Listen up: Podcast discussion "Digital securities: with blockchain to the future of investments"

12 Mar 2020

Listen up: Podcast discussion "Digital securities: with blockchain to the future of investments"

Titel: Podcast

Deutsche Börse Venture Network has been working with the fintech Cashlink since 2016. At that time, the start-up was one of the first to move into the newly opened FinTech Hub of Deutsche Börse. Since then, its business model has changed significantly. Starting last year, the fintech has been offering the issuance of digital securities via the blockchain. In this new podcast episode, you can find out exactly what this means, what advantages the software solution developed by Cashlink brings for both companies and investors and whether it will democratise start-up investments in the future. 

Peter Fricke, head of Deutsche Börse Venture Network, and Lars Olsson, chief product officer and co-founder of Cashlink, are interviewed by moderator Joel Kaczmarek.

The founders of Cashlink know the start-ups’ problem:

Lars: "We have looked for investors ourselves and know how important, but also how time-consuming it is to convince investors of one' s own business model. But what we don't understand is how long it takes until the money is actually in the account. This investment process is complicated, very expensive and ties up resources in start-ups that should be used for the actual innovations. The idea was born out of this need: we want to simplify that."

In the interview Lars, Peter and Joel clarify questions like: what are digital securities? Why is it not as easy to invest in start-ups as in shares? How exactly does an investment in a start-up take place via the blockchain and how secure is that? What is the legal framework? What does an exit look like if there are digital company shares? 

We can tell you in advance: Cashlink has standardised the investment process, which simplifies the process immensely and saves time and costs. In addition, the technical solution for issuing digital securities can be transferred to other exciting areas of application, such as employee stock option plans or fund investments.

The guests

Peter Fricke (left):
12 years with Deutsche Börse Group, Peter Fricke has been responsible for Deutsche Börse Venture Network since April 2017. Prior to that he worked for Eurex in the area of Sales and Business Development Asia/Middle heading the representative office in Singapore. Peter studied Economics at University of Mannheim, Germany and Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. 

Lars Olsson (middle)
Lars Olsson is founder, managing director and chief product officer (CPO) of Cashlink Technologies GmbH. In this position he is responsible for product development and successfully designs tailor-made products in cooperation with banks. Lars Olsson is an expert for the implementation of financial technology applications in established business areas, especially in the field of distributed ledger technology.

Joel Kaczmarek (right)
Is founder of digitalkompakt and moderates the discussion.

This podcast is produced in cooperation with digital kompakt, an online magazine for digital business models, companies and developments in the digital scene.