The fourth season of the Visa Innovation Program is running full steam ahead…and almost coming to an end. The participants are actively working on their innovative solutions, and we continue to present them in more detail. In the final part of our “Meet the fintechs” series we are happy to present two promising startups – the UK-Macedonian Native Teams and the Romanian Prime Dash. Continue reading and get to know them better!
At a glance:
The Problem
The world is experiencing a remote work revolution. At the same time, employers who hire remotely are faced with the challenge of having to manage tax, legal, and administrative matters in many jurisdictions. On the other hand, freelancers and gig workers have limited access to welfare benefits, pension, bank loans, if they don’t possess regular employee status. Many of them go to great lengths in establishing their own companies and hiring an accountant just to handle payments and tax.
The Solution
Native Teams solves these pains by offering an employee of record (EOR) service, as well as a digital payment wallet that facilitates the relationship between companies and the freelancers working for them. Through its subsidiaries in the various jurisdictions it acts as a local employer, drafting and filing all employment related paperwork and taking care of tax and social insurance payments. Unlike other competitors, Native Teams caters also to single freelancers, who can choose to handle their existing income through the platform and obtain employed status.
Why is this important?
Remote and hybrid working have become the new normal for many companies which didn’t use freelancers before. Globally, there is a growing population of freelancers, gig-workers, and self-employed who represent the Great Resignation trend and the evolving concept of the future of work. More and more people see freelancing as a long-term career path and the field is expected to continue to grow as a younger generation enters the workforce.
Founder Blitz
In order to learn even more intriguing insights, our team met with Native Teams’ founders for a quick “founder blitz”.
1. What inspired you to start Native Teams?
We had the best inspiration a startup can have and that is to find a solution for the challenges
we had as a team of freelancers. Our journey started around 6 years ago, when some of our current team members were freelancers as well and we had various problems with outpayments and proper employment status. It started working for us, so we wanted to share it and help the rest 70.4 million (according to the latest statistics for 2022) freelancers out there.
3. What is the biggest challenge you have come against since you established Native Teams?
The biggest challenge we have faced repeatedly is scaling with the growth. We have been
lucky enough to see double digit month-on-month growth every month since launch, even as the
numbers have started to get bigger. This means that the systems that worked a month or two ago soon hit capacity and we need to change things (again).
There are some areas we know we could do a little bit better with more resources applied to them, but we’re sometimes a little slow to get ahead of the demands.
2. What is your next big milestone?
Our big goal is to redefine how people get remunerated for the work they do. Our next milestone on that journey is to have full coverage across all European countries, as well as starting to close significant business in our first two non-European countries. We aim to marry this increasing breadth of coverage with going ever deeper in the countries where we are already active: The longer we’re in a country, the steeper our growth curve there.
4. What does success look like for Native Teams?
Success looks like changing forever the way employers pay people for work, and the way that employees get remunerated for what they do.
Furthermore, success for us and our company means building something more than just business. It shall look like a happy place for our team members and a place where they find satisfaction and growth
everyday, both personal and professional. We see success as a journey not a destination, so a
broad segment of a couple of things including change in the way things are done in the world with our proposition and a supportive and yet challenging and exciting company to work in for our team members.
At a glance:
The Problem
Difficulties encountered by the financial institutions:
- Systems Legacy – Lack of full automated process in lending process;
- Time-To-Cash – Access real time credit data is a game changer in payable and receivable in finance;
- Risk Monitor – Monitor in real-time your customers’ accounting, commerce and banking records;
- Value Added -Differentiate from Competition.
Difficulties encountered by the SMEs owners:
- Meeting needs – Insufficient funds to cover bills and obligations;
- Saving More – For college, retirement, payment for a house ;
- Tax Efficiency – Streamlining taxes to achieve tax cuts or higher tax;
- Financial Health – Knowledge and improvement of financial health.
The Solution
Prime Dash provides Real-Time Credit Data to banks and financial institutions for the SME segment – to support the development and offering of tailor-made lending products and services. Its Decision maker (for SMEs) and Credit Management platform (for banks, financial institutions), work together in a ecosystem, enabled by APIs.
Why is this important?
65 million firms or 40% of formal MSMEs in developing countries have an unmet financing need of $5.2 trillion every year, which is equivalent to 1.4 times the current level of the global MSME lending.
Founder Blitz
Meet Prime Dash’s founder and learn more about their vision and the next milestones for the company in our “founder blitz”.
1. What inspired you to start Prime Dash?
I believed in the project when I met my partner and identified that the problems I have are the same as his problems, even if we were on different continents, in different worlds. I identified that we had the necessary skills to build and deliver a global solution.
3. What is the biggest challenge you have come against since you established Prime Dash?
Our biggest challenge was to prove that the relationship between FIs and SMEs needs to change. Here we are now supported by our bank partners who share the same value. The relationship must take a new path. FIs must become a partner. It is true that this has been a challenge in the last 3-4 years, but the environment has changed a lot and everyone has rethought how to do business in the way we emphasize loyalty in business relationships
2. What is your next big milestone?
To validate our tool and business model from a partner who is a global player. We aim to change the status quo of financial literacy in the next 2-3 years and we are happy to share the same vision with global players like Visa, Microsoft and financial institutions, also with our users, companies, the engine of any economy. All of this means validation for us and motivates us.
4. What does success look like for Prime Dash?
Success for us is to validate a global need for our products. We already have users all over the world, on 4 continents – our product and its positioning in the market are being validated. We know that success comes as long as you have the right product for the right market. We are there!