On Friday 5 February, Professor Mikel AYALA, as part of his course "FinTech and the Transformation of Digital Services", invited François DERBAIX, Co-founder & Co-CEO of Indexa Capital, to talk with the students about entrepreneurship, innovation, start-up investing and regulation while sharing his experience building Indexa Capital, a leading European digital wealth manager.
For François DERBAIX, a serial entrepreneur and very active start-up investor, entrepreneurship is above all a rewarding adventure where, although the odds of succeeding are low, he finds opportunities for personal growth and fulfilment.
He shared the story of how he built Indexa Capital from zero to more than 750 millions of assets under management today. From the feeling of being an “outsider” to the sector and the frustration of not having a faster regulatory approval process, to his ability to surround himself with top professionals from the financial world, grow a business by focusing on the customers, reach profitability, build a leadership position in Spain and expand to Belgium.
When asked about the recipe for success, he does not hesitate for a moment: more choice (global diversification) as well as a sharp focus on minimizing costs (lower fees), are what make Indexa stand-out and outperform traditional asset managers and their actively managed portfolios.
François DERBAIX shared the story of how he built Indexa Capital from zero to more than 750 millions of assets under management today.
François also shared his views on the broader FinTech space, where he sees great opportunities, with a lot of competitors, but slow moving and not customer-oriented enough. Despite the regulated nature of the market, and the many barriers to entry, he sees both FinTech and InsurTech as very attractive industries, where he will continue to invest in disruptors.
The students will retain from this discussion with François DERBAIX his distinction between talking about transparency and acting for transparency. A passionate advocate of transparency, François sees it as key success factor and a requisite to create trust with customers and build a long-term business.
The students could also take advantage of this opportunity to learn from François' professional journey, take notes for their future career decisions and even shape their entrepreneurial projects.
Many thanks, François!
You can access the recording of the session on our College of Europe YouTube channel: