Finteum Pitch Deck Teardown: Solving Interbank Liquidity

Finteum: A Technical Deep Dive into Intraday Liquidity

The Finteum deck, presented at CordaCon in October 2019, is less of a traditional 'pitch' to VCs and more of a strategic roadmap for institutional partners. Operating in the highly complex world of interbank treasury, the company uses this presentation to establish credibility, define a narrow but high-value problem, and showcase their technical progress on the Corda ledger.

Slide 1: Title and Mission

The cover slide is functional and minimalist. It establishes the date (24 October 2019) and the venue (CordaCon 2019). The most important element here is the sub-headline: 'Finteum is creating a global financial market for interbank intraday borrowing.' This immediately identifies the company as a B2B fintech focused on a specific niche of the capital markets. The presence of the R3 and Corda logos signals a deep integration with that specific blockchain ecosystem.

Slide 3: Team and Pre-Seed Status

Slide 3 is titled 'Big vision, we are a pre-seed startup.' This is a rare moment of extreme transparency regarding company stage. The slide is split between the core team and advisors. Brian Nolan (Co-founder, Business) is linked to UBS and the University of Cambridge. Zbi Czapran (Co-founder, Technology) is linked to IHS Markit. The advisors are heavy hitters: Stirling Fielding (ex-MD Head of Liquidity at Deutsche Bank) and James Carlyle (ex-Chief Engineer at R3 and Barclays). The notes at the bottom mention they are hiring their first back-end engineer, confirming the early-stage nature of the venture. This slide is designed to prove that while the company is small, the people involved understand the plumbing of global finance.

Slide 5: Recent Attention and Validation

This slide serves as the 'Traction' section, though for a pre-seed institutional startup, traction is measured in industry recognition rather than revenue. It lists three key milestones from late 2019: 1) Interoperability work between Corda and Ethereum (USC) at Sibos, 2) 2nd place in the UBS Future of Finance Pitch, and 3) winning the 'ISDA / ICMA / DTCC / Barclays Derivhack for our DvP.' The inclusion of the Fortune and UBS logos provides social proof. The founders add a humble note: '(but we don’t want to be overhyped),' which aligns with the conservative culture of institutional banking.

Slide 7: The Problem and Solution (Platform and Technology)

Slide 7 is the most critical slide for understanding the business case. It uses two charts to compare 'Before Intraday Borrowing' and 'After Intraday Borrowing.' In the 'Before' scenario, Bank A has a volatile cash balance and must maintain a large, 'expensive' liquidity buffer to ensure they don't go below zero. In the 'After' scenario, the bank borrows cash during a dip and repays it once their balance recovers. This results in a 'Lower required buffer.' The slide also shows a screenshot of the 'Finteum Platform ('Alpha' version built),' proving that the product exists beyond just a whitepaper. The value proposition is clear: capital efficiency for large financial institutions.

Slide 9: Business Model and Rationale

Finteum takes a firm stance on its market position: 'We want to have banks as our customers (only banks).' This is a strategic choice to avoid the 'all-to-all' platform trap where a lack of liquidity kills the marketplace. By focusing on banks, they ensure that the participants have the necessary settlement infrastructure. The slide describes their role as an 'MTF, or MTF Partner' (Multilateral Trading Facility). It also lists 'Client Success Examples,' such as a pension fund earning 10bps on uninvested cash or a prime brokerage client earning 50bps during year-end market dislocations. This slide explains the 'who' and the 'why,' but notably lacks the 'how much' regarding Finteum's own revenue.

Slide 11: Product Demo

Slide 11 is a simple placeholder for a demo, showing two overlapping screenshots of the trading interface. The UI appears professional, following the 'dark mode' aesthetic common in modern trading terminals (like Bloomberg or Reuters). It shows currency pairs (GBP/USD, EUR/USD, USD/JPY) and order books, reinforcing that this is a functional trading tool, not just a conceptual DLT project.

Slide 13: Conclusion

The deck ends as it began, with a 'Thank you to R3!' and the CordaCon branding. It repeats the platform screenshots, leaving the audience with the image of a finished, professional product. There is no 'Ask' slide in this version of the deck, which suggests this specific iteration was intended for a public conference presentation rather than a private investor meeting.

What Finteum Does Well

Finteum excels at problem definition . In the world of DLT, many startups struggle to find a 'killer app' that actually requires a ledger. Finteum identifies a specific, high-cost problem (liquidity buffers) that is perfectly suited for the instant settlement capabilities of a distributed ledger. By focusing on the 'intraday' aspect, they are creating a market that largely didn't exist in a digitized, liquid form before.

The team composition is another strength. For a pre-seed company, having advisors who were Managing Directors at Deutsche Bank or Chief Engineers at Barclays is a major signal to both investors and potential bank customers. It suggests the company won't be tripped up by the complex regulatory and technical requirements of the banking industry.

What is Missing from the Deck

Because this was a conference presentation, it omits several standard fundraising elements:

The Ask: There is no mention of how much capital the company is seeking or what the milestones for the next round will be. · Financial Projections: There are no slides detailing the expected volume of trades or the projected revenue for Finteum over the next 3-5 years. · Competitor Analysis: The deck mentions that 'all-to-all' platforms struggle, but it doesn't name specific competitors or explain how Finteum will defend its moat against established players like ICAP or newer fintechs. · Regulatory Roadmap: Operating as an MTF requires significant regulatory licensing (like FCA in the UK). The deck doesn't outline where they are in the application process.

Founder's Guide: What to Copy

Use the 'Before vs. After' Visual: Slide 7 is a masterclass in explaining a complex financial concept. Instead of using text to explain liquidity buffers, the founders used a simple line graph to show the 'dip' and how their product fills it. Any founder solving a technical efficiency problem should use this format.

Be Explicit About Your Customer: Finteum’s 'only banks' rule is a strong strategic signal. It shows they have done the market research and understand that trying to be everything to everyone (all-to-all) is a recipe for failure in the interbank space. Founders should not be afraid to 'narrow the funnel' if it increases the likelihood of success within a specific niche.

Leverage Ecosystem Branding: If you are building on a specific platform (like Corda, AWS, or Salesforce), lean into it. Finteum used the CordaCon stage to align their brand with a much larger, established entity (R3), which provides immediate technical credibility to a pre-seed team.