14 Jun RECAP: LOGISTICS & FINTECH MEETUP 7TH OF JUNE
Last week, the 7th of June, we held our third Logistics and FinTech Meetup in Rotterdam at the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship (ECE). The Meetup was a great success, with the attendants listening to some of our members pitching their exciting new ideas and products.
The sight of of this Meetup, ECE , is centred on the idea of interaction, knowledge sharing and the stimulation of entrepreneurship, hosting over a hundred startups, Ferdinand Jaspers from the Rotterdam School of Management explains. It is therefore the ideal location for our Logistics & FinTech series, which focuses on the exchange of knowledge and products from the FinTech space to help solve the challenges in logistics. The companies that pitched their ideas and products to the audience all focus on the necessity of entrepreneurs to include the ongoing trend of digitisation in their business models, especially in the logistics industry.
First Pitch: Joost Derks – Managing Director at Dutch Payments & Exchange Company (NBWM)
The goal of the Dutch Payments and Exchange Company is to bring transparency to the foreign currency exchange markets. As of today, many companies still use large retail banks for making foreign currency (Fx) transactions, paying excessive rates for these services. The Dutch Payments & Exchange Company has created its own platform, giving SMEs the option to make their Fx transactions based on a lump sum fee per transaction, while having a transparent mark-up on the interbank exchange rates. The platform allows entrepreneurs affordable access to services as international payments in other currencies, risk hedging and locking in an exchange rate for a payment to be made or received in the future. You can find more information about their services here.
Second Pitch: Per Frennbro – CEO/Founder of Frenns
Bringing automated invoicing to small businesses, Frenns aims to help SMEs with their cash flow management. Their platform allows small business to auction their invoices on a platform, with financing being provided by third parties. Frenns automatically rates every business based on information from their accounting system, while also insuring the lending risk for every single invoice. Upon the successful auction of the invoice, Frenns forwards the money within the hour, giving cash in hand for small business looking to grow. More on Frenns here.
Third Pitch: Jasper Keij – Data Analyst at Mezuro
Mezuro is a company driven by mobility, tracking the movements that matter. Their solutions can track individual’s movements, study trends, visitor density and movement patterns. Starting with an analysis of movements in the Port of Rotterdam, Mezuro can offer logistics (and others of course) companies a valuable insight in the movement of their businesses. Click here for information about Mezuro.
Fourth Pitch: Remko Been – Co-founder of Stockspots
On demand warehousing – why keep space unoccupied? The idea of Stock Spots is as simple as Airbnb and BlaBlaCar. If you don’t use it, why not rent it out to those who would want to do so? Stock Spots has therefore created a platform where companies can offer and book on demand warehousing through an open and transparent company to company network. More on Stockspots here.
Fifth Pitch: Marc Smith – CEO/Founder of Conpend
Our list pitch was given by Marc Smit about Trafinas, a multi-functional solution for intelligent, fully automated document based Data Capture and Sanction List Checking from Conpend. Trafinas allows companies to digitize all paper-based while also allowing the venture to successfully transition their business model to a leaner, customer focused approach. More information on Trafinas can be found here.
Our third Meetup has been a great success altogether, with great pitches from innovative companies, allowing us to make more steps in creating a stronger industry here in the Netherlands and beyond. Our next edition of the Logistics and FinTech Meetup will be held on the 7th of July in Eindhoven. We hope to see you there!