Aktionariat: The Venture Leader Fintech transforming private into open equity with its digital tools

11.11.2022 09:00, Morgane Ghilardi

Our expert jury selected ten startups for the Venture Leaders Fintech 2022 program whose founders will join the Swiss National Startup Team. In anticipation of the London roadshow at the end of November, we would like to introduce our community to each of the Venture Leaders. Meet Nicola Plain, CEO of Aktionariat.

Name: Nicola Plain
Location: Zurich, Switzerland 
Nationality: Swiss 
Graduated from: University of St. Gallen (HSG) with a Master's in Business Innovation in 2015 
Job title: CEO 
Number of employees: 14 
Money raised: CHF 2.5 million 
First touchpoint with Venturelab: Venture Challenge in 2021

What does your startup do and why?
We are transforming private equity into open equity by providing Swiss companies with the digital tools to create a market for their shares on their website. 

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
The company's co-founder, Luzius Meisser, published an article in Neue Zürcher Zeitung in 2016 about the benefits of having a distributed ledger technology (DLT) law in Switzerland. His idea was to make shares of public companies more liquid with blockchain technology as tokens are easily transferable without the need for financial intermediaries. He then acted as an expert to advise the Parliament and the Federal Council in the legislative process of the new DLT law. Not only was the liquidity of shares to be increased, but the access to such shares was also to be simplified. About five years later, the law was enacted, and we started to roll out our solution.
 

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"Seeing the real added value our solution offers our customers is the best reward for our work."

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What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow, and how do you think it will help you achieve your vision?
I expect to meet many exciting people who can help us in some way to internationalize our business: whether it's investors who can support us financially or with knowledge and contacts; potential customers, who become aware of our solution; or potential partner companies such as legal service providers, trustees, financial intermediaries, etc. I would like to gather some tips on what to pay special attention to when expanding internationally.

Whom does your solution help, and how?
On the one hand, our solutions help the 99% of small and medium-sized businesses and startups that are not listed on a stock exchange to create a market for their shares. This enables them to increase the liquidity of their shares, conduct continuous fundraising, enable stakeholder capitalism, and implement employee participation efficiently. On the other hand, our solution enables a broad mass to access shares of private companies, which was previously reserved for high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and institutional investors.

What are you most excited about at work right now?
Working in the blockchain space in these times is both exciting and challenging at the same time. To enable meaningful use cases with blockchain technology is especially fun for us. Seeing the real added value our solution offers our customers is the best reward for our work. Since this is still a young industry, we have a lot of room for creative ideas, which motivates us every day.

How did you build your team? 
The company was founded by two IT guys, Luzius and Murat. I joined the company six months later and was the first employee on the business side. As the company grew, we set up the rest of the team so that half of the employees work in development and the other half in business. The most important criteria when hiring new employees are a high intrinsic motivation and willingness to perform, as well as a passion for blockchain technology.

Which market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup?
We address the private equity and venture capital market. In Switzerland alone, there are 112,000 corporations that are not listed on a stock exchange and can therefore be described as private equity. Globally, the market for tokenized assets is expected to reach USD 24 trillion by 2027, of which USD 4 trillion will be in Europe. 

What are your key achievements to date?
In February 2021, our Brokerbot tool went online, allowing the first investors acquired shares with it. By March 2021, we raised our first CHF 100,000 raised by selling Aktionariat shares through Brokerbot. We fully onboarded our first client by the end of April 2021, implementing the full set of our market tools on the Green Consensus website. In 2022, we went on to fully onboard nine more clients and signed contracts with 21 others. By October 2022, more than 10 million in transaction volume went through our Brokerbot.
 

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"Having the right knowledge and skills is crucial if you want to build a business. If in doubt, you should get an appropriate co-founder on board."

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What is one thing not many people know about you?
I maintain a minimalist, sustainable lifestyle. I often cycle to the office, only buy items when I really need them and travel almost exclusively by public transport.

What is your favorite podcast and why?
Bankless. The podcast, which is about fintech, is extremely interesting because many of the challenges discussed also apply to us. The guests and presenters of the podcast represent a vision of the future financial world that corresponds to ours.

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder?
If you are not successful with one venture, develop another idea and try again. To be successful as a founder, you have to be persistent. I truly believe that those who persevere and stay motivated will eventually succeed.

What is your greatest professional failure, and what did you learn from it?
Immediately after graduating with my bachelor's degree in 2009, I founded my first startup, Spielermarkt. Without any real IT knowledge, I built a platform for junior and amateur footballers with the help of a Pakistani development team. The concept was well received by the target audience, but my platform was practically unusable. What I learned from this is that having the right knowledge and skills is crucial if you want to build a business. If in doubt, you should get an appropriate co-founder on board. 

How do you stay on top of industry trends?
I regularly read finance and blockchain news, attend industry events, and interact with people in the industry. I also frequently tap into the knowledge of our blockchain engineers.

The Venture Leaders Fintech roadshow in London is organized by Venturelab in partnership with Swissnex and supported by EPFL, ETH Zürich, and Walder Wyss.