Colendi CEO says companies reshaping services amid competition

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish fintech startup Colendi's co-founder and chief executive officer Bulent Tekmen said Wednesday that every company, regardless of their sector, is trying to reshape its services due to rising competition.

Tekmen spoke about the changing structure of competition in the financial services sector and its future during his speech at Webrazzi Summit 2021, one of the most influential conferences on Turkish entrepreneurship and Turkey's technology ecosystem held annually.

The conference was held this year in a hybrid model, both online and offline, as it included hot topics of tech-focused ventures, the investment world, and transformation stories of tech companies, said Colendi, a platin sponsor of Webrazzi Summit 2021, in a statement.

During his talk at the panel titled "How will the competitive structure of the sector in financial services change?" Tekmen explained Colendi's position in the sector, the opportunities and the company's targets for the future.

He emphasized the deconstructive environment of the future financial world and the emerging needs when asked by Webrazzi founder and CEO Arda Kutsal about Colendi receiving the largest Series A investment of $30 million through a valuation of $120 million.

- Deconstruction of old world's rules to shape future

"We initially built Colendi with a blockchain structure. We now continue with a centralized and decentralized structure together. From the first day forward, we have believed and stood by the motto 'Every company will be transformed into a fintech firm.' We can see that we are on the right track when we look today at our strategic business partners, joint ventures, our investors who trust in us, and the point where we are now," he said.

He said the London-based fintech startup, which is the world's first global financial super app initiative, seeing its valuation reach $33 billion, and Brazilian digital bank Nubank receiving a $500 million investment from Warren Buffett are examples of the "near future to be shaped by the deconstruction of the old world's rules."

"I believe this is what we will see in the background of tomorrow's story, and banks will be in a challenging situation in this deconstructive structure," he noted.

"Banks have been under pressure from strict regulations, and thus they are facing an enormous workload for a good reason. On the other hand, the world's need for them is disappearing slowly. We can see how much cryptocurrencies impact people's perspective towards the financial world, simultaneously with transformation," he said.

"It feels unreal to me that banks are offering an obstructing structure in this competitive setting through APIs, a structure that does not allow third-party institutions to develop financial services because they know this [transformation] will happen sooner or later and there is no escape from it."

- Delivering knowledge, experience to new regions

Tekmen said Colendi has a structure that meets the needs of individuals and companies' finances, combined with productivity.

"We are preparing trust for the world, which can integrate with mathematics and programmable money. Through our vision, we introduce our infrastructure and technology to end-users."

Highlighting the value of the talent of releasing a product in Turkey, the CEO said Colendi delivers its knowledge and experience to new regions.

"We have focused on presenting the experience we obtained with our business partners and joint ventures to the geographies. In line with this target, we moved our headquarters to England and appointed Ian Hannam as the chairman of the board. We present our technology and products developed in Turkey for use through our companies in England and Ukraine.

Colendi's next target is to increase its growth in Turkey and expand the scope of its power abroad," Tekmen added.

*Writing by Ovunc Kutlu in Ankara