Barbara Gottardi, CEO & Founder, Finbridge Global

Today we're meeting Barbara Gottardi, CEO & Founder of Finbridge Global. The company is a global accreditation platform that onboards and assesses FinTech capabilities to shorten the RFI (request for information) time for Financial Institutions and Investors.

Over to you Barbara:

Who are you and what's your background?

I was born and raised in Italy (a town called Conegliano and now known as "Prosecco land"). I played basketball until Univeristy. I went to Ununiversiice and left for Dublin as I didn't really know what to do.

I slept in a hostel for few nights and found a job in a contact centre. I thought I did speak English but… when you hit Dublin you realise Irish is a different language!

I started to work for a software company that brought me to London. I then moved to Reuters, Fortis Investments and HSBC (16 years).

I was the CIO for Vanguard Europe and then I went to Admiral Money and Alvarez & Marsal as Senior Advisor.

I am now also a NED in a Bank and Board advisor.

I'm a mum of 2 teenage boys, married to a British husband and keen on sport… I might have caught the marathon bug (I ran London twice and did the London Ultra).

Fun fact: I have learned to score a cricket match (on an app) when the boys play… which I think is commendable for someone who grew up in Italy and couldn't even spell cricket!!!

What is your job title and what are your general responsibilities?

Does a job title really mean anything these days? I am supposed to be the CEO and Founder of Finbridge Global and I do everything that needs to be done to get the company moving forward…. I pitch, I demo, I test, I write documents, I manage LinkedIn, I do school drop off and pick up when I feel sorry for their cricket bags. I cook (my husband does it most of the time to be fair), I do the washing and I try keep time for fitness!

Can you give us an overview of your business?

We have created a platform to reduce wastage across the Financial Industry when Institutions are looking to partner with FinTech. We onboard and assess a fintech's capabilities and we allow Institutions to run RFI online, saving months! We also serve Investors reducing the time to search and compare. There is no place to search, assess and compare fintech down to product capabilities level. We want to drive innovation and ensure Institutions don't kill fintech in the process.

We created what the Kalifa report called 'Fintech Credential Portfolio' and push for wider usage across the industry!

Tell us how you are funded?

I have bootstrapped it as much as I could and so far we have been supported by some lovely Angel investors who believe in what we are doing and are supporting us!

What's the origin story? Why did you start the company? To solve what problems?

The problem was raised by Sir Ron Kalifa when the report was written a few years ago – there was an ask to build a FCP (Fintech Credential Platform).

The first attempt was done in partnership with TISA but it is hard for a non-profit organisation to move at the speed a fintech needs to move so we spun off and started Finbridge Global last year.

As a team, we have lived the problem when working in huge financial organisations and as a FinTech we can see the pain on the other side. Institutions want to partner with FinTech but don't quite know how to do it. The FinTech often underestimates what it takes to be fit to work with Institutions.

We are here to bridge that gap – we help FinTech to be ready to approach the right institution and we allow Institutions to reduce the time to run RFI and then onboard FinTechs.

Who are your target customers? What's your revenue model?

We have multiple customers as we are a multisided marketplace:

• FinTech – we are onboarding fintech across the Globe Financial Institutions – from Banks to Asset Management to Insurance to Building societies
• Investors – family offices and small PEs are our target market as we can save a lot of time on initial due diligence

We are charging a subscription model across the different persona but considering leaving it free for FinTechs going forward.

If you had a magic wand, what one thing would you change in the banking and/or FinTech sector?

Focus on some standardisation and teach people to truly calculate the money they waste on processes and talk!

What is your message for the larger players in the Financial Services marketplace?

• Treat money as your own – if you knew how much money an RFI costed (over £200k) would you approve it??
• Get people to focus on standards and policy but challenge lengthy processes that add no value but hide people's accountability!
• Reject mediocrity!

Where do you get your Financial Services/FinTech industry news from?

A bit everywhere but I am always a bit sceptic about what you read and what the reality is …

Can you list 3 people you rate from the FinTech and/or Financial Services sector that we should be following on LinkedIn, and why?

• Anne Boden – because what she built and how she built it is unbelievable.
• Natasa Kyprianidou – her Fintecher Stories newsletter is a good read and she is an incredible super smart woman to follow!
• And I need to add Samantha Seaton, Joanne Dewar and Sabrina Del Prete for what they are bringing to the fintech industry!

What FinTech services (and/or apps) do you personally use?

Sadly WhatsApp is probably my most used app, followed by Garmin & Strava.

My podcast app is fairly used to with 'The Rest is Politics' being my favourite podcast and the Banking App Starling Bank being my favourite.

What's the best new FinTech product or service you've seen recently?

Too many to mention but why don't you have a look at Finbridge Global… we have some really cool ones 😉

Finally, let's talk predictions. What trends do you think are going to define the next few years in the FinTech sector?

Unless the government in the UK is going to truly step in to help and support I do think many will struggle to survive.

There is a cottage industry of people taking money from the FinTechs for "helping", "connecting", "advertising", and "giving grants"… But this is often a distraction and detrimental for FinTechs to survive.

I think we need clear standards to define what it takes to be a FinTech and what FinTechs need to be able to demonstrate to work with Financial Institutions.

Thank you so much for taking the time to participate, Barbara.

You can find out more about Barbara Gottardi on LinkedIn and read more about her company, Finbridge Global at https://finbridgeglobal.com/.