AIDONIC: The Venture Leader Fintech revolutionizing payment infrastructures for humanitarian organizations

Our expert jury recently selected ten startups for the Venture Leaders Fintech program whose founders will join the Swiss National Startup Team. In anticipation of the London roadshow at the end of November, we would like to introduce our community to each of the Venture Leaders Fintech 2022. Meet Severiyos Aydin, CEO and founder of AIDONIC.

Name: Severiyos Aydin 
Location: Zug, Switzerland 
Nationality: Swiss 
Graduated from: KBZ Zug in 2004 
Job title: CEO 
Number of employees: 6 
Money raised: CHF 1,655,000 
First touchpoint with Venturelab: 2022, Venture Leaders

What does your startup do and why?
AIDONIC is an end-to-end payments infrastructure and data management platform for humanitarian organizations to accelerate financial inclusion with real-time impact tracking.

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup? 
After returning from a humanitarian mission in 2018, I started to explore blockchain technology and realized the huge potential for the humanitarian space. I encountered many of the inefficiencies and problems that challenge our sector, and I felt that more could be done to address them with new technologies such as blockchain. In 2019, we piloted the first MVP in a real humanitarian use case.

What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow, and how do you think it will help you achieve your vision? 
We aim to expand our network of business partners to explore synergies and potential partnerships. We are currently raising capital and hope to convince new investors to join our round. We consider being part of the 10 fintech startups chosen to join the Swiss National Startup Team a great achievement that will help us to promote our brand and raise awareness about Tech4Good.
 

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"Always be ready and flexible to adapt to market needs. Never stick to the first idea and initial plan. Stay agile but focused!"

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Who does your product or solution help, and how? 
Humanitarian organizations today lack efficient and low-cost cash transfer solutions to assist people affected by crises—solutions that assist people rapidly and at scale while ensuring last-mile transparency. 800 million people are living in poverty, and around 42 million of them are on the brink of starvation. Millions are affected by current disasters such as the floods in Pakistan or the war in Ukraine. AIDONIC’s digital solutions improve humanitarian aid responses and foster financial inclusion to put an end to poverty and global hunger. We also offer our technology as a white label to corporates and neobanks to create an embedded fundraising section within their retail apps with last-mile tracking. This will also positively impact their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies.

What are you most excited about at work right now? 
Our new potential proof of concepts with Swiss banks and retailers (to be confirmed), as well as our new partnership with NEAR protocol to expand our blockchain solution.

How did you build your team?
Most of the team I found through my own network and through the network of our key C-level team members. They’ve been with AIDONIC almost since the beginning and contribute passionately to our mission.

Which market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup? 
Primarily we are addressing the USD 600 billion humanitarian aid and development finance market with over 10 million NGOs. As early movers, we have a huge potential to capture a large part of the market, aiming for a 5% minimum market share within the next 10 years. 

What are your key achievements to date? 
AIDONIC recently signed a three-year contract with Medair, a Swiss NGO with a yearly donation volume of USD 100 million. They have been piloting AIDONIC for the past eight months. In addition, we signed a twelve-month framework agreement with PLAN International to use our technology for cash and voucher assistance in response to the war in Ukraine. PLAN International has a yearly donation volume of USD 1 billion. In addition, we’ve onboarded over 120 small-size non-profits and are currently piloting with five large-size international NGOs. So far, we have distributed USD 500,000 in aid funding to people in need. AIDONIC has been nationally and internationally recognized for humanitarian innovation in Blockchain and Tech for Good. 

What is one thing not many people know about you? 
I produced a documentary that was screened in three cinemas in Switzerland in 2018.

How did you come up with the name of your startup? 
I combined three words related to our mission: aid, donation, and electronic.

What is the most rewarding aspect of being a founder?
Waking up every day to discover new surprises and see the fruits of hard work.

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder?
Always be ready and flexible to adapt to market needs. Never stick to the first idea and initial plan. Stay agile but focused!

The Swiss National Startup Team's roadshow in London is organized by Venturelab in partnership with Swissnex and supported by EPFL, ETH Zürich, and Walder Wyss.