After a sudden turn of events earlier this year, Radicant’s chief financial officer Roland Klaey found himself taking on the additional role of Co-CEO. Klaey, who has been with the startup since its founding, spoke to finews.com about the digital bank’s ambitious timeline.
The commotion around Radicant’s former CEO which erupted a few months ago, propelled Roland Klaey to the helm of the company. A position he now shares with Co-CEO Rouven Leuener.
Having had to postpone its launch date twice, the fintech is now gearing up for its app’s market entry by year end. In an interview with finews.com Klaey stressed that testing takes time and that he wants to be «absolutely sure that all processes run smoothly when the app reaches the wider public.»
Starting from Scratch
Despite some bumps along the way, Klaey’s enthusiasm for Radicant hasn’t diminished since co-founding the startup back in 2020.
«Although many businesses were speaking about environmental social and governance criteria at the time, few were focused on the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). I was excited to build a digital sustainable bank from scratch,» he said.
However, Klaey soon found out that «communicating these seventeen goals is not always easy,» which is why Radicant bundled them into seven SDG clusters. One of those clusters is basic needs, which encompasses the three SDGs - No Poverty; Zero Hunger; Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions. Gender Equality is another cluster.
Affluent Clients
The startup, which is targeting individual clients with a digital affinity, has built banking services including virtual payment options, as well as an investment offering with Actively Managed Certificates.
How banks are responding to the changing demands of these clients in an environment characterized by inflation, rising interest rates and the banking crisis is one of the topics Co-CEO partner Leuener (pictured above) will be discussing at the industry event Branchentalk Banken being held in Zurich today.
Bruised Relationship
Although BLKB and its wholly owned startup work independently of each other, with little overlap apart from the three shared board members, «it is important to be transparent in the relationship,» Klaey said.
The relationship between parent and subsidiary was bruised after Radicant’s former CEO allegedly made dismissive remarks about BLKB stakeholders, which ultimately led to his ousting, as finews.com reported.
One-Hundred Percent Cloud
Going its own way and testing new grounds has brought the fintech into many surprising situations, such as the time when the 10-man startup found itself explaining the intricacies of Swiss law to legal professionals at partners Google and Salesforce.
Now Radicant has 62 staff members and is proud to be «the first 100 percent cloud-based bank in Switzerland» with data stored in Google’s data center in Zurich, and backed up in Frankfurt.
All in all, Radicant is on track to achieve its goal of breaking even by 2025/2026. A deadline the green next-generation bank is «prepared to do everything to achieve,» Klaey said.
