Despite a tight money supply and a steep drop in startup investment, these young European leaders are launching new financial technologies and changing the rules of venture capital.
Dean Sterling Jones, Zoya Hasan, Leonard Schoenberger
The finance industry has endured a tumultuous year with rising interest rates, a lack of capital, and shrinking valuations. Yet Forbes’ 2024 European Finance Leaders Under 30 are adapting to the volatile environment. Venture capitalists are adopting new investment strategies, fintech founders are embracing cutting-edge technologies, and entrepreneurs are finding opportunity in a battered Web3 world.
This year’s Forbes “European Finance Under 30” list highlights the young founders and investors who are thriving in turbulent capital markets and setting the future direction of Europe’s economies.
Mara Schmidt, 29, launched her own crypto startup after working at Coinbase for two years. Her company, Alviar, helps Ethereum investors earn profits by holding their cryptocurrency for the long term, a practice known in the crypto world as staking. Alviar develops software that industry leaders like BitGo, Coinbase, and Fireblocks use to pay depositors interest for holding Ether, similar to a bank savings account.
While escrowding Ethereum enhances the security of the blockchain network, it has been reported that only 25% of Ethereum has been staked in 2023. The problem is twofold: first, staked cryptocurrency runs slowly; second, before Alluvial, it could only be traded on platforms like Coinbase. Schmied says his company’s software provides the speed and liquidity to allow users to sell their staked coins in real time to users on any platform the company partners with.
Levon Biss (Forbes)
Schmidt is one of 30 people named by Forbes as part of its 30 Under 30 European Finance Leaders for 2024. Candidates for this honor must be under the age of 29 as of April 9, 2024 and not have previously been included in any of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 lists in North America, Asia or Europe.
To determine the 2024 finance list, Forbes editors turned to the expertise of four independent industry heavyweights: Marco Cancelli, a 2022 Under 30 Europe alumnus and co-founder of German unicorn Trade Republic, Sonali de Rijker, partner at Accel and a regular on Forbes’ Midas List, Eleonore Crespo, co-founder of Pigment, a financial planning software company with $250 million in funding, and Kilian Thalhammer, head of fintech at Deutsche Bank.
Among their picks is 27-year-old Sami Osman, whose AI-powered startup Quartr gives investors and shareholders instant access to public company information, including quarterly and annual reports, presentations, and recordings of earnings calls and investor meetings. The company has a custom-priced subscription model for corporate clients such as Danske Bank, and a free mobile app version with exclusive content is also available to consumers. The company has attracted about 12 million users and $14 million in funding since its launch in 2020.
Outside of fintech, other notables include 26-year-olds Oleksii Yermolenko and Elena Mazhuha, who founded Flyer One Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Kyiv. Despite the global recession and the Ukrainian war, the firm has thrived, with a portfolio valued at about $3.8 billion.
Non-founders are also finding innovative ways to generate wealth and drive growth. Ashish Arora, 28, a partner at LocalGlobe, invests in early-stage startups across a range of sectors, including cryptocurrency, AI and health. Arora’s portfolio companies include unicorns like Improbable, a metaverse gaming and technology company that raised $100 million in 2022 at a $3 billion valuation.
Others on the list looking for the next unicorn include Daniel Dippold, 29, and Hector Mason, 29. Dippold, co-founder of an accelerator program called EWOR, has invested in companies such as influencer marketing data company ThisThat, both of which were valued at more than $30 million six months after joining the program.
Mason, a general partner at venture capital firm Episode 1 and founder of Focal, hosts a biannual Demo Day, an event where founders pitch their products and business ideas to investors and other entrepreneurs.
Though their approaches are different, the companies on this year’s list have one thing in common: a willingness to challenge the status quo. “The business environment is changing,” says Alluvial’s Mara Schmiedt. “Entrepreneurs need to be able to adapt.”
This year’s list was compiled by Dean Sterling Jones, Zoya Hasan and Leonard Schonberger. For a link to the full 2024 Under 30 Europe Finance list, click here, and for the full 30 Under 30 Europe list, click here.
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