How would you pitch your startup in a few lines?
BankerLinks is a startup that develops information management tools for banks and financial institutions.
Through an intelligent web platform connecting the financial community, we help them enhance teamwork, streamline processes, boost efficiency, and reduce operational risk. We also offer a secure information-sharing and management environment to easily access market information and transaction settlement details.
Our objective is to support financial transaction management, avoidance of issues, and quick resolution when issues occur, ultimately reducing operational risks and increasing processing efficiency.
How did such an idea come up?
I spent the majority of my career in post-trade management roles within various banks. Undoubtedly, one of the most persistent challenges encountered in this domain revolves around timely access to critical information, which is crucial for teams to effectively address and resolve issues that arise. Teams need usually to rely on fragmented information spread across different information sources or websites. A solution addressing this challenge wasn’t available in the market. That’s when I came up with the idea to design a platform that could address these issues and where information and collaboration functionality would be available in a central place.
I spent the first year in making some research, analyzing the problems, and writing down the specifications of such a platform with the help of some friends. Finally, we decided to create the company and start the development of the final product.
How much have you raised and on how many rounds?
Currently, our startup has been entirely self-funded by me and my co-founders. We have not yet pursued external funding or raised capital from investors. As passionate entrepreneurs, we believed in our vision and took the initial risk by investing our own funds to bring our product to market. We’ve been focused on developing a solid foundation, refining our product, and hopefully gaining traction in the market this year.
However, we do have plans to raise our first round of capital next year, once we have demonstrated sufficient traction and validated market demand for our product.
Which type of investors are you looking for?
As we plan to raise capital next year, we are specifically looking for institutional investors who can provide not only financial support but also industry expertise and market knowledge. We believe that partnering with institutions like CSDs or systemic banks can be extremely beneficial for our startup. These investors have a deep understanding of the market landscape, possess valuable connections, and can bring significant insights that can help us shape our platform to meet the specific needs of our target audience.
In addition to financial backing, collaborating with institutional investors who have a strong presence in the market can open doors to new opportunities, expand our reach, and accelerate our growth. We believe that the combination of their market knowledge, audience, and resources, along with our innovative product, can create a powerful synergy that will drive our success.
What sets you apart from competition?
The main key factors that make our company and its offerings truly different is first of all our understanding of the processes involved in managing financial transactions in the financial sector, allowing us to develop a platform that addresses the industry-specific challenges and fosters efficient collaboration within this context. Our experience is translated into a comprehensive set of features facilitating real-time communication and document sharing, providing advanced functionalities specifically tailored for financial professionals. These features include access to market information like settlement details, or market deadlines, all in a secure and compliant environment.
Finally, we place a strong emphasis on user experience and usability. Our platform boasts an intuitive and user-friendly interface that requires minimal training and onboarding. This ensures that teams can quickly adopt and leverage the platform’s functionalities, maximising their productivity from the start.
Any news you would like to share? – on a fruitful partnership for instance, a disruptive product you’re working on, an anecdote when creating your firm etc.
Yes, we have some exciting news to share!
We have recently launched the first beta version of our platform, which marks a significant milestone in our journey. To further refine and improve our product, we are offering free access to the first 100 users who will have the opportunity to explore the platform’s functionality, test it and provide us with valuable feedback.
This beta launch represents a critical step in our development process, and we are excited to engage with our users directly and iterate on our platform based on their feedback. We truly value their input and consider them as integral partners in shaping the future of our product.
Moreover, we are confident that this beta phase will also demonstrate our commitment to delivering a high-quality, user-centric solution. We look forward to welcoming the first 100 test users and collaborating with them to create a platform that truly exceeds expectations.
