2023 Unwrapped: Our (Fin)Tech Year in Review
🎄Happy Holidays (Fin)Tech Fans and Enthusiasts!
As we are about to close an extremely successful year, we would like to thank all our team members, partners, clients, and readers for making 2023 a success.
We would also like to use this opportunity to rewind and reflect.
Image: Unsplash
Contextual Solutions’ (Fin)Tech Year in Review
2023 was very productive for us.
In January, we started offering a monthly German Fintech Market Overview to Fintech Istanbul readers to inform them about market developments.
Additionally, in January, we finalized the German Fintech Market Report together with our outstanding partner, Fintech Consult. Sponsored by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and Netherlands Business Support Office (NBSO), the German Fintech Market Report provides an end-to-end overview of the German market and provides information and tools for tech companies that are interested in a German expansion.
The report was later introduced and presented at an Amsterdam event hosted by Holland Fintech.
2023 was the year we closed additional lucrative and insightful partnerships to cover further expertise in the EU, MENA, the US, and the UK. These new partnerships allow us to provide more seniority and niche know-how our clients need for their projects.
We became members of the Rainmaker Society, Holland Fintech, OYO Network, WBN Network, and many other sector-relevant organizations.
We expanded our freelancer and partner network to strengthen our client outsourcing experience.
In addition, we have added eight new temporary and permanent members to our team, tripled the number of active Clients/Projects in our portfolio, and started working with entrepreneurs and companies from the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Ecuador, Turkey, and, naturally, Germany. Feel free to visit us at Zionskirchplatz in 2024 for a stimulating exchange and flat white.
In March, we unboxed our newsletter and have been delivering monthly relevant ecosystem news and exclusive event discounts to our happy readers. Sign-up here.
Our Founder, Elif Kocaoglu Ulbrich, was awarded as an Innovative Women Inventor Runner-up by FICPI - International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys in April and recognized as a top finance professional to follow on LinkedIn by Manda Software in December. In addition, she was selected twice for the LinkedIn Creator Program, learning about the advanced art of using LinkedIn. You can enjoy some of her featured articles on AI scam prevention, the Digital Services Act (DSA), Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse, the BigTech super app race, and more by following her.
Elif joined the Digital Euro Association as an expert in the summer. She also attended guest lectures and gave workshops at the Berlin International University of Applied Sciences, University of Europe for Applied Sciences, HMKW Hochschule für Medien, Kommunikation und Wirtschaft, Hackquarters, Fintech Istanbul and Westerwelle.
InnoMaps, an interactive tech ecosystem tool, was also launched in cooperation with Clara and Fintech Consult in 2023. The first showcases, including an interactive map of the German blockchain ecosystem, was released.
In November, we celebrated the launch of the new Istanbul Blockchain Women Book “BLOKZİNCİR: Sektörleri Dönüştüren Teknoloji” on blockchain use cases, including Elif’s chapter.
This year, we were featured by Fortune Turkiye, Dataconomy, PSM Mag, Informed, NEWSBTC, Capital Magazin, Fintechnews Switzerland, GTAI, Payment & Banking, Koinbulteni, LBmag (Linkingbridge mag), WHU InPraxi Mag and Coindesk.
Last but not least, we attended many tech events in a journalist or speaker capacity in 2023. You can find the summaries below:
The First Turkish Strategic Fintech Congress by the Union of Turkish Bar Associations
Europas Startup Awards
We want to use this space to reveal our gratitude and thanks to Jeremy, Valentina, Deniz, Natalie, Sylvie, Valerie, Anita, Dan, Alex, Merve, and our excellent partners for their contributions, dependability, and hard work.
What’s Planned for 2024?
We plan to attend DLD Munich in January and Frankfurt Digital Finance in February and report the hottest trends.
We are in the process of converting into a more structured corporation to reflect our growth and maturity after four years.
Additionally, we are expanding! We are planning new office/s in different locations to have closer contact with our clients and partners.
As always, fresh new content and reports will continue to be delivered to you via our blog and content partners straight into your inbox!
We look forward to unfolding the new chapter for our clients and partners in 2024 and wish you all a great start to the new year.
Cheers to new joint achievement stories in 2024!
Sincerely,
2023’s Popular Tech Content
We have compiled some original articles, interviews, and contributions we were involved in this year. Click on the links to catch up:
Selected Featured Articles:
· The Era of Mediocracy is Over – What's Next for Startups? 🇬🇧 (LinkedIn)
· The State of The FinTech Ecosystem In Germany 🇬🇧 (Fintalent)
· Digital Detox for Productivity 🇬🇧 (LinkedIn)
· MICA Regulation 🇹🇷 (Fortune Turkey)
· The German FinTech Market and its Relevance for Turkish FinTech Players 🇬🇧 (Fintech Istanbul)
· Fintech for Beginners 🇹🇷 (Lexpera Blog)
· 25+ Positive Effects of the COVID-19 Lockdown 🇬🇧 (Netguru)
· Goldman und Apple: Trennung mit Hindernissen 🇩🇪 (Capital Mag)
· Advice From Three Female Founders For International Women's Month 🇬🇧 (Athena Leaders)
Selected Interviews with Tech Entrepreneurs and Executives:
· Germany’s Best FinTech Product-Market-Fit Examples – Raisin GmbH 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 (Payment & Banking)
· An Interview with Ilker Sozdinler of United Payment 🇹🇷 (Fintech Istanbul)
· An Interview with Omar Halabi and Mohamad El Haj of Yolla! 🇹🇷 🇬🇧 (Fintech Istanbul)
· An Interview with Paula Schwarz and Roman Lipski 🇬🇧 (NEWSBTC)
· Expert Coffee Talk with Morten Laufer 🇬🇧 (LinkedIn)
· Expert Coffee Talk with Leitha Matz 🇬🇧 (LinkedIn)
Our Selected Blog Pieces:
· The Tectonic Shift in European Fintech: A 2024 Outlook
· Record-breaking Binance punishment could be good news for FinTech
· Is artificial intelligence demoralizing tech employees? It is, according to the experts.
· How OpenAI Showed Silicon Valley’s Ugly-Side
· Where Does Metaverse Rank in the Trend Scale?
· Banks Have Been Caught Red-Handed Committing ESG Fraud – or Have They?
· Does Fintech Have a Revenue Fraud Problem?
· PSD3 overview: the draft has pitfalls lurking amongst the good intentions
· Stablecoins: A Cornerstone of the Modern Payment Infrastructure
· Crypto Trends in Business & Beyond - Key Findings (2023)
· Unveiling the Convergence of Financial Services and the Digital Age
· Coordinating Regulatory Frameworks for Crypto-Assets
· Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity: Potential Benefits and Challenges
· Digital Markets Act has big implications for online "gatekeepers" in the EU
· The perfect German market entry strategy: What is the best way to enter Germany?
· MiCA: the EU gets serious about crypto regulation
· Fintech boom continues but needs better regulation - World Bank report
· Are the machines coming for us? Stanford 2023 AI report reveals al
· Agile Retrospective Framework for Business Owners and Entrepreneurs
Selected Podcasts, Live Broadcasts and Videos:
· Tomorrow Girişimcilik Çağı: Dünya'da ve Türkiye'de Fintech Gelişmeleri: Elif Kocaoglu Ulbrich & Soner Canko
· Netguru - How to successfully internationalize a (Fin)Tech Solution with Filip Sobiecki and Elif Kocaoglu Ulbrich
· Rainmaker Society - LinkedIn - Pain or Gain?
· MDA Training – Creating a Culture of Continuous Learning with Paul Hewett, Oz Hussein, and Elif Kocaoglu Ulbrich
· The Mary Poppins of Startups Show - What is an MVP? What is it good for? With James Hodgson and Naily Makangu
