Monica Millares: [00:00:00] Hello everyone, I am Monica, your host, and I

Delphine Emenyonu: am Delphine, and you're listening and watching Purpose Driven FinTech.

Monica Millares: Welcome everyone. Hello Delphine. It's a pleasure having you on the show. How are you today?

Delphine Emenyonu: I'm very well. It's a nice, it's a lot nicer here in London. We've not really had the best of the summer, but it's a lot nicer now, I would say.

Monica Millares: That is good. That's always a great start. So you and I met many years ago. Yes. And then we used to work together in Barclays many years ago, and then we both took different journeys, entrepreneurial journeys, I took the entrepreneurial journey, joining a founder, and then eventually now you've become a founder, so I'm really looking forward to hearing your story.

Looking

Delphine Emenyonu: forward to sharing. Thank [00:01:00] you.

Monica Millares: Before we get started into the founding story and all that, first, I want to get to know you a little bit as a Delphine human. Let's start with my favorite questions that it's all about mindset. How do you deal with failure and the tough

Delphine Emenyonu: times? How do you deal with failure and the tough time?

My approach is always being comfortable. In doing an uncomfortable period, and I always look at things from an economic cycle perspective, so whereby you're going to have your peaks, but you're going to have your low points, but actually being very comfortable in your low points, because that's really where you get to learn.

So it's really more around, instead of being depressed, which again, it's going to be difficult. You're going to have a depressed stage, but actually trying to pick yourself up and actually using that as a learning opportunity, because if you use that [00:02:00] as a learning opportunity, it then actually ensures that when you get to that opportunity of growth, really, it becomes more accelerated.

So for me I would say being very comfortable in when there is discomfort. Using that as an opportunity to learn, also get advice from different people, because let's be honest, you are not going to be the first, you're not going to be the last person to go through a down period, but then most importantly, really more around how you can use that as an opportunity to accelerate that growth opportunity.

So that's how I deal with it, but also I have family. Let's be honest it's not we're not all, we're not all an island, right? So also leveraging family, leveraging friends is so important because at the end of the day, we're still very human. Yes. I think

Monica Millares: that's such an important piece.

It's not only the learning and embracing it, but the supporting each other. Today I was reminded I met, an amazing woman here the [00:03:00] other day, months ago

sta

Monica Millares: big CEO in the FinTech space. And then I asked her, what's your secret to success? Like she's also has a family, this, the other, and she said, my support network, I was like, of course it's a, yeah, support network, whether that's family, friends, colleagues, makes a massive difference,

Delphine Emenyonu: massive difference.

Yeah, it does.

Monica Millares: So talking about peers and support network we many times rely on advice that other people tell us. But I like asking a different type of insightful question because it comes from the heart. So if you look back at your career, what type of advice you wish somebody gave you when you were younger that they

Delphine Emenyonu: didn't?

I think this one is an interesting one and I'm going to talk about it from my experience and I'm going to go all the way back. [00:04:00] So I moved to the UK when I was 16. So I moved to the UK from Nigeria when I was 16, away from my family. I was the only person here. And when I moved here, I came here to do my A levels.

And I remember at the end of the first term, you're given a predicted grade. And that predictor grid is what you typically use to basically say, okay, fine, when it's time to apply for university, that's what you would use. And I think one thing I wish I knew then was just because someone has predicted something for you.

That doesn't mean it's actually what is going to be the outcome. And I think that in itself, if I'm very honest with you, I wish someone told me that in the beginning, right? To basically say, just because someone has actually said, this is going to be your outcome, that doesn't mean it's going [00:05:00] to be your outcome.

And actually, you, whether you like it or not, are in charge of your destiny. And... That is just something I wish I had in me. And the reason why I say that is because it really limited my ability because I was predicted, I did economics business studies and I did theater and they predicted that I was going to get an E in economics.

And for me, I just thought that was going to be the outcome, right? and it limited my ability to one, apply to, I went to a good university, so I went to Cardiff University, which was a great university. But the idea of actually going to an Oxford or a Cambridge for me was like impossible. Not even. Not even.

And I think for me it was just really more around just because someone says something, that doesn't mean that is your destiny. And I wish. You know that I was audacious enough then to basically say, I know I [00:06:00] can put in the hard work. I know that I'm unique and then I could actually apply to those universities and stuff.

And even though this is true story, even though that I finished and I got an A in economics, just to let you understand still the self doubt. At that point in time, I had the option of actually changing my university, but I still had that self doubt. I got the A. There was nothing stopping me and stuff like that.

So I think for me, it's really more around, I just wish I believed in myself then. But one thing I will say is that I have taken that learning and that's really helped me in terms of my career. So whereby doing, and especially doing what I do starting up a FinTech as a Black female founder, that in itself is audacious.

So I think for me, I wish I had gotten it right then. But the good thing though, is that I have learned from it and now I'm applying

Monica Millares: it. I love it. [00:07:00] I love it because yes, we limit ourselves based on the limits of other people, the perceptions of other people. I always say. When I'm asked, I don't know, to give feedback to someone or when I ask for feedback, I always say take what I'm about to say with a pinch of salt.

And I always take what people are telling me with a pinch of salt because I don't know your context. I don't know and the words are very powerful, just like you say. Extremely powerful. So it's not because your boss said something, you take it for truth. So it's be very careful on, what you tell yourself because it stays with you in your mind.

Okay. So this podcast is about how do we make the industry better? And the part of that, it's like, how do we build products with impact and how we are more purpose driven. In your opinion, what is the role of purpose in the industry?

Delphine Emenyonu: What is the role of purpose in the [00:08:00] industry? I think the role is to definitely make a difference, right? Whereby, and when I make it I make a difference. It doesn't mean building flashy products. It doesn't mean making things easier, but I think also thinking about how you impact communities, right?

And I think a good example that I like to think about although it's not my product, but I think about things like money remittance, right? As a good example. So whereby it seems like a lot of people are just focused on moving money from point A to point B. But actually the purpose actually is not, yes, you're moving money from.

The UK to an African country, but then actually that money when it gets into the hands of a farmer, what it does, it changes lives, it changes community. So I think with whatever we're doing, I think [00:09:00] we need to think about, yes, by making things easier, which is great. But at the same time, how does that really impact communities and things like that?

And that's the way I look at things in terms of just make sure that whatever you're doing. Yes, make it easy, but make sure there is a purpose. And obviously, from a UK perspective, in terms of also giving back, if, for example, you get to an opportunity to develop your own organization, how are you giving back to your community?

Because ultimately, the better, better balanced communities that we have, the actual more opportunity and innovation that you would get. So I think for me, purpose is, yes, build flashy products. Yes, build something that is great, but just make sure that you have that community lens approach, because ultimately by giving back to your community, it really makes the world a better place.

I like

Monica Millares: that as a framework even. So that it's like when you're building a product, you go Hey, what's the value? And we can even ask that as a question [00:10:00] Hey, by doing this journey, by doing this product, by doing this FinTech, what's the value to the community? Not even to the user because we'll say, Oh, to which user there's many users, but it's more of a, what's the value to the community as a whole.

And then probably that will take us to think in a different way. Absolutely. Which I love this as a great introduction to you. What do you are doing in, what are you doing in a Scribd?

Delphine Emenyonu: So I would say, what am I audaciously trying to do? So you mentioned we met when we were both in Barclays.

So we both have experience and we're very fortunate in payments. And Scriper really started from... Of course we have experience, which we're very fortunate about, but then actually me being a victim of a subscription trap, if I'm honest I subscribed to something, I got charged, [00:11:00] I was upset because I called them and I said, can you cancel?

They said, no. And then they said, I need to send an email and I thought, come on this is crazy. So I thought, is there a way that we could potentially re engineer the way people pay for goods and services? Especially how a lot of the tools that we use are very good for very transactional based services.

It works because guess what? You're there. You have your card, you have your pin, you're aware of your payment. But when it comes to subscriptions, a lot of the payments are taken. To be honest with you, when everyone is sleeping, and by the time you wake up in the morning, you don't actually notice it. So it was really more around thinking, how do we re engineer the way people can still have control of their money, even when they're sleeping.

And Scribey started. And Scribey, really it's an app where you can easily see all your subscriptions in one place. It gives you notifications when your subscriptions are due. It also helps when your free [00:12:00] trials are about to come to an end. But where we're really unique is that we give you control.

So when you subscribe to a service, we automatically track the subscription. When that service is about to auto renew, instead of what I consider your current, your account being a blank check, we actually alert you and say, this merchant wants to take money from your account. Do you approve? And it's only when you approve.

That they can actually take money from your account. And what we're now doing here is what I consider building a happy ecosystem, if I'm honest, whereby you have consumers or users who are confident to try new subscriptions. But then also, to be honest, merchants who have the ability to get more customers because now people are saying, actually, if I do not want that service, I have the ability and freedom to stop it.

Monica Millares: Yes, I love the pain points that you're solving because I have it all the time. And like you say, I don't know why they charge at night, like it happened to me this week. And I woke up and I [00:13:00] was like, what? But then it's I was like, I was lucky because I saw an email. Your payment was declined. Oh, I was like, I did not have enough money.

I was like, okay, I have time to go and cancel. Yes, but it is a genuine pain point. And tons of money is wasted from a customer perspective in subscriptions that we do not

Delphine Emenyonu: want. So I think there's a little stack on that. I think in the UK, I think there's 26 billion or 25 billion is spent every year in terms of subscriptions.

But in terms of the amount wasted for the everyday consumer, it's around 2 billion every year. But for people like you, Monica, who are what I consider superhuman and freelancers self employed. It actually impacts you a lot more because if you do forget, you can actually lose on average, probably a lot more on average, it's probably around 3000 a year.[00:14:00]

It's really a lot of money that is lost. But also the anxiety and stress, like you said, you woke up in the morning thinking, Oh my God, the money has gone out of my account. That anxiety, how can we prevent that from happening? Yes.

Monica Millares: And I think you touched like a very good point because there's different type of customers.

We have the consumers that may have two to three subscriptions, Netflix, Spotify, and something else. And it's limited, but then you have, let's say the content creators, the freelancers, the self employed that as part of their job. They, or their passion projects, they test different softwares. Just to do a better outputs of their creativity or their job.

And then because of testing, yes. You go through the trial process and then boom, you're charged again. And you're charged again. And I, and it's horrible. So Yes, it's definitely, and I didn't know, you said it was like 2 [00:15:00] billion, 2 billion a year, 2

Delphine Emenyonu: billion a year. This is, and that, that is a I think that's information Citizen Advised Bureau.

So that is information that is readily available, but 2 billion a year. And this is on consumer. So we're not even touching on your freelancers and your self employed. Just imagine if we included them into that spectrum, then it would be a lot more. But one thing I would say is that I do believe that subscriptions are the future, right?

It gives people, like you said, the opportunity to try new services. But what I just do not like is the fact that a lot of people are losing sleep, but are also losing money. When it comes to trying out services. And I just think there needs to just be a different way, really, if I'm honest.

Monica Millares: Yes. So what are the, you're saying people are losing sleep and money.

So what are the biggest pain points that people have when it comes

Delphine Emenyonu: to subscriptions? I think the first one is the fact [00:16:00] that because, especially in terms of the audience that are constantly trying new subscriptions, not knowing what is due. I think that's one of the first pain point. So if you use your normal bank card to pay, the reality is that your bank card is doing what it's meant to do, which is to show you your transactions.

But however, when it comes to subscriptions, a lot of the time, the transactions, especially the free trials, it's zero. So it's never going to appear on your bank card. So you automatically have no visibility of what is happening. So I think one of the first pain points is that there isn't really visibility in terms of really what your subscriptions are.

I think another second pain point is auto renewals. So when I say auto renewals is whereby, yes, I know that I have subscribed to a service, but I want to be alerted of that auto renewal before it happens. Now there is a digital bill that's coming into place that basically requires organizations to send notification.

But from my experience, what I tend to see is that [00:17:00] they send you a notification once they have charged you. And I don't see that as a notification, as in you should give them at least a couple of days to make a decision but there's no point in sending me a notification when actually my money has left my account.

So I think another second point is really just that notification. And I think the third one really is control of their money, right? There's something called a continuous payment authorization, which me and you are aware of, whereby if you give your card, A lot of people don't know this, but you are giving that merchant continuous authorisation to basically take money from your account.

People, average consumer doesn't know that. So for me, it's really more around, yes, I am giving my card details. But I still at the same time, I want to have control. So I would say those three key things is just having better visibility of your money, of your subscriptions, getting notifications and reminders, right?

But also really that control so that you can actually manage your expenses a bit better and also manage your cash flow a bit better. Yes,

Monica Millares: I think [00:18:00] yeah, I totally agree with it because Like I said, I suffer from those pain points on an ongoing basis, so that's why I love your product. Yes.

My question is, of course you have ScribePay. Why are other financial services solutions or institutions not solving this problem the right way? What's your take on that? Because it's

Delphine Emenyonu: huge. No, it's huge. I do think though is that If you look back at the, and I'll do like a horky chart. So in 2013, when you looked at the subscription ecosystem, right?

When you thought about subscriptions, it was literally what? Sky? Or your standard direct debits, right? And if I'm honest, a lot of people confuse subscriptions with direct debits. One of the things I want to do is actually say they're very different, right? So your direct debit is your water bill, your utility bill.

The reality here is that you are in [00:19:00] control. You can go into your app and actually cancel. And there's absolutely no problem. But what we've really seen between 2013... To 2023 is what I consider a hockey growth in subscriptions and the key difference between a direct debit and a subscription is a lot of those subscriptions are digital.

So it's really whereby you're going online and then you put in your card details. There's a big difference and we've seen that grow from 7 billion in 10 years to 20 something. I'm sorry, that is a massive growth and I think really it's more around a lot of the organizations, first of all, distinguishing between a subscription and a direct debit.

Because at the moment, a lot of people just put it into one band and they say if you wanted to stop a direct debit, it's very easy because you can do that in your app. So I think that's one of the things. I think another thing we're seeing now is we're seeing a lot of new entrants into the marketplace.

And over the last two years, in the UK, There have been three, four [00:20:00] companies that have come in to really help in terms of subscription management. So clearly now, because of the hockey growth in subscription, now we're slowly seeing people helping in terms of subscription.

But one thing I will say though, a lot of it has been focused more on leveraging open banking, whereby they leverage open banking, they bring all your data into one place. I think that's a good step, right? because it does one of the pain points I talked about, which is visibility of your subscription.

But by that time, you've already lost money. Yes, I have visibility and I can stop it. And I think really what Scriber is trying to do is to say, yes, we can give you that visibility. But actually, really, if you have control from the get go, then visibility. It's automatic, really. So we're seeing a change.

I've seen more and more people coming into place, etc. But I think just, I think the whole idea of subscriptions has really come as a surprise, if I'm [00:21:00] honest. But I do see a lot of financial institutions now thinking of how they can help their consumers to help manage their money. But the only thing I will say is that they have not really gone as far as what we've done at Squire Pay, which is understandable because A lot of these financial institutions, they are focused on everything, right?

They do lending. They do everyday banking, et cetera. So one of the things I'm hoping to stop trying to do is think about, okay, fine. If we can't do what a company that focuses on subscription is doing, why don't we potentially partner with them, et cetera. The industry is growing, like I said, and we are seeing a lot more players now than there were two years ago.

Yeah, and then

Monica Millares: that, that is good on its own, that there's more people trying to solve this problem because the problem is a big problem worth solving. Can you guide us for your solution? Like how do you give me visibility? How can I stop

Delphine Emenyonu: the payment? Sure. So I'll guide you through, I'll guide you through our solution.

So I talked about [00:22:00] open banking. One of the things that we've done is we've actually not gone down the route of open banking. What we've done is our users can basically download our app. It's available on Android and also App Store. And when they download their app, you literally can just add your subscriptions, right?

So you simple add your subscriptions and you could also track free trials. We also support over a hundred different currencies. So even if, for example, you have a subscription that you're based in the UK, but it's a subscription, for example, that it's in Malaysia, we have the ability for you to track that and convert it so you can actually then budget properly from a UK perspective as

Monica Millares: well.

I love that. In my case, while I'm in Malaysia, I have many subscriptions in USD. And I'm like, yeah, and I never know roughly how much it is. You

Delphine Emenyonu: never know. And all of that, and we use on a daily basis from a currency conversion perspective, we make sure that is up to date.

So you know exactly how much you need to [00:23:00] budget. And so you come in and that's free. So you can track your subscriptions and with that you get notifications. So when the subscription is due, we will send you a notification three days before. If it's a free trial, we'll send you a notification two days before, so at least you can actually then make a decision as to whether you want that subscription or not.

But then we then have our premium version and our premium version. I say it takes it up a notch. And what we're doing there is we basically are giving you a financial tool. To basically help automate all your subscriptions. So with our premium version, what you get is you get your e money wallet to basically store your subscription money.

So you, and it's a source code and a an account number and it's an EMI, so it's secure. We don't lend. That money is safeguarded. But then you also get your virtual card, which is a mastercard, and you basically use that to pay. But the difference is, if, for example, I was to subscribe to, let me use an example, Adobe, right?

Because that's a common tool [00:24:00] that a lot of our freelancers use. The second I use the ScribePay card to pay, within the ScribePay app, we automatically track it. So you automatically would just see Adobe for this amount and it's due X, Y and Z. Now, one thing that we've done with Scripy, if people are familiar with Waze, is that we check with you.

And I think that's one of the things that Waze is an app that is very intuitive, whereby we don't check with you to just say, is this information correct? And you are then helping in terms of make sure that our technology is up to date as much as possible. But then also what happens is when Adobe is due.

We'll send you a reminder. If it's a free trial, we'll send you a reminder. But then also if Adobe was a free trial and was going to go into a pay trial, when Adobe wants to charge you, as opposed to your traditional bank accounts, where the money just goes with ScribePay would alert you and say, Adobe wants to charge you 9.

99. Do you approve? And if you approve, then. sit back. We take care of it. [00:25:00] Every month we basically take care of that subscription until you tell us otherwise. And you have the ability to come back to the app and basically say, I'm not using Adobe anymore, and then cancel the subscription within the app. So the whole idea is you have a tool that you can basically use to manage all your subscriptions.

And you know that you would never have that anxiety like you had waking up and thinking, Oh my God did they charge me? That would never happen because you're always in control on the go as well.

Monica Millares: I really like that and that is leading me to think more of your product development process as such.

So you have a series of pain points that resulted in these user journeys that are solving the problem. How did you go about ideating? How did you speak with customers? Did you, how did you validate the problem? How can you guide us through? Absolutely.

Delphine Emenyonu: So the idea started in 2020, like I talked about in terms of going through what I consider my crybaby moment where I was like, what?

How dare [00:26:00] they charge me? And then we were very fortunate enough to join the Barclays Black Founder Accelerator Program. And when we joined. It was really an idea and we, everyone you spoke to highlighted, they had that problem, but really, let's be honest, we did not know what the solution was.

So we're very fortunate to go through a variety of masterclasses and things like that. And it was through that, that we came up with our MVP, right? We then basically said, this is what the solution would look like. And it was a very good thought process because as part of that, we did customer research.

We spoke to a lot of customers who told us they didn't like the idea of open banking that that it's open. Banking is great, but the fact is, one, they don't know who we are, right? So the idea of actually giving us where we're not a known brand name, right? Didn't make them feel comfortable that actually what they would prefer is for them to manually.

Put in their [00:27:00] subscription and that was really what kind of led us down that route as well in terms of our price points as well, again, by having conversations with them, we also said, what would be a good price and things and they said, I'll be honest, I'll be happy to pay a fiver for this, right?

As in, if, for example, you can take all my worries and things like that, I'll happily pay a fiver a month because at the end of the day, I know that I spent a lot more money. I've seen. It's been a lot more on coffee. So it was through that, that we now then had the product. But you have to remember, I don't have a tech background, right?

I have a payments background. So then it was a challenge then looking for who was going to build the product. But we're, but this is why I talk about the power of network keep talking because literally I met someone. Who told me about someone and then who told me about another person and then was through that then we then found the team that helped us to build the product.

We then built the product and you have to remember, yes, you have an idea. [00:28:00] Yes, you've spoken to customers. Yes, you build a product, but by the time it gets into the palm of the customer, they will tell you I didn't really like it. So you then have to then go through that constant what's it called?

Iteration, right? Because at the time they see it, they were thinking I thought it was going to be this way and that way. So we went through a really long process, if I'm honest with you, of actually, that idea stage to actually having what we consider our, I would say minimum viable, but at the moment now we're at a stage where we're more around a product market fit, I would say, in terms of actually getting the product into, place.

And it's not a short process. So I think a lot of people think it's something that you do in two months. We started the idea in 2020. We didn't have a product in hand. And when I say in hand, for people to really use onto 2022.

Monica Millares: Oh, wow. Yeah, that took you two years. How? Were you working at the time?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Delphine Emenyonu: And this is another thing as well. And [00:29:00] I will say a lot of people have to be comfortable that with a lot of founders. If you're very fortunate enough that you have the bank of mom and dad and friends and you can focus great, but the reality is that when you're starting something, whether it's a passion project or whatever, we still need to survive.

So you still need to potentially be doing this, what I consider during the day in terms of doing your job during the day. And then at night, you really under during the weekends. You then basically try and do what it what you require to make it a reality and in the UK, unfortunately, unlike in the US where there's a lot more funding, so whereby you could potentially get access to funding to actually do stuff in the UK is a lot more challenging whereby before you get that investment, a lot of people want to see revenue, right?

And they want to see Not just small revenue on average, we're looking at 10 to 15, 000 monthly recurring revenue, if I'm honest. So [00:30:00] the idea of doing a day job and actually doing a, that's the norm. So anyone who tells you that's not the norm, it's a lie, it's the norm. But hopefully you get to a point where you believe and then you can now decide to Take on the job as a full time basis. But yeah, I was for the last couple of years, I was working during the day and then trying to build my startup as well and during the, evening and night, that

Monica Millares: is impressive. Well done, you and the team.

Delphine Emenyonu: And the team. And it takes a village. Yeah. Yes, it does. It takes a village.

It's not only me. Yes, you might have the great idea, but it takes a village. My co founder, the tech team, our partners, it takes a village and just really more around everyone being committed. So it's not just me. There's a village behind me that makes this even a reality. Exactly.

Monica Millares: And what are the challenges that you, because like now you have the product.

You've gone through these two years of. Building the product, iterating now you have the product. So what challenges do you have [00:31:00] now?

Delphine Emenyonu: Our biggest challenge I would say is access to funding. And when we initially started off with the idea, the plan was to show what I consider a scrappy MVP and then use that scrappy MVP to get access to funding. That was the plan. What we quickly realized was that in the UK, there's nothing like a scrappy MVP.

You either have a product that you're looking to scale or be very fortunate enough to have set up a business before and exited so that people already trust that you can execute, deliver so that they know that you can get funding. So for us it was literally us bootstrapping. But I think now we're at a stage where we have the product we have access to the data over the last six months, whereby we're seeing the people coming in, the people [00:32:00] who are staying and using our product.

So we have that, I would say, early product market fit. In addition to that, we've also done external research to further validate it in terms of who our audience. So we're at a stage where we have a product. We know who our audience, we're now then looking for our first, what I consider our pre seed to really help us go target that audience for skill.

And a lot of that is really what our next step is in terms of what we're looking for. So I'll say really access to funding now, because we know exactly what we, know exactly what we're doing. So that we can actually target our audience and really grow. Let me then dig deeper.

Monica Millares: So it's access to funding.

And I'll ask something that it's obvious to me and to you. So you are a woman in FinTech and you are a woman of color in FinTech. What has been your experience when it comes to fundraising? [00:33:00]

Delphine Emenyonu: I would say that there's definitely a lot of access to advice. I if I was to scale the number of advice and I will tell you, it's there.

People are willing to give me the best advice and I'd be very fortunate in terms of the mentors and things like that. But if I'm very honest and frank, I've reached that limit of, okay, the advice is very useful, but now I need access to the finance or in the words I, say. The check to actually make this a reality.

So I would say it's very challenging in terms of getting access to funding. I've spoken to a lot of people that I thought we were going to close the funding, but at the last minute, it doesn't happen. I can't tell you why I can't say because we've provided everything we provide. And when you ask for feedback, they say we want to wait a little [00:34:00] bit.

Once you get to the next traction and I'm thinking we need the funding to get to that next traction and stuff. So I would say for me, it's definitely challenging. We've had a lot of stop starts. If I'm honest when it comes to funding so I would say for me, a lot of advice and I want to say thank you for all the advice.

It's very valuable, but I think if we really want to see a difference, the reality is that we need to be confident in actually giving the checks because I think that puts us in a better position to actually execute. Yes. And

Monica Millares: I'm going to challenge that as well, because we know only 2 percent of BC funding is going to women.

I'm not a founder, right? I only see the problem from the side. I don't experience the pain as such. So we know it's a problem that only 2 percent of the funding is going to women. So what are the practical things that a women can do to up their game [00:35:00] and then be that the industry that BCS can do to practically.

Ensure that there is less of a bias because I don't know. I'm like 2 sided. Part of me says is it because 2 percent of the funding goes to women because there's way less women trying to start companies and or. Maybe the quality of the products that they are offering is not as appealing as the ones from their male counterparts.

And then from a VC perspective, they're they're a complex world on its own. So yeah, I'm very curious to understand your thoughts.

Delphine Emenyonu: I think we don't need to up our game, right? We're, already we're doing great. I don't think it's a matter of us upping our game. I think it's actually the other side, that they need to up their game and actually be more comfortable.

That women can lead, right? Women can think of ideas. But I think most important, let's forget about all of that. We can [00:36:00] execute, right? But then also, they have to also remember, yes, it's a woman leading. But the reality here is that she's going to have a village. So they should not be too bogged down about whether it's a woman leading.

The question really is more around her ability to empower the village to execute, I would say. So I don't think it's about us being a woman. I think they should need to think about actually how have you created a village to execute? Because I think that's really the most important thing.

You talk about the 2%, right? I'm a fan of quotas. I think Let, if the visa community is extremely serious about increasing that, because that 2 percent number has been thrown around, let's be honest, for years now. So it shows you that number has not really changed. So if the visa community is really focused about actually, Increasing more funding within female founders and things like that.

Set yourself a target. Say that VC [00:37:00] community, we want to make sure that female founding investment is 10 percent and then measure, but then also most importantly, show the results. Because one thing that is very frustrating to me is the fact that 98 percent of the funding goes into what's it called traditional male whatever.

But the reality is that we know that not all of them will succeed. So for me, not only do you show the 10%, but also show the success level, because from what I do see is that a lot of women founders and everything, because of the hurdles, they tend to actually be more successful when you look at it from that ratio perspective.

So I would say set yourself practically a quarter, 10%. I don't think 10 percent is a lot. And then basically measure not only your ability to get to that 10 percent but also show the success because I think that's important because that would then also empower other women. And if you go back to my initial story whereby because you don't see other women doing stuff, you're then thinking I can't do [00:38:00] it by doing that 10 percent target.

By actually showing the result, it would then hopefully empower more women to say, actually, I think I can do this because there are people that have done this previously.

Monica Millares: I like that as a summary that it's hey, it's practical action, set a target, measure the target, measure the impact of the results of achieving that target, and then showcase.

The success story so that then we can empower others and then coming back full circle to the beginning of the, story, beginning of the podcast community, then that tells us like, Hey, that's how we're having impact to the community as such. Oh, it's been a fantastic conversation, Delphine.

Where can we find more about you and Scribe?

Delphine Emenyonu: So you can find us on www. getscribepaid. co. uk. So that's like an infomercial, but the app is available in the UK, [00:39:00] so it's available on Google, it's available on Apple store as well, and we are having conversation with different partners. One of the things we're looking at is how do we potentially partner with other financial institutions, because that would give us.

Give their users access to our tool, which we know it saves them time and money. But at the moment you can find us on Google and on app stores.

Monica Millares: Amazing. And then before we go, if you were to change one thing in the industry that made the lives of customers, staff, and shareholders better, what would you

Delphine Emenyonu: change?

Ooh, if I was to change one thing, I would say fraud. Ooh. Yes, and I don't think a lot of people would expect this, but I would say within the fintech community our role is really, [00:40:00] to be honest, like it says we're using technology to make finance better. But at the same time, because a lot of it is very digital, what then happens is that it opens up.

to whether you like it or not, fraud. And it doesn't really matter how many tools you're using, whether you're using liveness checks, whether you're using documentation and things like that. The reality here is that there's a lot of fraud. Now one thing I would like within the ecosystem is a lot of these fraud stars they didn't just wake up today.

They've been there, and other financial institutions have experienced them. So for me, what would be great is that as a collective, if we could potentially have like a system that actually knows who, because every individual organization knows who they are, but because we're so siloed, the customer will go from company A and be bad.

Then they'll go to company B and be bad. The reality is that if we're collectively working [00:41:00] together, if they go to company A and they're bad, the good news is that they don't have to go to company B or company C. But then guess even the better news, a lot of the time, The customer, when I say the customer, the people that they're frauding, don't lose because yes, they may have lost money in company A, but because we don't onboard them in company B or company C, that automatically then reduces your fraud in totality, which basically means your end consumer never loses any money or doesn't lose as much money as they would have lost, and then from a staff perspective, whether you like it or not, it's just better because a lot of these frauds that the amount of abuse is.

That they put on staff is horrendous, right? And if you don't have the training to make sure your staff has been respectful, but at the same time being thorough, it can be very demoralizing. So I think for me, I would say really, it's more around how can we as a think tech community come together to really combat fraud?

Because reality is that you're [00:42:00] not big enough, like the big banks that can really manage it. But let's be honest with the big brands, they have enough. finance. They have a lot of revenue stream that they don't really care about onboarding customers. If they don't like it, they would just say no.

But within the fintech community, because it's that constant challenge of actually constantly growing, we do know that fraud actually is something that fuels growth. But how can we prevent it and ensure that one, the kind of growth you experience is real customer growth. But at the same time, you're creating like a better and healthier ecosystem when it comes to fintech.

So for me, That is my number one ask. I'm sure other people have different asks, but really, if we can work together to combat and reduce fraud, that for me will be a big win.

Monica Millares: I think that's a big problem to solve as an industry. Yes, it

Delphine Emenyonu: is. But it's possible if, we can come together. I think one of the examples are, bureaus, right?

If for example, that I'm going to go and lend money. If I'm going to go [00:43:00] if I'm going to go borrow money from a bank, the reality here is that there's a central bureau that the banks check to basically see if they're good value. And a lot of that score we see is really more around what you've done with other lenders, right?

Because don't get me wrong, the finance institution still has their what's it called, policy. That... It's so powerful. And I'm thinking we need like some type of fraud bureau. So whereby when you onboarding customers, you have access to that fraud bureau. So whereby you check, forget about liveness check and things that it can make that up, but you check that fraud bureau to decide actually, do you want to onboard that customer based on the information that we know?

Is that readily available?

Monica Millares: Awesome. Nice. There's a lot to do to fight fraud. It's been an absolute pleasure having you in the show. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you everyone. See you next week. Ciao. Ciao.