos (Poland) is Senior Director Electronic Banking at Bank Millennium. He has a proven track-record of success during the development of the digital transformation in banking. He is Digital Transformation Expert who brings deep understanding of conventional banking to the digital/technology side. Linkedin |
David Dab (Belgium) is Chief Innovation Officer ING Belgium and strongly affiliated with the FinTech Village, the first FinTech specific accelerator of Belgium. He has extensive experience in financial services and innovation combined with broad experience in FinTech. Linkedin |
Nic Smalle (South-Africa) is currently at Apis Partners, a Private Equity firm focused on investments in the Financial Services sector across Africa, South Asia and South East Asia. They invest growth equity (i.e. minority investments) in Financial Services companies looking to expand into new geographies, complementary product verticals or across their value chain. Linkedin |
Liisa Kanniainen (Finland) is Vice-President Payment Vision at Nordea. She is a globally recognized senior payments professional with a strong background in mobile financial service and product development. Understands the impacts of market disruption and is a committed driver of new value creation in financial services through pivotal innovation Linkedin |
Pawel Ciesielsi (Poland) is Partner at HardGamma Ventures, looking for and investing in startups within the software, hardware, IoT and mobile environments which already have an existing product or a service and are proven to gain initial customer or revenue traction. Linkedin |
Alexis Thieriet (UK) is Managing Partner of NovitasFTCL. NovitasFTCL provides senior, bespoke, and totally independent corporate finance and corporate development advisory services to clients - either established businesses, cutting edge ventures, PE and VC investors, or management teams - operating within the FinTech industry. Linkedin |
Michael Gröber (Germany) founded Castik Capital Partners, a pan-European Private Equity firm based in Luxembourg. They held a first close at €650 million and a final close at its hard cap of €1 billion. Castik Capital Partners focus on identifying and developing investment opportunities across Europe. Linkedin Only Online Judge |
John Hucker (Switzerland) is President of SwissFinTe.CH, the Swiss Finance and Technology Association. John is also the founder and chair of the operating board of FinTeCH Meetup. Previously, he was the FinTech subject matter expert for Credit Suisse's Digital Private Banking Innovation Team. Linkedin |
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Daniel Gasteiger (Switzerland) is co-founder of Nexussquared, which is platform with a focus on blockchain technology and its application to financial services business models. Daniel Gasteiger will be moderator during the event's session on Blockchain. Linkedin |
Abe Finkelstein (Israel) is General Partners at Vintage Investment Partners, which is Israel’s only active fund of funds, largest secondary fund and leading late stage co-investment group. Vintage currently has roughly $1 billion under management across eight funds and managed discretionary accounts. Vintage’s funds invest in Israel, Europe and the U.S. Linkedin |
Richard Brown (UK) is Partner at Santander InnoVentures, which is Banco Santander's global $100Mn FinTech fund. They provide equity financing to FinTech startup companies in relevant areas to the bank. Interests include digital delivery of financial services, e-commerce and payments, online lending, e-financial investments, big data analytics. Linkedin Only Online Judge |
Benjamin Britt (USA) is General Partner at Route 66 Ventures, which is a private investment firm focused on helping entrepreneurs shape the financial services landscape of tomorrow by providing Venture Capital and Credit solutions to emerging financial technology and services companies. Linkedin Only Online Judge |
Marc Oerke (Germany) is Head of Digital Corporate Ventures at Allianz Group. This is the digital corporate venturing part of Allianz investing in interesting InsurTech and FinTech companies. In this way they give impetus to their digital innovation. Linkedin |
Johan Lundberg (Sweden) is Founding Partner and CEO of NFT Ventures, which is an investment firm with a large expertise in the Northern European payment market and large focus on payment cards, transactions and other bank related products/services. They provide their entrepreneurs with cash funding, expert guidance and increased exposure and visibility. Linkedin |
These experts are seasoned, investors, academics, marketeers, entrepreneurs with an extensive track record in finance and/ or technology. Experts form the panel of judges that choose the best European fintech companies. They are more than happy to assist FinTech companies in growing their business. Suggest additional experts, email alex@vangroningen.nl call Alex at + 31 6 50 643 283.