The Fintech Revolution: SELISE’s Advancements Towards the Digitalization of Finance
January 5, 2017
Initially a highly regulated, non-disruptive industry dominated mostly by banks, the world of finance is now shifting to more flexible methods of operation. Prior to the increase in popularity of fintech firms, the process of obtaining capital had involved tediously going through layers of regulations. Even though lower interest rates made capital cheaper, additional procedures and protocols increased the complexity of accessing such capital through the traditional banking channels. As a result, these raised newer barriers for both lenders and debtors, which in turn further fueled the chase for alternatives.
It can be said therefore, that the advent and consequential popularity of fintech firms came at a most opportune time. Taking into consideration the trends following the crash of 2007-08, it has been consistently observed that people are slowly but surely finding more reliance in being able to manage their money and businesses online.
Evidently, a large number of startups are now ready to revolutionise the industry, ranging from innovative online payment solutions to wealth management and involving dimensions as diverse as peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding.
SELISE in Fintech
Keeping constant innovation at its core, SELISE had the pleasure of working with numerous fintech companies over the years – each presenting unique needs and challenges. From developing game-changing platforms from scratch to business consultancy for streamlining core process, the objective was always the same: craft software solutions that are simple, yet ingenious- solutions that expedite the fintech movement by offering not only improved transparency, but also ones which get the job done effectively and efficiently. These were mostly achieved through the creation of several modern, scalable web platforms and mobile applications.
SELISE is not just limiting its potential to developing solutions, but regularly finds itself consulting and being actively involved in the strategic layers of its partners, ensuring synergy with tech and business, and optimizing profitability. It stays strong in its motive to help partners engage with emerging innovations and seeks to make them reimagine the way they could function, thereby strengthening its foothold in the fintech industry one business at a time. This relentless effort has given SELISE the trust of many valuable partners, all of who place a great deal of reliance in their team and their technology.
Investiere
The SELISE and investiere partnership, which was the first of many fintech projects conducted by the former, began in 2012. SELISE was tasked with having to provide the technological support for the investiere platform as it is known now, and contributed greatly for its later success.
Today, investiere has developed into an elaborate platform that not only serves the purpose of crowdinvesting, but also boasts a complete VC investment cycle that goes back to its beginning . It continues to successfully bring together entrepreneurs, experts, and investors alike to facilitate the growth of promising European start-ups. As such it has provided a staggering amount of 19 million CHF in funding 47 startups, and has recently closed a financial round of CHF 3.5 million with Zürcher Kantonalbank.
Creditworld
creditworld is a web-based peer-to-peer lending platform and connects Swiss SMEs to private and professional investors. By using an online platform, the administrative overheads that classical banks have, can be reduced significantly so that investors and borrowers both get better conditions. While the investors get attractive returns on their investment, the SME economy is provided with capital for growth.
The platform, developed by SELISE, is simple and easily comprehensible. Potential borrowers can apply online for loans through the platform. After a loan receives the necessary minimum rating from creditworld’s external rating partner Euler Hermes (part of the Allianz group), investors get access to the detailed information and can make an investment decision. Once a loan transaction has reached enough commitments, the loan will be executed over creditworld’s platform and the Investors start receiving semi-annual interest payments.
CrowdCoopFunding
Following an overwhelming acceptance of crowdfunding in venture capital, SELISE was provided with an exciting challenge by the Vienna based CCF team. CCF, an abbreviation for crowd cooperative funding, is an initiative launched out of the Austrian Cooperatives Association (ÖGV) and stands for the digitalization of the funding and membership management process of cooperatives.
After a series of intense discovery sessions, SELISE developed the Coop Center- a marketplace for cooperatives and potential investors. The platform boasts an engine that automatically computes liability and termination dates, which works to establish CrowdCoopFunding as a pioneer in the industry. Following this, cooperative owners found a much needed ease in reaching out to potential investors through their business profiles in the Coop Center.
NoiBox
On the native app foray, SELISE has partnered with NoiBox to build both an Android and an iOS app. Designed to be an app that operates as a digital wallet and as a SIM card manager, NoiBox strives to mobilize financial versatility. Its counterpart in the context of the digital wallet system is that of Naka Mobile, and the Naka e-wallet solution works diligently to facilitate contactless money transactions as well. Find more about Naka Mobile’s aforementioned money transactions via smartphones here.
SELISE was tasked with providing the mobile technology as well as the user interaction design, that would compliment the NoiBox backend and bring the e-wallet concept to life. Both partners are mutual believers of the benefits of ingenious simplicity. This partnership highly facilitates NoiBox in its aim to connect individuals, buyers and sellers in way that is easy, fast, secure and generally affordable, making it a rather differentiated player in the fintech industry.
Blue Code
In 2014 Bluecode was still in its infancy. Today, they are one of Europe’s fastest growing mobile payment solutions. SELISE developed their first mobile apps on iOS and Android, as well as delivered a scalable ISO 8583 transaction backend that sits between Bluecode and their partner banks. The partnership between SELISE and Bluecode was efficacious, and propelled the latter to a position where they could scale up. Today Bluecode runs their development onsite with a team of internal engineers.
SELISE and Financial Corporations
Besides collaborating with startups, SELISE acts as an innovation partner on various fintech topics to multinational corporations as well. Corporations utilize SELISE’s startup expertise in various different business units and countries to inject innovation into their well established, yet due for change business models. SELISE’s contributions for large corporations are made mainly in the domains of customer onboarding, business reporting, partner management, virtual advisory, OCR, SEO and web content dissemination.
While the traditional methods of obtaining capital are overwhelmingly accrued from fees and charges, the unbundling of the banking model has led the financial services market to see drastic changes. However, true change in this sector is not down to new technology, but to innovation in the business models that technology can affect. Therefore, it is not only the expertise to securely utilize the newest technologies, but also the understanding of how to inject innovation into fintech business models that helps SELISE to extend its footprint as a solution provider to the digitalization and democratization of finance.