Fintech Insider Podcast by 11:FS
00:13:26 · Sarah Kocianski, Gary Turner, Caroline Plumb
[00:13:26] S0: But they're doing all the services a bank does anyway? [00:13:28] S1: Yeah. Or or I mean, so you've got Starling, you've got Tide, you've got Coconut, and I I... You can do invoicing and their banking apps. You can do expenses management. Does that mean they're gonna become accounting software? I I I don't know, but I think there is definitely a convergence. And and at the moment, what that means is we have no aspirations to become a traditional or even kind of a new new bank. But I think we're really interested in where the innovation... Where there's a shared customer. So there's a customer of HSBC or a customer of Tide or Starling or whoever it is, and they're also on zero. Then what we are most interested in is how can we be... Just make them... How we blow their mind about how easy that world can be? And and so who knows what a bank will be in five or ten years? Who knows what an accounting software brand will be in five or ten years? There's definitely convergence. But I think that's the world we're in now. I think we're in this open world where we're just gonna have to learn to bump into each other a bit more and be cool [00:14:29] S2: with that. [00:14:30] S0: Get on with each other [00:14:30] S1: a bit more. Absolutely. [00:14:31] S0: Yeah. Brilliant. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for giving us some of your time. I know you're a very busy man. And are you sticking around for for the party later? [00:14:40] S1: I will be. [00:14:40] S0: I've... Yes. I'm very much looking forward to it.
00:14:40 · Sarah Kocianski, Gary Turner, Caroline Plumb, Megan Caywood
[00:14:40] S0: I've... Yes. I'm very much looking forward to it. [00:14:42] S1: So... There might be face painting, I heard. [00:14:45] S0: Face painting. [00:14:45] S1: Yeah. Believe it Done. Or [00:14:47] S0: Thank you so much. [00:14:48] S1: See you later. Thank you. [00:14:52] S0: So I'm here with friend of the show, Caroline Plummer, is the CEO and cofounder of Fluidly. [00:14:57] S2: How are you? I'm really well. [00:14:58] S0: Thank you. [00:14:58] S2: How are you? [00:14:58] S0: I'm good. I'm good. It's been [00:14:59] S5: a great day. [00:15:00] S2: Right? Oh my goodness. Amazing. Yeah. Really fantastic. [00:15:02] S0: So much energy here as well. [00:15:03] S2: Yeah. Always such a great vibe. Always such a great kind of, yeah, dynamism to the whole place. [00:15:08] S0: And then you've got some great news here. [00:15:11] S2: We have. Yes. So we're delighted that we closed our series a funding round this week, £5,000,000 led by a US venture capital firm. So we're really thrilled, and we're gonna use it all to expand our product, expand engineering, data science, and really build out the ultimate cash flow forecasting and management app. [00:15:27] S0: Well, mean, it sounds like it's much needed because I've spoken to a lot of accountants today, and they will say, oh, there's a... You know, there's lots of things going on out there, but we really need some help with cash flow.
00:15:27 · Sarah Kocianski, Caroline Plumb
[00:15:27] S0: Well, mean, it sounds like it's much needed because I've spoken to a lot of accountants today, and they will say, oh, there's a... You know, there's lots of things going on out there, but we really need some help with cash flow. [00:15:34] S2: So... Yeah. And it's not just accountants. Right? It's just one main issue that small business owners are sleepless over. So... And our mission is to really solve that pain. So we know that cash flow is the most important criteria for a business, whether it's it's a line between success and failure, and it's also the key area that accountants can deliver advisory services on. And really, what Fluidly is building is the first automated cash flow processing system that allows you to actually use the data that's already in the accounting package to go from what's gonna happen into the future to so what and now what. [00:16:05] S0: What can I do about it? I mean, that's something we've heard quite a lot about today as well, is this idea of accountants moving what they do into a more advisory advisory role, I guess. And is that something that, you know, you're you're positioning yourself to help them with? [00:16:17] S2: Yes. Very much so. I mean, I think accountants have always been brilliant advisers. You know, the kind of shoulder to cry on, the person you go to when you're worried about your money. [00:16:24] S0: You can help. Know, I'll
00:16:24 · Sarah Kocianski, Caroline Plumb
[00:16:24] S0: You can help. Know, I'll [00:16:25] S2: put you on my team. It's really lonely running a business. And I think accountants is just one of the key people that's kind of on your side and looking after you. So I think it's really extension of that service, but particularly around the areas that they know best, which is, you know, financial management, forecasting, planning, budgeting. You know, that's all the area that we can help accountants deliver on. Brilliant. And and that's [00:16:44] S0: not the only thing you've got going on because you were you were pitching this morning, were you not? [00:16:47] S2: That's right. So we were also finalists in the Nesta Open Up Challenge, which is the open banking challenge. It's really about helping transform SME finances by using banking data. So for us, using accounting data, banking data for that financial future is, you know, what we're all about. And so, yeah, fingers crossed for Nesta. So... [00:17:06] S0: When did when did we find out? When did [00:17:07] S2: the public go?... Beginning of December. [00:17:08] S0: Okay. Well, fingers crossed for you.... [00:17:09] S2: Thousand pounds. So it's... [00:17:11] S0: Just just to add to your pity. I mean, that's an interesting point. Right? We hear a lot about open banking and how good it's gonna be for consumers. But I guess it has the potential to transform life for for SMB financial services as well. Right?
00:17:11 · Sarah Kocianski, Caroline Plumb
[00:17:11] S0: Just just to add to your pity. I mean, that's an interesting point. Right? We hear a lot about open banking and how good it's gonna be for consumers. But I guess it has the potential to transform life for for SMB financial services as well. Right? [00:17:24] S2: It does. I I think it might be a sort of slower transformation. It's not gonna be kind of an overnight success. I think we've all seen that. But I think the ability to unlock that data is really important for SMEs. I think there are, you know, there are elements to open banking that makes it harder still for businesses, you know, multi authentication journey, you know, this turnover criteria cap at 6,500,000 currently. But I think what we'll see with kind of PSD two is the ability to lift some of those things. The APIs are improving all the time, and, you know, it's gonna head in the right direction. [00:17:54] S0: It's it's it's all it's all helpful, right, to building that ecosystem.
00:17:54 · Sarah Kocianski, Caroline Plumb
[00:17:54] S0: It's it's it's all it's all helpful, right, to building that ecosystem. [00:17:57] S2: Absolutely. I think this sense of trying to unlock data, whether that's in the cloud accounting platforms, whether that's in bank accounts, whether that's in CRM, I think what you're seeing is more and more data in the systems of records being unlocked. And that's why we think, you know, the last twenty years of software have really been about systems of record. You know, keeping data about a business, whether it's about its people, or whether it's about its finances, or about its customers, CRM systems and accounting systems. The next twenty years of software are gonna be about systems of intelligence that take all the data from the systems of record and do something meaningful with it. And that's really the space that Nervous sits. [00:18:32] S0: So, you know, great great guns for you to... So great space for you to grow into. Yeah. What else do you think that you'd like to see? So Xero is obviously, you know, it's it's it's platform and its partners is ever expanding. Do you think that there is space for more other financial services in there as well? You know, the importance of kind of adding in connecting what you do say to to to loans and to credit and all that kind thing? Do think there's there's still more space for that to grow there?