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The FIBE Berlin festival took place in Berlin on April 24th and 25th and it was not just a conference. It was a vibrant gathering that took place in Messe City Cube Berlin. Şebnem Elif Kocaoğlu Ulbrich of Contextual Solutions attended the event and shared her notes and observations via FinTech Istanbul. Read them here.

Since 2016, the FinTech Germany Award has been awarded annually to leading start-up and scaleup companies in the finance universe. What happened in the 2023 edition? Click here to find out.

Seamless Europe, Seamless team's first EU attempt, took place in Berlin on October 18-19. What were the highlights? Read on FinTech Istanbul (Turkish content).

Şebnem Elif Kocaoğlu Ulbrich recently attended BaFinTech, the German event bridging regulators and innovators, in Berlin on behalf of FinTech Istanbul and made some notes.

What were the highlights of BaFinTech 2023? Read here.

Another Money 20/20 came to an end. Money 20/20 was not about trend-setting or prediction in 2023. Instead, the event in Amsterdam evaluated the status quo in the current economic era.

Who attended Money 20/20? What was discussed? Click on this link to read about the hottest trends debated in Amsterdam this year.

What were the highlights of Finovate Europe that took place in London in March 2023?
Şebnem Elif Kocaoğlu Ulbrich's in-depth analysis featured by FinTech Istanbul includes interesting insights. Check it out now.

We were invited to observe Sifted Summit '22 on October 5th and 6th in London. We gathered our impressions and the highlights of the talks, including the ones about economic resilience and metaverse, in a short article for FinTech Istanbul readers. Check it out.

As usual, in June, Money20/20 in Amsterdam was the go-to event for the European fintech ecosystem, bringing together representatives from all over the world.

What were the highlights? Access Şebnem Elif Kocaoğlu Ulbrich’s event summary here, including an exclusive interview with Pav Gill, the whistleblower of Wirecard.

The FRANKFURT DIGITAL FINANCE Conference, alongside the inaugural European Fintech Day, attracted nearly 1,000 participants from the fintech sector in February.
What were the highlights? Find out via our FinTech Istanbul coverage, using this link.

DLD Munich was the first innovation conference of 2024 in Germany.
What were the highlights? Find out via Şebnem Elif Kocaoğlu's FinTech Istanbul coverage.

Bits & Pretzels, the German networking-heavy entrepreneurship conference, has continued since 2016 with the motto “the event from founders to founders,” bringing celebrities to the Bavarian Capital to inspire and be inspired.

As expected, Şebnem Elif Kocaoğlu Ulbrich was on-site this year and made some notes for our readers. You can read the featured event summary on FinTech Istanbul.

The First Turkish Strategic Fintech Congress by the Union of Turkish Bar Associations Financial Technology Commission took place in Ankara and Istanbul in June.

Şebnem Elif Kocaoğlu Ulbrich participated in the Istanbul part of the event and delivered a speech about embedded banking, its pros and cons, and how this domain should be regulated. Read the summary.

Bringing together financial innovation and FinTech enthusiasts from around the world, Money 20/20 Europe ‘22 offered an intellectual treat to its participants. Let’s take a look at the highlights of the 3-day event in Amsterdam via Fintech Istanbul. This article was featured on the Money 20/20 Website.

If there is a silver lining to Britain, the apple of the European FinTech ecosystem’s eye, leaving the EU, it’s that the pivotal industry conferences started shifting more to Continental Europe, making these events more accessible (and economical) globally. Thus, we were among the European FinTech enthusiasts that greeted Finovate’s Continental Europe debut in Berlin in 2020 favorably and shared our observations with FinTech Istanbul.

Turkiye was represented with a crowded delegation at Money 20/20 this year. Due to the increase in the number of Turkish sponsors and individual companies participating in the event compared to previous years, we thought it appropriate to prepare a separate article specially for Turkish participants. Read more about the Turkish delegation via this link.

Do you have Web Summit FOMO? Don't worry, we got you covered.
Take a look at Şebnem Elif Kocaoğlu Ulbrich's Web Summit article, featured by FinTech Istanbul, to learn about the highlights of this year's event and the exclusive side events, including The Europas Tech Startup Awards.

Once again, Amsterdam played host to a much-anticipated event, Amsterdam FinTech Week 2023, last week.

Which discussions made their mark in FinTech history? Take a look at the summary Şebnem Elif Kocaoğlu Ulbrich prepared for FinTech Istanbul.

BNPL, Crypto, and FinTech in Germany: What were the highlights of the Finance Forward Conference 2023 #ffwd23? Here is the link for the talks and headlines Sebnem Elif Kocaoglu Ulbrich covered for FinTech Istanbul on-site.

Frankfurt Digital Finance hosted 600 people on February 2023.

What were the highlights? Read Sebnem Elif Kocaoglu Ulbrich's observations, featured by Fintech Istanbul (Turkish content).

We had the pleasure of representing FinTech Istanbul in Paris in 2020 and noted the key learnings (including an executive summary at the end) for everyone too busy to attend. Check it out on FINTECH Istanbul Blog.

AI should be regulated and monitored. Nevertheless, is the regulation in motion sufficient to prevent AI-based scams? How can we protect ourselves (and others) from AI-based scams? Continue reading Sebnem Elif Kocaoglu Ulbrich’s latest article to learn about scam tactics and prevention pointers (featured by LinkedIn).

❓ What does the collapse of the #siliconvalleybank mean for the #Fintech industry?

Şebnem Elif Kocaoğlu Ulbrich analyzed the situation recently. Check her article "Look Closer: Silicon Valley Bank's Collapse and the FinTech Predictions for 2023," featured by the #LinkedIn editorial team on the Daily Rundown: Top headlines by LinkedIn News.

Are you a beginner to FinTech? Don't worry; we got you covered. Check out our "Fintech for Beginners" article featured by Lexpera and Fintech Istanbul (available in Turkish) to get a comprehensive overview.

What are the chances and opportunities in Fintech for SMEs? Is there more than just payments? How can small business owners utilize embedded finance?

Check out Simon Ulbrich's recent article on the DIE MITTELLÄNDISCHE ZEITUNG to learn more (available only in German).

Did you know that digital addiction can be more harmful than cigarette addiction? Check out <“Nomophobia” Threatens Financial Services>, our new article about financial service providers' responsibilities toward the growing digital and financial literacy gap, featured by Fintech Istanbul.

If consumer brands are becoming #finserv providers, where would this movement leave banks, then?

👉🏼 Take a look at the analysis we wrote for the LHoFT on #embeddedfinance and #holisticbanking before you leave for your well deserved summer vacation.👇🏼

This year, summer ushers in something a bit more than sundowners and a well-deserved vacation: gradual ease into normalization and returning to the office. Several companies plan to return to the offices (partially or fully) as of September. Conferences and festivals are preparing for their debuts. BigTech companies seem to have different approaches, but this is what’s coming sooner or later. The question is, are we ready to go back? Or more precisely are we ready to build a “new normal”?

Take a look at our two cents on remote working and the new office culture and help us understand the ecosystem developments by contributing to our anonymous survey.

What Can Europe Expect From AMLD6?

The fight against money laundering and terrorist financing is seen as the vital element to ensuring financial stability and security in Europe. AMLD6 is the latest revision of the EU AML regulations, and European credit institutions’ fight against financial crimes will take a whole new turn with the compliance deadline of June 3rd, 2021. What can we expect from it? Find out more.

Seizing the Trans-Atlantic Opportunity

European FinTech unicorns have been planning to undercut the US ecosystem players for a while. Last year Monzo, N26, and Revolut announced a US market roll-out one after another. Competition rule number one is, don’t be number two. Is peer-pressure the only explanation for the persistency to increase footprint in the US, though? Read more about our insights on US expansion via the FINTECH CIRCLE Blog.

August 25th marked the beginning of a new digital ecosystem in the EU, enforced by the Digital Services Act (DSA). What are the expected changes, and how will the consumers be impacted? Read Elif Kocaoglu Ulbrich's article, featured on LinkedIn daily news, to find out.

Business ownership requires a full-time commitment. Regardless, we are all human and must "close shop" and take time off occasionally. But how to unplug when you are used to thinking about work 24/7? Check out our helpful tips.

Is it time to retire the word "unicorn" as a measure of success for startups? If so, what would we call billion-dollar tech startups in the future? Do they even need a name?

Read "The Era of Mediocracy is Over – What's Next for Startups?" by Şebnem Elif Kocaoğlu Ulbrich to learn more.

Product-Market-Fit is the magic point where the user needs meet with the products/services the start-up provides. 🌰 It is a tough nut to crack, especially in the thoroughly regulated and highly competitive industries like #FinTech

👓 Read Sebnem Elif Kocaoglu’s latest article “Fintech Product-Market-Fit And How To Get There” featured by our M&A partner Fintalent to understand this important milestone, its significance for FinTech and how to reach it.

Creating a new venture during economic uncertainty is not for everybody. Yet, during every crisis lies a great opportunity.

Here are our seven tips for founding or managing a tech start-up during an economic turmoil, featured by FINTECHNA.

Check out our new The LHoFT - Luxembourg House of Financial Technology opinion paper, "Cryptocurrencies: formidable or forever?," analyzing the #cryptocurrency longevity topic from #fintech, trend, consumer, and regulatory angles. 

Disclaimer: Paper not suitable for #crypto fanaticism or crucifixion.

Download link 👈

Every May, the Bitcoin Pizza Day celebrates the use of 10,000 bitcoins for the purchase of two PapaJohn’s large pizzas by Laszlo Hanyecz in 2010. At this point, 10,000 Bitcoins corresponded to anamount of USD 30-40. This year, these pizzas would have been valuated somewhere between 290 to630M USD. Are #cryptocurrencies our friends or our foes? Learn more about this topic by reading our two page analysis on the IMA Review.

Fintech Trends That Will Echo Through 2021

After such a year as 2020, uncertainty seems to be more acceptable than predictability. The turbulence we all have experienced over the last 12 months only competes with the agility and speed with which a response was delivered. Curiosity and adaptability should be the compass of our actions. FinServ players should be prepared for the foreseeable changes and be ready to adapt if things fall apart. Check out our article about industry trends to understand what to expect from 2021.

Germany En Route to More Efficient, Easier and Faster Bank & FinTech Cooperations

Bank-FinTech cooperation processes are usually tough to crack. Closing long, ambiguous contracts is often just the beginning of a lengthy onboarding process, which might take up to two years if everything goes as planned. One can visualize this process with a traditional Matryoshka doll – opening up the layers usually lead to finding more and more issues to untangle. Therefore, the Outsourcing Guidelines revealed by the Association of German Banks (bankenverband) excited the ecosystem participants. Read more about how the proposed model is expected to simplify operations for FinTechs.

With MiCA's approval, crypto asset service providers active in the EU have breathed a sigh of relief. Although this regulation is the beginning of a long process of legalization of digital assets, it is of great importance in bringing certainty to the game's rules.

Şebnem Elif Kocaoğlu Ulbrich has written a brief overview of MiCA for Fortune Turkey. Check it out.

All experts are trying to guess which BigTech will win the European Super App race. However, the real question remains "Does Europe need an all-in-one app?"

Check out Şebnem Elif Kocaoğlu Ulbrich’s new article, featured by LinkedIn News Europe, to learn more about the status quo of the super app trend and potential challenges.

What is the current state of the German FinTech landscape, including major trends, opportunities, and challenges? In our recent Fintalent article we analyzed what’s moving in the FinTech ecosystem.

What awaits the European Tech scene in 2023?

Check out the hot items on our list via this link.

Can innovation add value to #SMEs and family offices? “Absolutely” is the short answer. Family-owned businesses face the most notable challenges when it comes to #businessinnovation. Researchers believe that family businesses pattern and emotional connection to the past can hamper innovation.

How to master innovation as a family business? The answer is hidden in Sebnem Elif Kocaoglu Ulbrich’s article featured by the European Business Review.

If innovation is the creation, development, and implementation of a new product, process, or service and by definition has to include novelty, can we still call the companies centering around acquihiring innovative? Are technology companies still creators and forefronts of innovation or just financiers and supervisors?  Check out this interesting discussion on the IMA Blog.

If #FinTech were the #Superman of the financial sector, #cybersecurity would have been its kryptonite 💎

 Did you know that hundreds of #financialinstitutions and #FinTechs from Paris to Beijing were victims of significant cybercrime activities last year?

If you want to learn more, read our latest LHoFT article exploring the cybersecurity topic from market liability and digital literacy aspects, including valuable pointers.

We have put our insights about the future of banking on paper with the esteemed Dr. Soner Canko for "Reimagining Banking." Featured on Fintech Istanbul, the article analyses #contextualbanking #embeddedfinace #adaptivebusinesses and #agility at the crossroads and makes predictions for the next big thing. Check it out on the FINTECH Istanbul Blog.

COVID-19: Exploiting Finserv Vulnerabilities

Even though the pandemic accelerated opportunities for digitalization and agile infrastructures, it’s too early to break out the party hats. The demand boost for e-commerce and internet banking highlighted the vulnerabilities of many prominent corporations’ online presences and led to several major cybersecurity attacks. Click here to learn more about the vulnerabilities of financial service providers.

Şebnem Elif Kocaoğlu Ulbrich of Contextual Solutions will be featuring Germany’s Best #FinTech Product-Market-Fit Examples on Payment & Banking Blog. Her first guest was Michael Stephan of Raisin.
Click the link to learn more about Raisin’s success story

Nigel Verdon (Railsbank)

In May 2021, we sat down with Nigel Verdon, CEO & Co-founder of Railsbank about embedded finance Fintech Istanbul. Our conversation touched on everything from serial entrepreneurship to the new markets for #Railsbank. Nigel is an exceptionally successful #FinTech entrepreneur, and #banking is literally in his blood. Therefore, it was inevitable that the interview quickly filled up with essential learnings for fresh entrepreneurs; don’t miss it (available in EN & TR via Fintech Istanbul).

Hakan Eroglu (Mastercard)

On January 2021, we had a delightful conversation with Hakan Eroglu on behalf of FinTech Istanbul. During our conversation, we touched on open banking, PSD2, #SCA, and many more topics that are essential for #ecommerce and #retail as well as banking. Read the full interview using the link (EN & TR).

Dr. Drago Indjic

(Oxquant Consulting Limited)

December is the month we start questioning our business and financial decisions throughout the year. That's why in December 2019, we were pleased to present our *interview* (available in EN & TR) and *podcast expedition* (available only in English) with a special guest, Dr. Drago Indjic, discussing WealthTech and investment instruments.

Grab a cup of coffee, put on your headphones and listen to Dr. Injic's thought-provoking take on ETFs and robo-advisory using this link.

Neslihan and Taner Ortakasapbasi (identify GmbH)

We hosted Neslihan Özbugutu-Ortakasapbasi and Taner Ortakasapbasi, the founders of identify and BSS-Business Service Solution, in August 2020 to our expert interview corner. The #RegTech experts talked about the challenges and opportunities for #KYC service providers in Germany🇩🇪 and addressed digital identities' future. Read more on FinTech Istanbul (available in English and Turkish).

Leitha Matz (Zuper)

We interviewed Leitha Matz for FinTech Istanbul in June 2019. Leitha is an inspiring technology leader and a financial inclusion activist. Our chat has been quite enlightening; click on the link for more (available in English & Turkish).

"The change in corporate culture starts in the management team," says Ilker Sozdinler, Founder and CEO of United Payment, during our exclusive Money20/20 interview, featured by FinTech Istanbul.

Read more to learn about United Payment's Europe ambitions and plans (interview available in Turkish only).

Karoline Decker (FinMarie)

To grasp the total #FemTech market potential on behalf of Fintechna, we have approached one of the pioneers of the financial management FemTechs, FinMarie, in April 2021. Founded by Karolina Decker, Finmarie is a Berlin-based hybrid investment platform and is the first of its kind in Europe. We must admit that as avid supporters of fempreneurs and #financialinclusion, this interview has a special place in our hearts. Access Karoline's insights using this link.

Maria Popova

(Kempen & Co.)

We kicked off 2021 talking to Maria Popova, the Vice President at FI & Fintech corporate finance practice of Kempen & Co.
Maria is an experienced strategy and M&A professional with an impressive background and gave us a sneak-peek into 2021 about corporate finance and FinTech M&A. Check it out via the FINTECHNA Blog.

Christoph Iwaniez (Nuri)

It was very interesting to talk to Christoph Iwaniez of Nuri (former Bitwala), the world’s first #crypto #banking service that got to pass the German regulator’s test, before they grew into one of the biggest FinTechs in Berlin. Christoph was kind enough to provide valuable insights into the crypto and banking scene. Click here to read the full interview (available in EN & TR).

Michael Offermann (solarisBank)

We were featured as a guest author to Everly.eu Challenger bank news in June 2020 and had the chance to deep dive into digital assets' regulatory and practical aspects with Michael Offerman of solarisBank. As one of the first licensing applicants, solaris #DigitalAssets is shaping the industry precedence about #crypto custodian licensing. Therefore, Michael's insights are pretty noteworthy. Click on the link and take a look.

Dr. Ibrahim Karasu (bankenverband)

We discussed #openbanking in #Germany with Dr. Ibrahim Karasu, Member of the Managing Board with the Association of German Banks (BdB) for FinTech Istanbul around the end of 2019. The lessons we have learned are still with us; make sure to give it a quick read to learn more about the German banking and FinTech ecosystem.

Şebnem Elif Kocaoğlu Ulbrich recently interviewed Omar Halabi and Mohamad El Haj of yolla!, the Berliner Arab/Turkish delivery start-up, on behalf of FinTech Istanbul. Use the link to find out more about the instant delivery trend (EN & TR).

NFTs4Refugees is an NFT project that brought together talented artists, Silicon Valley creators, refugees, and a European Heiress. The project is ”saving lives, one artwork at a time,” demonstrating how artists, techies, entrepreneurs, and refugees can work in harmony, aiming to solve the issues of refugees.

🎙️Hoping to make a case study out of it, Sebnem Elif Kocaoglu Ulbrich interviewed the project’s creators, Paula Schwarz and Roman Lipski. NEWSBTC featured the article. 

Banxware

The future of banking is #embedded and female-led. Would you like to learn how? Read about our coverage of the Berlin-based #embeddedfinance platform Banxware's recent funding round.

Francisco Estevan Vítores (innsomnia)

We hosted Francisco Estevan Vítores, Co-founder and CEO of 🇪🇸Spain's biggest FinTech community Innsomnia, and talked about the Spanish #FinTech and #InsurTech scene in October 2020. Grab a cup of coffee and check it out (EN & TR).

Jan Christopher Arp

(Holt Accelerator)

Is #Canada preparing to take over the #fintech crown of the Americas?

In our recent FinTech Istanbul interview with Jan Christopher Arp of the Holt Accelerator, we explored why Canada is a preferred region for fintech startups and the nation-wide projects on the horizon, aiming to improve the #banking infrastructure. Read more here.

Klaus Driever and John Ismailoglu (Allianz)

Before the 2020 Christmas break, we prepared an #InsurTech compilation featuring two experts from Allianz, Germany's most prominent Insurance actor. In this FinTech Istanbul interview, we presented our readers with the two different sides of the coin: Klaus Driever, Managing Director of Allianz Germany🇩🇪, will be discussing digital transformation in the insurance sector, and later John Ismailoglu, Director of Expat & Startups of #Allianz F200, will take over, reflecting his impressions from the field. Click the link to access the full interview (available in English and Turkish).

Yakup Sezer (insha)

What is #IslamicFinTech, and what are the taboos around it?

In March 2020 for FinTech Istanbul, we had the chance to talk to Yakup Sezer of insha, the #German ethical neobank, about FinTech, Islamic Banking, and the European ecosystem. He additionally made some revelations about his experience in building a #FinTech #startup within a bank. 

The interview turned out to be quite engaging - make sure to give it a read (available in English & Turkish).