1. Who are you?

We are Lauri and Margo Karp, founders of TreasuryView

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

2009 we startet with cloud-based risk analytics for public sector loan and hedges portfolios. We were pioneers in moving rather mature financial abstainers to cloud and offer new type of user experience in dealing with complex bank products. This year we re-innovate our business model. On the back of proven technology we will approach much broader wholesale business client base. Its time to accelerate competition between banks and other new fintech entrants for the benefit of corporate customer.

Our main competitors are “Bank-IT” and new bank product aggregation platforms.

3. How did you get your start-up idea and how did you finance your start-up?

Treasuryview was established 6 years ago on a strong foundation – more than decade old experience of the founders in banking in combination with digital affinity. We spotted heavy manual work in treasury departments and in banks serving these customers and identified a distinctive innovation gap.

Our company is privately funded.

4. What were the biggest challenges in starting?

Macro environment – we ended quickly in a financial crisis “tsunami” and there was a point where some our potential customers “disappeared”. Implosion of the addressable market and lost in sales traction was a result. Yet, we didn´t give up.

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

Business Banking and Capital Markets – these are “blue oceans” for fintech´s. Perceived, most of financial innovation today concentrates either on personal finance or payments. Yet, payments are already automated (end-to-end) and very competitive in a corporate world, so new innovation must address businesses real cash issues. These are funding, investment and risk – all elements affecting corporates financial fate.

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

DACH region is overbanked and under-digitalized. You can play a stronger role in enhancing the learning curve of large number of bankers and bank executives in terms of digitalization.

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

William Blake: “The true method of knowledge is experiment“