1. Who are you?

Aleksandar is Head of Technology and Products and Predrag is Head of Marketing and Operations with tradegear gmbh, Swiss fintech startup. We bring combined 40 years of experience in software engineering, international business development and business analysis in financial industry. In last 5 years we have been working intensively with quantitative investing and trading strategies and would like to share this passion with broader audience.

2. Which services do you sell and who are your competitors?

We offer automated support for self-directed investors and traders as well as for financial advisors and investment research teams in financial institutions, based on quantitative methods. Our products are specially suited for mobile devices and designed with wearable devices in mind. Our service for forex trading, 1touchtrading.com, is available free of charge for unlimited period of time, as long as it is used with demo / practice broker account, that is for “paper trading”

We believe we offer an unique proposal to our users: we leave the central decision, whether to enter the trade, to them. We automate everything before (research, calculation of trade parameters) and after (trade execution) decision to execute the trade, which remains only theirs. This way our user always remains fully in control, as opposed to robo-advisors or social trading platforms where user have to blindly follow somebody else’s investment or trading decisions.

3. How did you get your startup idea and how did you finance your startup?

We were dissatisfied with what mainstream financial institutions offer as investment and trading advice. On the other hand there is enough scientific knowledge and technology available to be combined into much better service for investors and traders, and we decided to build it.

We are currently fully self-financed but in order to expand both marketing and product range we are open for investment, especially from people and companies with background in financial services.

4. What were the biggest challenges in starting?

Explaining how are we different from existing automated financial advice – that with our products the user always remains in control. Also the scepticism of financial institutions and “not build here” mentality at potential institutional customers.

5. What areas within FinTech do you personally find most interesting and why?

Whole transformation of financial services around concept that money and all related to it is just digital information is fascinating. Naturally our biggest interest is in how available knowledge can be help investors and traders get better returns with less effort with clever use of technology

6. What opportunities do you see for FinTech startups in the DACH region, and how can we help to accelerate it?

Proximity to dynamic economies in Eastern Europe is important advantage. In particular case of Switzerland, we are on the tipping point where all the prestige Swiss financial sector has needs to be transformed from banking secrecy as basis to modern digital services.

7. What tip would you like to give FinTech entrepreneurs?

Collaborate with other FinTech start-ups ! There are so many ways we can join forces, from simple experience exchange to cross-selling etc !