The 2016 Fintech Finance 35: Nektarios Liolios

< Fintech’s Most Powerful Dealmakers of 2016

27. Nektarios Liolios
Chief Executive Officer
Startupbootcamp FinTech
Last year: 31

From 2011 to 2014, Nektarios Liolios was in charge of the Innotribe Startup Challenge, one of the SWIFT network’s innovation initiatives overseen by Fabian Vandenreydt (No. 24). Liolios left to start a specialized fintech program under the aegis of Startupbootcamp, a global chain of technology accelerators in such fields as digital health, food technology, and the Internet of Things. In two years London’s Startupbootcamp Fintech has not only helped 15 young companies raise a total of €16 million ($17.9 million), but co-founder and CEO Liolios has taken the model to New York and Singapore. What’s more, applications are open for Startupbootcamp FinTech Mumbai; the Fintech & Cybersecurity boot camp is under way in Amsterdam; and Startupbootcamp InsurTech in London, also co-founded by Liolios, is entering its second year. He describes his mandate as “giving start-ups access to industry players; for banks and other partners, we are about R&D and experimentation.” Startupbootcamp puts companies through an intensive three months of mentoring and introductions to potential customers and funders. It offers London candidates, for example, such amenities as free office space, €550,000 in partner services, and €15,000 in relocation expenses in return for 6 percent of their equity. “The reality is that most of the financial and insurance industries understand the concept of R&D but don’t have the processes for it,” says Liolios, 49. “When a bank or asset manager builds a product, there is no experimentation. It’s a tweak of something.” In his view, they have to get faster: “No one has five years any more” to carry out a complex IT project. Liolios notes that despite considerable entrepreneurial interest in blockchain technology, “nobody has figured out how influential it will be. It has the potential to be transformational.” Half of his most recent cohort of start-ups are in robo-advisory and other asset and wealth management categories. His London graduates include BondIT, an algorithm-based system for bond portfolio managers; private investment management platform Delio; and Epiphyte, a blockchain-powered transaction settlement system.

The 2016 Fintech Finance 35