< Fintech's Most Powerful Dealmakers of 2016

24. Fabian Vandenreydt
Head, Innotribe
SWIFT
Last year: 26

Ecosystems designed to bridge the culture gap between established financial institutions and technology start-ups and encourage investments in the latter are so commonplace today that more than 30 of them have come together in the Global FinTech Hubs Federation, which SWIFT’s Fabian Vandenreydt and Innovate Finance’s Lawrence Wintermeyer (No. 28) launched in August. Back in 2009 — “before fintech became a sound bite,” Vandenreydt notes — there was only Innotribe, an initiative of the Belgium-based SWIFT bank messaging cooperative intended to promote innovation among its membership and by extension throughout the financial services world. A former Euroclear vice president and Capco consultant who joined SWIFT in 2004, Vandenreydt was present at the creation of Innotribe and has been its head since 2013, overseeing, among other activities, an annual competition for start-ups that stages preliminary events “beyond the normal hubs,” he says, in places like Mexico City and Cape Town, South Africa. This year’s Innotribe Start-up Challenge winners, crowned during SWIFT’s Sibos convention in Geneva in September, were U.K. companies Coin Sciences and RISE Financial Technologies, and San Francisco–based SmartContract. All are working on blockchain, or distributed ledger, systems, which in Vandenreydt’s view “will evolve in certain pockets of the market. It is not ready, though, for broad adoption across the industry.” The 51-year-old wears other hats: He is global head of securities markets; head of the SWIFT Institute, which has commissioned academic research on such topics as blockchain, payment innovations, and open application programming interfaces in banking; and is executive co-sponsor of SWIFT’s own R&D. The common thread is “ecosystem enabling,” Vandenreydt explains: “I want to weave innovation in with the business. You have to be agile in the way you respond to market opportunities. Otherwise it’s a hobby.”

 
The 2016 Fintech Finance 35

1. Jonathan Korngold General Atlantic 2. Matthew Harris Bain Capital Ventures 3. Jane Gladstone Evercore Partners Podcast: Uncovering Opportunities in Direct Real Estate Sponsored by Fidelity Investments June 30, 2025 4. James Robinson III & James Robinson IV RRE Ventures 5. Steven McLaughlin Financial Technology Partners 6. Amy Nauiokas & Sean Park Anthemis Group

7. Richard Garman & Brad Bernstein FTV Capital 8. Gerard von Dohlen Broadhaven Capital Partners 9. Darren Cohen Goldman Sachs Group 10. Hans Morris Nyca Partners 11. Meyer (Micky) Malka Ribbit Capital 12. Maria Gotsch Partnership Fund for New York City

13. Barry Silbert Digital Currency Group 14. Jay Reinemann Propel Venture Partners 15. Mariano Belinky Santander InnoVentures 16. Justin Brownhill & Neil DeSena SenaHill Partners 17. François Robinet AXA Strategic Ventures 18. Vanessa Colella Citi Ventures

19. Michael Schlein Accion International 20. Kenneth Marlin Marlin & Associates 21. Rumi Morales CME Ventures 22. Alastair (Alex) Rampell Andreessen Horowitz 23. Steve Gibson Euclid Opportunities 24. Fabian Vandenreydt SWIFT

25. Vladislav Solodkiy Life.SREDA 26. Gardiner Garrard III TTV Capital 27. Nektarios Liolios Startupbootcamp Fintech 28. Lawrence Wintermeyer Innovate Finance 29. Bina Kalola Bank of America Merrill Lynch 30. Hyder Jaffrey Fintech Innovation

31. Calvin Choi AMTD Group 32. Janos Barberis FinTech Hong Kong 33. Jalak Jobanputra Future Perfect Ventures 34. Sopnendu Mohanty Monetary Authority of Singapore 35. Oskar Mielczarek de la Miel Rakuten FinTech Fund