The Curious Learners
I feel privileged to speak to so many great minds as part of my job. They are passionate builders, insightful investors, laser-focused leaders. They are all curious learners in their own way. It is their urge to learn more. That urge is curiosity. When I speak to these people, I hear fascinating ideas, solid business plans, genius growth hacking practices, relentless team building focus, unique investing strategies and many others. However, most of the time, key insights, business intelligence and inspiring stories shared in these conversations do not make their way to the outside world. The Curious Learners is an attempt to share the stories of those curious learners with those, who might find the inspiration that they were looking for or those who might get the encouragement for their own journey that they already started. Looking forward to a long journey together.
The Curious Learners
Federico Travella | Financing SMEs | The Curious Learners Ep. 19
My guest at The Curious Learners is Federico Travella. As a venture builder, he has been involved in the foundation of very successful start-ups in South East Asia (e.g. Lazada).
He then went ahead and started his own company, Novicap, which is an end-to-end financing provider for SMEs.
Federico and I had a great conversation about financing SMEs, inefficiency in the market and the opportunity to unlock financial inclusion. Some of the specifics that we discussed are below:
- Opportunity in fintech lending --> Inefficiency of incumbent banks and their non-functioning unit economics due to lack of technology
- Most critical building blocks of a fintech lending business --> Cutting edge technology, legal & regulatory knowledge, capital markets expertise
- Opportunity for AI + Blockchain combined --> Automated risk underwriting and enhanced financial inclusion
- Effectiveness of fintech & bank partnerships --> Not great due to complexity and regulated nature of the banks
- Team vs. idea debate --> Choose team over anything (if there is a large enough market)
Please enjoy my conversation with Federico Travella.
