What Makes or Breaks a Startup: An Investor’s POV – Fintech Garden Episode 127

Podcast #127: Michele Mattei on How Fintechs Secure Funding and the Perspective of a Product Owner

In this episode of the Fintech Garden podcast, Igor Tomych chats with Michele Mattei, a product owner at Bunq and investor with Syeew, about the factors that make fintech startups stand out to investors. Mattei started his career in mergers and acquisitions, and eventually found his calling in fintech. Now, he mentors with multiple incubators to bring his expertise as a product owner and as an investor.

Michele’s journey from M&A to fintech

Michele spent a few years working with banks and financial institutions, focusing on mergers & acquisitions, when he discovered his passion for fintech. Having worked as a project manager at different ranks around Europe before now settling for Bunq, he watched the fintech scene shift in trends over time. This is precisely why his experience and vision on how some fintech startups make it while others don’t is so valuable to founders.

• Technical-focused investment: As opposed to other investors in the field that focus on finance and business, Mattei sees his advantage as being his perspective as an investor who is also a product owner.
• The digitalization of finance: In a time when fintechs focused on digital products and banks cutting down on the number of branches, Mattei sees a certain type of art in releasing a successful physical product in fintech.
• Luck of the draw: During his first investment experience, Mattei followed the advice of fellow investors and put forth a small amount of money. The success that followed wasn’t just surprising, but it was also enough to push him forward into the world of angel investing.

How to find an early-stage fintech angel investor

Igor and Michele get into the nitty-gritty of how to acquire early-stage angel investors and whether that’s even the correct route to go on for every founder. Mattei explains each stage of business in which they can acquire funding and where it’s most likely to come from. More importantly, the host and guest discuss where to spend said funding at different stages of a fintech startup.

• Technology may replace the need for early-stage funding: Mattei argues that businesses now have the capability to build something from the ground up using technological advancements such as AI without the need for vast funding.
• Where to spend the money: At first, founders should obviously spend their money to develop a finished product. Mattei argues that immediately after, money should go towards positioning, to have people actually try the product. Beyond that, it’s all about scaling.
• Navigating regulations: On top of the obvious budgeting for licenses and the hiring of compliance officers, Mattei sees the perfect solution in finding unique answers to your niche of the market. For example, with cross-border payments, you can navigate differently with the emergence of stablecoins.

The state and future of fintech

Having witnessed the rise and fall of the widest variety of fintech companies, the host questions whether there’s still space for innovation in the fintech space. Mattei provides an alternative perspective that, essentially, we’re just getting started. No regulations, technologies, ideas, or surges of interest come up every day. This provides space for more innovation, funding, and collaboration.

• Fintech is 2% done: Whether in the payments space, or lending, or even card issuing, fintech still has a long way to go before it has reached its full potential.
• Fintech is not the same anymore: A quick look at the emergence of stablecoins, AI, and new financial models, the paradigm is definitely shifting towards a new future.
• Where does AI fit in all this? AI is still in its infancy. Among the many spaces it needs to grow in are reliability and public trust.

Why This Episode Matters

This episode offers a new perspective to fintech founders, or even those thinking of creating a fintech startup. Having a person like Mattei with a technical background, on top of actively working in a fintech company, gives a backstage pass to how startups acquire funding can be crucial and eye-opening.

For those struggling to acquire funding for their fintech startups, Mattei’s perspective can be very helpful to identify at what stage their businesses are, what needs to be done next, and who they should talk to next.