United Fintech, a ground-breaking new concept which enables banks and financial institutions to accelerate access to innovative digital technology from a wide range of fintechs specializing in capital markets, launches today.
We will provide banks and financial institutions with easy access to the newest technology and accelerate implementation of these proven solutions. Our focus is on facilitating banks and financial institutions in their transition to a digital world.
Over the next five years, we plan to acquire and scale up a range of innovative small to medium sized engineering-led fintech companies, all with a proven capital markets product. The United Fintech management team, carefully selected for their exceptional track records within global financial institutions or fast-growth technology firms, will work in partnership with the founders of these fintechs, scaling them into global organisations.
United Fintech is the brainchild of Christian Frahm, one of Europe’s most successful fintech entrepreneurs, with over 20 years of global experience from successful ventures within financial technology. As Founder and CEO of United Fintech, Christian Frahm brings a wealth of experience from founding and being CEO of his own fintech business (taking it from scratch to 120M USD exit). In addition, he has experience from leadership positions in two of the biggest fintech successes over the past few decades: Saxo Bank and Bloomberg.
Christian Frahm comments, “Most fintechs globally are focused on disrupting banks. We believe in the opposite. We believe banks serve as a core part of our society and we want to partner with banks to help them to transition to a digital world. We need banks and financial institutions to adapt if they are going to compete favorably with the global tech firms and disruptors which are rapidly making in-roads into the financial services sector.
“United Fintech can not only help banks and financial institutions to access the latest technology but can also help with implementation including technical onboarding, vendor onboarding, technical due diligence and credit due diligence. With the current trajectory it is simply too slow for any bank to launch or access new products.”
It is typically both complicated and resource intensive for larger institutions to onboard new technology solutions. Conversely, it is extremely daunting and time consuming for small to medium sized technology companies to deal with large financial institutions. Fintechs also often struggle to show the solid financial backing required by the banks as part of the procurement process. United Fintech, with its strong balance sheet and excellent relationships within the banking sector, bridges the gap between the larger financial institutions and the fintechs.
An Exceptional Team
Today, United Fintech also announces the appointment of Tom Robinson as Partner & Head of Sales. Tom Robinson has over 20 years’ experience of growing businesses in the investment banking sector, having held senior roles at a number of prestigious global financial institutions. He joins United Fintech from Jefferies where he spent over three years as Managing Director and Head of e-FX Sales. His career history includes almost a decade at Goldman Sachs as Managing Director and Global Head of e-FX Sales. He has also held sales roles at Barclays Capital and Bloomberg.
Tom Robinson says, “Christian is truly a visionary for the industry who I’ve always wanted to work alongside. Having known him for 20 years and during my tenures with both Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs and Jefferies, I am very excited at the opportunity that I have been given. The timing is perfect for United Fintech’s launch – banks know they need to engage with fintechs and we are ideally placed to help them to execute their fintech strategy whilst also helping the fintechs to gain a seat at the table.”
Acquisition of NetDania
We have already completed the first acquisition, gaining a majority stake in NetDania, a leading Danish fintech that provides market data, APIs, market terminals, charting components and full white-labels – whether web, mobile or desktop.
Thomas Elster, CEO, NetDania says, “We are very excited about starting this new chapter for NetDania and the prospect of working with United Fintech to grow our business and reach. At NetDania we have an excellent product range that already serves some of the world’s largest financial institutions. There is no doubt that the timing is right for us to take this step to increase the reach of NetDania.”
Christian Frahm concludes, “I have worked with NetDania for many years and am confident that we can play a major role in helping them to scale their offering to completely new levels. They are an ideal fintech for our first acquisition and I look forward to working with Thomas and his team. I am also delighted to welcome Tom Robinson as Partner and Head of Sales. His appointment is a real coup for our organization. He brings a wealth of experience which will be invaluable in helping us to achieve our vision, bringing significant benefits to the banks and our fintechs.”
