Disrupting business banking for SMEs
Start-ups often succeed when they offer the right solutions to solve industry pain points. Thus far, things are looking good for Fyorin. Christian Agius, Co-Founder of Fyorin, talks about the launch of the innovative payment platform and shares the company's future plans.
Photo 1 – Meet Christian Agius, Co-Founder of Fyorin
For those who don't know Fyorin, can you provide some background on the company?
Fyorin is a payment and financial operations platform that seamlessly automates receivables and payables across an international network of financial providers. Through one single access, we enable businesses to access multiple financial products across multiple financial institutions, tailored for their needs.
SMEs will be able to open a multi-currency account, sub-accounts, receive and send payments in over 40 currencies, execute foreign exchange, accept cards online or in-store, as well as issue virtual cards for corporate purchasing or employee expenses through an ever-increasing network of financial institutions on the Fyorin Network.
Can you share a little-known fact about your firm?
Fyorin is founded by three Maltese FinTech entrepreneurs that have worked with international FinTech and e-commerce companies and share over 40 years of professional experience. Fyorin was born to address the frustration to access business banking for SMEs as well as to enable financial institutions to grow their portfolio of products and expand across borders at a fraction of the current cost and capital outlay.
As we manage our curated Fyorin network and focus on building innovative products on top of the financial regulated layer, we enable both sides of the transaction (financial institutions and SMEs) to come closer together, do better business and grow their own businesses.
What are you currently working on and what are your company's plans and strategic priorities for the coming years?
The pandemic has put businesses at a standstill; SMEs are eager to get back to where they were and even grow their business further. We want to fuel that growth through innovative working capital solution products that we are building within the Fyorin solution.
Fyorin technology enables financial institutions to expand both in terms of products as well as market and geography expansion. As a partner, we want to make it easy and seamless for a financial institution to join the network, white-label Fyorin technology and go-to-market within days with a holistic solution to its current customer base. Such solution will have a broader offering by leveraging on the capabilities that other financial institutions and service providers on the network can offer. As a preposition this enables financial institutions further stickiness with their customers and a 360-degree view and understanding of their customer profile. This strategy will enable Fyorin to grow throughout the EU and beyond in the coming months.
Are there any projects/achievements of your firm that you are exceptionally proud of?
Going live late 2021 was a proud achievement of our hard-working team after 15 months of hard work into the Fyorin project. Additionally, launching partnerships with leading global financial players in the industry and seeing our customer base growing month-on-month are a great testament to what we are building. Our work is being recognised by the local business community on several occasions and Fyorin has received the following awards:
2021 Malta's Best in Business Awards and Best Entrepreneur of the Year Award
- Best Innovative Company
- Best Start-Up Entrepreneur
- Best Technology Entrepreneur
2021 eBusiness Awards by Tech.mt
- Best Tech Start-Up
There are many other exciting projects which we are eager to announce and share in the coming months; these shall continue to drive simplicity, efficiency, and industry-tailored tools for better business banking.
What in your opinion makes Malta an effective jurisdiction to set up a business?
Malta positions itself as a business-friendly EU jurisdiction which embraces innovation. Local capital markets are growing in size, liquidity and sophistication. Moreover, having its economy set to continue expanding by 4.2% in 2022 and by 4.0% in 2023, while withstanding the impact of the increase in commodity prices and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, makes Malta an effective and attractive jurisdiction to set up a business.
Having such a strong economy, a mature and developed legal system and an adaptable, highly skilled English-speaking workforce positions Malta as a regional centre of excellence.
What kind of people/companies in the financial services community would you want to connect with?
Fyorin was born to equip financial institutions and service providers with better tools to serve SMEs better. Fyorin aim is to bring together an ecosystem of services and partners that provides SMEs access to a simple, tailored and efficient business banking platform that caters for its end-to-end financial operations function.
Fyorin is eager to continue collaborating with banks, financial institutions, corporate service providers and other technology players within the Maltese financial services community to facilitate the growth of local businesses and the local economy.
Bio:
Christian Joseph Agius, Co-Founder & COO/CFO of Fyorin, is a finance professional who specialises in the design and implementation of internal controls, performance management systems, financial modelling, and process optimisation.
Having 12+ years of experience in FinTech and payments, Christian previously held key roles that contributed towards the successful growth of two FinTech start-ups internationally. Being equipped with both accounting and technical IT backgrounds, he develops, automates, and improves financial processes.
