Venture Leaders Fintech 2022: Captain's blog by Zemp Business Solutions CEO Oliver Zemp

In late November, the ten Swiss fintech startups chosen to participate in the Venture Leaders Fintech program went to London for an investor roadshow. Oliver Zemp, CEO of Zemp Business Solutions AG and team captain of the Venture Leaders crew, reports on the experience.

Early in the morning of November 28, the Venture Leaders Fintech 2022 met at the Zurich airport to travel together to London. We are all proud founders and CEOs of ten fantastic fintech startup companies, but we were still determining what we could expect from the week in London.



Day 1 | November 28, 2022
Arriving at the Hotel close to Paddington Station, Venturelab's Daniel Gasser and Jordi Montserrat outlined the program for the week. The excitement started to rise. We jointly walked to our first meeting at the Swiss Embassy for an intro session organized by Swissnex at the Embassy, which was very appreciated. One of the highlights of the trip was what we spotted in the meeting room: a Banksy painting. This was an unexpected and great experience. At the Embassy, we were introduced to our two hosts, Charlotte Chenu and Luz-Peter Berg.  We all fell in love with these two lovely people. They took care of us and supported the team throughout the week. Thank you very much!

The opening was done by Hugh de Lusignan, Head of Financial Services of the Department for International Trade. After the first two hours of the presentation, we felt great about how generous and open UK Government presented itself to startups from abroad.

The next stop was a viewing of the FIFA World Cup game of Switzerland vs. Brazil at the Swiss Embassy. Unfortunately, Murat Yakim’s Swiss team was unable to score any points.



Later in the day, after the game, we commuted to our first Venture Company Teachers' Venture Growth, where we had our first official pitching and networking session. A very smart audience and great questions helped us to prepare for the following pitching sessions throughout the week.

It was amazing how fast the four investors picked up on our cases; they knew the markets we play in and the challenges and opportunities within these markets. Very impressive. Thanks go to Ara Yeromian, Andi Kazeroonian, Mark Ransford, and Chris Adelsbach.

The first great day in London came to a close with a nice steak dinner.

David Giron, CEO and Co-Founder of MoneyMasters





Day 2 | November 29, 2022
The next morning, we continued at the same pace. At 9:00 am, we started with a pitching session at Forestay Capital. Again, we could enlarge our network and have great conversations with potential investors after the pitching session. Big thanks go to the host, Forestay Venture's David Epharati.


Cosimo Donati, CEO and Co-Founder of LEVA Capital Partners AG presenting his pitch at the Forestay Capital event

In the afternoon, we were back at the Swiss Embassy. All Venture Leaders were invited to meet with representatives of large companies such as Shell, VISA, RBS, and others, which was not only a great experience but could also open important doors.

In the evening, Ambassador Markus Leitner invited us to a networking dinner with people from politics and business, as well as investors. The Ambassador also invited us to pitch at his event, which was a great experience. The Networking Reception was the unofficial opening of the London Fintech Connect trade show. 

This amazing evening ended early the following day. Sean from VISA Global invited us to a Pub that was owned by his family and after the first drink there, he showed us the beauty of London nightlife.

Left to right: Daniel Gasser, Jordi Montserrat, Aurelio Perucca, Oliver Zemp, Michael Wüst, Nicola Plain, Dr. Thorsten Hau, Severiyos Aydin, Markus Leitner, Cosimo Donati, Kristina Morf, David Giron, Gregory Inauen, Luz-Peter Berg


Michael Wüst, CEO and Founder of Amnis Treasury Service AG

Day 3 | November 30, 2022
Again, no rest for the weary, as we started early with a one-hour tube ride to the Excel expedition area of London, where the FintechConnect fair was taking place. In partnership with Swissnex, VentureLab organized a booth where we could interact with visitors, potential partners, and investors. Besides the booth, Swissnex booked a 10-minute pitching slot on the main stage for each of the Venture Leaders. For many of us, this was a great opportunity to meet interesting people after the pitching and opened important doors to investors who have been amazed about our presentations and startups.

As we looked around the big exhibit hall, attending keynote and breakout sessions, we noticed that our 10 logos from our startups were printed everywhere. Our logos were on almost every wall and every presentation in every breakout session. It was a great experience and made us all very proud.



Day 4 | December 1, 2022
Our fourth day also started early with a long tube ride to Canary Worth. Charlotte from the Swiss Embassy managed to get the Venture Leader team into the HQ of Revolut. It was quite a challenge for Charlotte since this is usually impossible for security reasons. Her persistence paid off, however, and we were allowed into the hallowed offices of Revolut. Our luck was that we were not greeted by just anyone: we had the pleasure of meeting a management team member who was instrumental in building Revolut's technical platform. He showed us exciting impressions, from the first day of the Revolut story to today, including mistakes as well as successes. We were all very impressed by the insights we got, and were especially impressed by the person who was standing in front of us giving us all this insightful information. Rarely have we met such an intelligent person. Overall, we all gained a lot from our visit to Revolut.

After this fantastic experience at Revolut in the morning, we finished our fourth day by returning to FintechConnect.


Severiyos Aydin, CEO and Founder of AIDONIC


Left to right: Severiyos Aydin of AIDONIC AG, Kristina Morf of nobank, Michael Wüst of Amnis Treasury Service AG, Cosimo Donati of LEVA Capital Partners AG, and Oliver Zemp of Zemp Business Solutions AG


Oliver Zemp, CEO and Co-Founder of Zemp Business Solutions AG

About the experience
The trip to London with Venturelab was a great success. I speak on behalf of all ten startups. The organization was exceptional, the opportunities to present ourselves were tremendous and we were all able to massively expand our network within English startups, venture capital firms, and enterprises, as well as in politics. All this will help us on our way as entrepreneurs in the mid and long term and has opened one or the other door.

But what was most important for me was the exchange of experiences among us ten fintech startups. They are all very good people with a lot of experience, and we were able to benefit a lot from each other. We also made new valuable friends that will stay with us for a long time.

We've gotten to know each other so well and seen each other's pitches so many times that each could fill in for the other and pitch each company on stage.



Learn more about the Venture Leaders Fintech 2022 below: