
Over the past few months, 11:FS Ventures has seen a spike in interest from clients in private banking and wealth management.

We’re all busier than ever. Not even the most efficient human can cope with the trials we all face and the tasks we all have to do on a daily basis. There just aren’t enough hours in the day. This is taken from our Unfiltered newsletter. Subscribe now for a no BS, uncensored analysis of fintech news and hot topics delivered to your inbox each fortnight.

Do you remember when you first saw a newspaper app on an iPad? It was as though a physical newspaper had been trapped under the black glass. There was even a page turning animation that you probably showed your friends. It was magical. It was digitised news. Ditto for buying albums on iTunes and ordering a traditional taxi; amazing experiences, but we just took what had come before and translated it directly to the new medium.

Africa is the most worthy market for mainstream adoption of decentralised finance. Why? I could go on and on about the underbanked, underserved populations and fragmented remittance ecosystem - while that’s all valid, the biggest pain point in my mind is currency devaluation. Volatile currencies make it difficult for Africans’ savings to hold their value. Solving for currency devaluation will provide the beachhead for the adoption of Decentralised Finance (DeFi) across Africa.

When our friends at Garanti asked us to take a look at their app, we could see pretty quickly that they were doing things a little differently. A traditional Turkish bank that broke away from the pack, Garanti is integrating next-generation services into their mobile app. Let’s look at our top 5 features.

In the second of this monthly design series, we look at a rebrand done right, an app that bids to be the future of car management, and one firm designing a better relationship between finance and the environment.

Nobody sets out to block innovation in their organisation. It just happens.

The last episode of Under The Hood, the podcast series with 11:FS that took a deep dive into the banking infrastructure that is disrupting traditional banking models and shaking up the system, has been released. And looking back, I realise how many great conversations we’ve had.

There’s a lot going on right now on personal, business and industry levels. But as I sit here in my home office over the last month talking to senior people in financial services, fintech founders and project teams all over the world, one thing keeps returning to me: “See, we didn’t need more strategy”.

Customer-centric, focused on financial inclusion, helping the underserved and unbanked. Have we rediscovered the principles of the first banks and building societies?

This is taken from our Unfiltered newsletter. Subscribe now for a no BS, uncensored analysis of fintech news and hot topics delivered to your inbox each fortnight.

Many marketers have a story of a boss or board that wanted all the benefits of a strong brand, without the investment, hassle or commitment of having to build one. This is taken from our Unfiltered newsletter. Subscribe now for a no BS, uncensored analysis of fintech news and hot topics delivered to your inbox each fortnight.

So. Let’s talk about DAO, baby.

Simon interviewed the husband and wife team Arthur and Kathleen Brietman, the co-founders of Tezos, about their recent token sale for the very first episode of Blockchain Insider.

AML is the world’s most ineffective policy experiment. Imagine if you have a car that didn’t work 99.9% of the time. That would be annoying right? This is taken from our Unfiltered newsletter. Subscribe now for a no BS, uncensored analysis of fintech news and hot topics delivered to your inbox each fortnight.

Mastercard takes minority stake in MTN, rental platform Fronted closes down, and Bank Of Ireland customers go crazy for ATM glitch – Benjamin Ensor is joined by some great guests, from Anthemis, Cornerstone Advisors, and Ebanx, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days.

Kate Moody is joined by some great guests, from 11:FS, ClearEstate, and PensionBee, to look at the financial services aimed at customers over 60.

PayPal launches stablecoin, Apple announces $10 billion in deposits, and Drake launches Shopify mansion – Kate Moody and Ross Gallagher are joined by some great guests, from Fiat Republic and Knot API, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days.

EL. EF. GEE. Today we bring you: a recap of our 2023 predictions for the crypto space. what did we predict correctly? What did we get completely wrong? What still has potential to materialise in the next few months leading up to 2024? All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Shopify launches credit card, HSBC and Tradeshift launch joint embedded finance venture, and Snoop gets acquired – Ross Gallagher and David Barton-Grimley are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days.

David M. Brear is joined by Standard Chartered CEO, Bill Winters, in this interview deep-diving into innovation in the banking space!

David M. Brear is joined by some great guests from Visa, Chipper Cash, and DJAMO, to discuss the evolution and further potential of mobile money in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Fed launches long-awaited instant payments service, NatWest boss Alison Rose resigns, and McDonalds launches McNuggets Land in the metaverse – Kate Moody and Benjamin Ensor are joined by some great guests, from Founders Factory and Chamber of Progress, to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days.

David M. Brear is joined by some great guests, from Digital Cat Consultancy, Mortgage Advice Bureau, and Sprive, to look at the current crisis facing the UK mortgage market and homeowners.

EL. EF. GEE. Today we bring you: a case study on all things smart tokens. What are they? How do they work? What do they mean for web3? All this and much more on today's Blockchain Insider!

Buy Now Pay Later regulation shelved in UK, Thunes pockets $72M, and Farage accuses Coutts of closing account over ‘values’ – Ross Gallagher and Nas Ahmad are joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days.

Benjamin Ensor is joined by some great guests, from 11:FS, Innovate Finance, and TwentyOne to talk about the biggest lessons for financial services in the first half of 2023.

In this second episode on our monthly topic, David Barton-Grimley is joined by a fantastic guest, from QED Investors, to look at the roles and responsibilities of US VCs in the current market.

Investment platform Public launches in the UK, Solaris raises to focus on core values, and Martin Lewis 'sickened' by deepfake investment scam – Kate Moody is joined by some great guests to talk about the most interesting stories in financial services over the last 7 days!

David M. Brear is joined by some great guests, from Plaid, Payments Solved, and The Payments Association EU, to look at the potential impact of Payment Services Directive 3 on Open Banking.
Ever wanted to know what’s going on behind the scenes every time we make a payment?
Regulation is essential. It stops banks from going bust or behaving badly.
The invention of the computer revolutionised banking in the 1950s.
Lending has been around for thousands of years and is one of the cornerstones of banking.
They're down, but they're not certainly not out.
Mastercard and Visa are the two biggest credit card networks in the world.
We kick off our Decoding: Banks series with a look at the banking landscape today and how we got here.

David M. Brear, our 11:FS CEO, takes us through legacy technology within banks - but of course, with a really cool Lightboard.

The UK banking battlefield has never been more competitive. Customers expectfinancial apps that are personalised, seamless, and that genuinely make a differenc...


The UK banking battlefield has never been more competitive. Customers expectfinancial apps that are personalised, seamless, and that genuinely make a differenc...

