Alpian CMO Roman Balzan: ‘Building a bank takes everything. Building a new kind of bank takes more.’
scroll south
With a career spanning Silicon Valley tech giants and Swiss startups, Roman Balzan now brings his entrepreneurial knowledge and experience to help Alpian become Switzerland’s first digital private bank that stands out from the rest. We met with Roman to uncover what makes Alpian different and why he lives any entrepreneur’s dream.
Roman,
Alpian just received the Swiss banking license and raised a Series B+ funding of CHF 19 million. Congratulations! Could you tell us what a “digital private bank that caters to a unique need” is? Thank you! Yes, we are a fintech startup from Switzerland, three years old. We aim to unify everyday banking with accessible investment and private banking services in a hassle-free mobile app so that your financial life fits comfortably in the palm of your hand.
What do you want to achieve, and why is it different from other digital banks, fintech, or wealth managers?
Alpian has a clear purpose: to guide people to their own vision of wealth. Since each person has a different idea of wealth, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. That’s why we like to say that we are not just another bank for everyday needs, we are not another fintech, and we are not just personal wealth managers. We are all of these in combination. And more.
To put it simply, we started Alpian with a question: “How can we give more people—who have put some money aside and don’t do anything with it—access to everything good in private banking and investment services while taking care of their everyday banking needs?”
Is the service aimed at entrepreneurs and startup founders?
Alpian is targeted at an aspiring generation of Swiss-based individuals: Individuals who want to make more out of their finances, meaning that they have goals, ambitions, and values that they want their wealth to reflect. We realized that for our audience—our tribe—the conventional approach to growing wealth would not work. A more tailored approach was necessary. Entrepreneurs are a big part of this generation. As a startup ourselves, we’re full of entrepreneurial spirit, so you could say that Alpian is the digital bank that we, as entrepreneurs, always wished for.
You mention a tailored approach. How does Alpian deliver on this promise?
It’s actually three things: It starts with daily banking and long-term investing. Handling day-to-day finances and private banking from a single app is our starting point for personalization and flexibility. Our mobile app offers wealth management through access to financial experts who advise you in a personalized and straightforward way—just like at a private bank. On the other hand, you have a debit card and a multi-currency account in four currencies to do daily transactions and banking. I like to refer to this approach as “personalized premium banking.”
Then, we combine the best of humans and system intelligence. We have the technology to consider thousands of parameters and scenarios to create a uniquely optimized investment portfolio for each member. We combine that with the expertise of seasoned investment professionals who listen to each member’s needs because they understand that there’s a human side to wealth creation. Together, they make it possible for each member to take a unique approach to investing, spending, saving, and accumulating wealth—all at fair, transparent, and market-disruptive prices.
Finally, we empower and encourage our members to infuse their values into their approach to wealth. Each of us has our own needs when it comes to wealth management. Whether it’s impact investing, geographic preferences, or optimizing for specific goals, we want to guide each member to pursue a personal vision of what we call “wealth beyond money.” We aim to make investing, personal finance, and wealth management easy to understand, fun, engaging, and insightful.
You just communicated that you received the FINMA banking license (FINMA is the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority) and are now a licensed Swiss bank. What does that mean?
Yes, the FINMA license has come through. It’s been an intense and challenging two years, but at the same time, it’s been worth it and extremely insightful. Building a startup is hard. Building a bank takes everything. But building a new kind of bank takes even more!
The FINMA banking license is one of the toughest regulatory licenses in the world, and only a few startups have managed to obtain one. Being a regulated Swiss bank allows us to truly deliver on our vision without any fine print. Most fintech and financial service companies in Switzerland don’t have a banking license, which means they can’t offer their customers the same level of security or financial services that we can. We can do that now without any compromises.
Your marketing background includes startup consulting, and you were one of the first employees at IFJ/Venturelab who helped build and launch the program in 2004. You also worked for tech giants like Google and Lime. What’s different about how Alpian has developed its offering to potential clients?
There are quite some similarities. When I was working for Venturelab/IFJ—has it really been 18 years?—it was about simplifying access to funding for startups. At Google, the mission was to simplify access to information. Then at Lime, it was about access to sustainable mobility. And now at Alpian, you get the idea, it’s all about enabling access to the world of private banking.
Everything has been built around our future customers with this mission in mind. In fact, even before the banking launch, we launched the www.i-vest.ch educational platform to inspire and encourage people to explore topics around finance, i-vesting (as we call it), and wealth creation.
We’re not saying that the pursuit of wealth is simple. But building the mindset and skillset to pursue wealth can be made more accessible. And interesting. Topics of wealth are part of every sphere of life, and we want more people to connect the dots between their passions and their wealth. i-vest.ch aims to be that connector and help everyone achieve their personal financial goals. It is the first pragmatic step toward building tools that guide wealth creation and enable the pursuit of “wealth beyond money.”
