Alex Manson is a leader at SC Ventures, the fintech venture arm of Standard Chartered Bank.

He speaks with Jame DiBiasio about SCV’s structure, which is partly corporate venture, partly venture capital fund, and partly an incubator of the bank’s own “intrapreneurs”.

SCV now has about 30 portfolio companies, from trade finance to digital assets. Alex discusses how SCV defines success, its impact on the parent bank, its investments in licensed digital banking businesses, and what’s next.

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• Timecodes:
• 0:00 – Alex Manson, SC Ventures
• 1:31 – Lessons from investing in fintech companies
• 4:00 – SC Ventures’ impact on Standard Chartered Bank
• 6:07 – Working with fintechs, whether third party or via SCV, from onboarding to projects
• 9:13 – SCV’s model versus classic venture capital
• 12:23 – How agile are fintechs spun out of the bank, are they independent enough?
• 15:34 – The business logic of how SCV builds portfolios of fintech companies
• 19:27 – Portfolio companies versus platforms, and the role of Mox and Trust virtual banks in the SCV stable
• 23:41 – Challenges for virtual banks versus tech companies – market fit, scale
• 29:35 – External financing and exits
• 31:00 – What’s next!