Fintech Insider Podcast by 11:FS
00:26:31 · Sarah Kocianski, Christoph Rieche
[00:26:31] S0: Yeah. I mean... [00:26:32] S4: So I think I think, you know, it's really starting now that the services are big enough, developed enough to make a difference. And so I think the next five years will be really, really, really interesting. [00:26:42] S0: And you think that they will be driven by somebody like Xero rather than than by the banks? [00:26:46] S4: I definitely think that Xero is way ahead of the curve relative to the banks that have all sorts of other issues that they have to take care of, which are very unrelated to the fortunes of small businesses. And so having someone like Xero with the entire ecosystems that we are part of, really putting the small business first in everything that we do is very, very, very hard for the banks to match. They'll get better too because, you know, competition is a good thing. But but I think the innovation will come out of the likes of, you know, Xero and its its large partner partner base. [00:27:22] S0: So what's next for OAKA? Do have anything on the horizon?
00:27:22 · Sarah Kocianski, Christoph Rieche
[00:27:22] S0: So what's next for OAKA? Do have anything on the horizon? [00:27:25] S4: So over the the past year, we have been very busy. And, you know, not only did we double in terms of size and in terms of staff, we have now nearly 250 people in our offices. Wow. So that's been a great experience to see that so many accountants have have come to us to to learn about how we can provide financing to their clients through the Xero platform. So that's been a tremendous experience from our our point of view. And we have started to enlarge the product offering that we that we can offer small businesses. So in the past, we have been offering a an overdraft like facility, a credit line that people can use to manage their working capital requirements in a very, very, very flexible way. And we've listened to all the feedback that we got from customers that, you know, sometimes they're looking for an investment loan, of course, to make a longer term investment. And so our product wasn't wasn't wasn't interesting to them. So we have added now a second product, which is a long term investment loan, which enables them to do these longer term investments. And now, you know, we can serve kind of really the vast majority of any any needs that they have from a financing perspective, whether that's a very, very flexible facility to manage short term working capital requirements or make a long term investment. Investment. And that's been that's been a lot of work on our end, and, you know, we still have a lot to do, but the the the response has been really, really positive.
00:28:56 · Sarah Kocianski, Christoph Rieche, Will Farnell, Pranav Sood, Jonathan Bareham, Gary Turner
[00:28:56] S0: Thank you so much for joining us today, Christophe. I hope you have a great rest of the day, and thank you for giving us your time. [00:29:02] S4: Thank you for having me. [00:29:03] S6: Have a great day. [00:29:04] S7: Thank you. [00:29:07] S0: I'm here with Jonathan Berham, is the co founder and CEO of Radon. How are you today? [00:29:12] S8: Yeah. Really good. Great to be here. [00:29:13] S0: And so what is it that makes you guys stand out? [00:29:17] S8: I think, I mean, we were one of the very early adopters. We've been Zero Partners for eight years, so that actually helped us at the start, being early adopters, being pacesetters, we're in [00:29:25] S1: the book. [00:29:25] S8: And that definitely helps. Initially, there's that kind of wow factor of being able to show people new way of doing things. But I think now, it's very much as the theme is today, it's about being human. It's using the technology not to replace, but to assist. You know, technology is there. It's a tool to help us realize our human aspirations and the human aspirations of the businesses we work with. And so for us, you know, we now deliver a daily bookkeeping service for everyone, and that just buys us the time to have more interaction, more communication, more discussions.
00:29:25 · Jonathan Bareham, Sarah Kocianski
[00:29:25] S8: And that definitely helps. Initially, there's that kind of wow factor of being able to show people new way of doing things. But I think now, it's very much as the theme is today, it's about being human. It's using the technology not to replace, but to assist. You know, technology is there. It's a tool to help us realize our human aspirations and the human aspirations of the businesses we work with. And so for us, you know, we now deliver a daily bookkeeping service for everyone, and that just buys us the time to have more interaction, more communication, more discussions. [00:29:58] S0: It's really interesting because I I I looked at your website before before I met you today, and you're a very technology focused firm. But you still... It's interesting because when you look at some of the consumer fintech out there or consumer tech, it tends to be taking... Trying to get rid of that human interaction. But actually, it seems to me that small businesses need more, if anything, human interaction. Would you agree with that?
00:29:58 · Sarah Kocianski, Jonathan Bareham
[00:29:58] S0: It's really interesting because I I I looked at your website before before I met you today, and you're a very technology focused firm. But you still... It's interesting because when you look at some of the consumer fintech out there or consumer tech, it tends to be taking... Trying to get rid of that human interaction. But actually, it seems to me that small businesses need more, if anything, human interaction. Would you agree with that? [00:30:18] S8: Yeah. Absolutely. I don't think, you know, humans, business owners, they they don't want accounts. They don't want tax returns. They don't want lists of data. They have, as I say, kind of human aspirations. They start a business because they wanna do something they love or they want more spare time or they want a work life balance, or whatever you wanna call it. And so, I I think our job isn't to provide the the accounts the tax. That's kind of a byproduct. Really, it's about helping people realize what it is they really want. And that's a human thing. It's not a technology thing. But you need the technology, I think, to buy yourself the time to get those discussions in. [00:30:56] S0: So you use the technology to do all the the admin and the automation, and then you can sit down and actually, I suppose, advise your clients more or give them... Guide them more?
00:30:56 · Sarah Kocianski, Jonathan Bareham, Sian Kelly, Gary Turner
[00:30:56] S0: So you use the technology to do all the the admin and the automation, and then you can sit down and actually, I suppose, advise your clients more or give them... Guide them more? [00:31:04] S8: Yeah. Exactly. Advice. You know, most of the questions we get from clients are things like, have I got enough money? Will I have enough money to pay my tax bill? The client... The question I kind of love getting from clients is really kind of down to earth on. People come in, we'll have a whole meeting. At the end of it, they'll go, you think I'm doing a good job? And that's what, you know, business owners really care about, and and that's what we're trying to help them achieve. [00:31:24] S0: And I suppose it can be... I actually was speaking to somebody the day. It can be quite lonely being a business owner, and actually having somebody you can go to who knows a bit about your business and actually can be at, yeah, mate, you're doing fine, is a really nice thing to have. And you as an accountant don't [00:31:36] S9: have the time [00:31:36] S0: to to deliver that. So one of the things that that I suppose helps you do that is that I noticed you have partnerships with quite a few a few other fintechs. So you you work with Fluidly, you work with Receipt Bank. How did that sort of come about? Did you go out and and find them? Or did they come to you? You know, how do you build that kind of ecosystem of partners? [00:31:52] S8: Yeah. I think, you know, we we get [00:31:54] S1: a lot of people who