Fintech 2030: The Unicorn Roadmap

[Music] welcome it's so good to have you all here so we're going to be talking about the Unicorn road map for fintech 2030 and if you didn't pay attention to that intro my name is Divan ner and I work at hub71 where I get to oversee the startup journey and work with some phenomenal inspiring entrepreneurs one of them is here with us today his name is co onava he's the co-ceo of bit to me which is Spain's leading crypto exchange platform So Co why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself we're going to go off script so tell us about yourself and a little bit about what made you build bit to me first of all thank you for having me here you are welcome super excited this place smells like strawberries quick show of hands who has uh Bitcoin who holds Bitcoin it's the safest city in the world yeah they're not going to rob you okay that's that's enough uh my name is co I grew up between Japan Spain in the Philippines where I had firsthand experience on how hard it was to send money abroad and also the the great experience of being in Europe and in Japan where the capital markets are much more accessible than than places like the Philippines for example when I moved to Spain we set up bit to me to solve a very complicated problem which was crypto this was back in 2015 it was we weird it was magic internet money it was unsafe nobody understood it and we we sought out to solve that problem and but doing so we created virtually the world's largest Spanish First Academy for crypto we have about six to 10 million unique alumni per year and in that converted them into our brokerage exch and exchange um and and we're continuing our vision to doing that by growing our retail business obviously in Europe the GCC and LA America but more importantly we appify the entire app which you can download also bit to me so that Banks can offer the same crypto products to hundreds and millions of their customers through our liquidity and wallet infrastructure and this will start January next year as as regulations for crypto and the European European Union become much more uh clear yeah so you talked about regulation just now so that was going to be one of my questions how do you navigate this because especially in the fintech space let alone crypto regulation is very much needed so how are you navigating that or I also know that you're the first uh approved partner with the bank of Spain at an exchange platform so how did that work and how did that influence the your growth so regulation or the absence of Regulation before was our biggest blocker and the the only way to fix that was to establish trust and through not just our Academy but also doing seminars and and educational sessions with the bank of Spain the ministry of Defense the Interpol FBI all these things how we talked about anti-money laundering issues we had to establish this trust first and eventually one in in you know the late 202 late part of our journey Europe decided to regulate and so we we were there to help them and and and and really have a dialogue with them and so establishing trust is is is number one and I think I'm really glad of where we are now with regulation because now it's not a blocker right now it's an accelerator yeah so fintech is a highly competitive space so a lot of startups that are seeing I mean we see a lot of startups that apply in the fintech space how are you staying ahead like what sets you apart from the competition number one in in Europe we're an onshore company which means we adhere to all of the you know rules locally and that's important and so we can't we we're able to show the banks and financial institutions government who's also our customers that we are regulated by all of your governing bodies and governance is still done in Europe and so we're personally liable if anything happens so first we don't want to go to jail and then second we want our business to flourish and so those are two very major incentives I think for doing things right that is true so how does that work when you want to expand into new markets because that's also another critical part for all startups they need to start scaling looking at Market expansions and with crypto it's such a volatile market so how do you deal with the volatility and the expansion I guess so two two two-part question right one is expanding into different markets is always hard and expensive we were kind of radioactive to VC firms in the past nobody would touch crypto and that forced us to be a bootstrap company so we've been profitable ever since we started the company until this day and so that also means that we can't just go and Splurge by opening new markets and so our strategy then focuses and shifts into partnering up with the right people and the right companies and so how we're doing Latin America for example is we're piggybacking on the banks that have distribution there to over 400 million customers and we will plug in our liquidity in our wallet with them and also with the Telos and by doing this we aligned with them by asking them to invest in our company during the first time we we did around we did our first round ever just uh two years ago um and that was kind of like our I guess a series a size we've we've all in all we've raised about 40 million and then another we're closing another 40 million now another 40 million another but that that comes in a very small amount of time before that we were we were really just kind of you know holding our breath and and the second part of your question is during the volatility especially during volatility right so if anybody here who knows crypto it's cyclical bare markets are are well are nice but crypto Winters are just bad and so you have to fix and and and adjust accordingly for example we're not going to be throwing ads at you on how to trade Bitcoin and crypto in crypto Market we're going to show you how do you earn yield from depositing stable coin what is a stable coin why is it much better to get yield there rather than keeping your money in Fiat in a bank um how can we help you send money across and and save you money so giving value and adjusting the business during the volatility is key to keep you alive and then I think investors see that so when we when we went out to raise uh additional funding then obviously we came into a position of strength and and and with a lot of Battle Scars also well for everyone in the audience who's not trading crypto or you know a lot like me still learning what this industry is like Bitcoin good that's what I've been told but um how does a everyday non web3 bro access B web 3 bro and how does how does anyone else how does bimy support that or support anyone first is to educate yourself I mean this isn't some type of Casino although sometimes it may seem like that it's it's really not crypto is there's stable coins where people are sending money abroad really cheaply in Argentina for example it used to be impossible for them to get exposure to the dollar and now they just kind of walk in and now they just literally download an app and they can hedge their own currency and send money across Spain and Argentina cheaply and transparently and fast so that's one part of crypto the other one is looking at it as a speculative asset like bit like Bitcoin and see what does that mean in terms of your overall investment strategy kind of what I what we call first world problems or rich rich people problems and then and then and just getting to know more about what the digital asset space in general means right so you're tokenizing real world assets that's kind of like a buzzword now too and how that's going to play play alongside the the the Global Financial system so I think education is number one and see where your interests lie you can be interested in one area and then work on that and and and yeah we all need Builders and investors in this space to keep it going we all want this to succeed right yeah so we have this so anyone here can just download the app today anyone here can download the app I store Android bit to me and you talked about the bit to me Academy so that's going to be something that they can access on the app that's on the app yeah with the Rosetta Stone of crypto we have crypto news everything's on the app it's like a super app okay so looking ahead at I mean the topic for today is the road map for 20 30 what do you see as the trends and the disruptions and what's coming that people should be paying attention to people should be paying attention to where um their interest lie and how this new technology can start fixing problems there CU like crypto and blockchain is kind of like talking about AI also just a is just a technology layer the problem we're solving or we solved is making it easier and safe for people to get into it in and out of it right but then others are solving problems that blockchain and crypto does solve as well and so I would like encourage anybody to study to be passionate about what they want to solve and then see if this technology makes sense you can't just put anything on blockchain and and use it or just like AI too right it's just it's just it's it's an upgrade so we talk about financial systems I'm really excited about stable coins around the world I think real settlement of money on chain instantly and transparently is a game Cher something that we're still struggling with banks and trust me like I have four banks on my board this is something that we talk about all the time that's what's that's what I'm personally passionate about and looking to do so that my kids will have wallets before they have bank accounts or their bank account has a wallet either or that as you start I mean today you've been coined the a minicorn or a sunic corn to be what is the next two years look look like for you and the team so the MAA regulation in the European Union if if not if some of you are familiar means that crypto is and will be legal and that means we can there's clear framework on what we can sell how we can sell it I'm really excited about that because the banks have now are now integrating our infrastructure so that they can start offering the same products we offer so we're not we're actually not competing against them we're going to be helping them move faster uh to come into this space and I think in especially here in the GCC through Abu Dhabi which is the most advanced and crypto-friendly jurisdiction in my opinion is uh has almost like the responsibility and and uh to to to help push this globally the amount of trade that comes through around the world through through the UAE is um substantial and if we can help small companies and big companies move money faster and cheaper everybody benefits from that okay well Cole I can see like time is always flying when uh the two of us are speaking I get to talk to him quite a lot but I appreciate you being here and sharing your insights um for the audience there's a lot of investors startups innovators that are here what's one piece of advice that you would like to share with everyone or maybe something that happened in your journey that you are like guys watch out for this watch out for this or advice anything you want to leave us with um in our company we we like to say something Spanish it's called which is good people who do good things or good people who are good at doing things and I think surrounding yourself I've learned with that type of people is really important it goes for the board the employee the even the clients um they're not always right that's that's really important and just have fun in the process this is not my first company that we F that I founded and and and I hope to God that we become or inshah right we become uh a unicorn if not it's okay but you know I'm I'm I'm pretty confident that we're we're way on our we're well on our way because of this advice like we're we we're very strict on who we surround oursel with um especially I mean evident now that we're with ob in T1 we're both wearing green good answer we planned this all all along um I think that's the main advice have fun keep your head down talk less do more talk less do more well thank you for sharing that Co and thank you for being here and thank you to our audience that was a very fast 15 minutes so thank you for thank you guys being with us [Music]