Axel Thibon: Wizest... Investing Made Easy
On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine talks to Axel Thibon, founder of Wizest, the next generation of investment trading platforms. With his team, Axel aims to make personal investing more accessible, more engaging, and more consistent with today's digital platforms and changing consumer behavior. Today, people think that investing is complicated and intimidating. What if there was a platform to pair novice investors with financial experts?
Before Wizest, Alex worked in banking for over six years. He led and guided 4 M&A/integration projects for banks ranging from $300M to $15B and led strategy and transformation initiatives in Renault Nissan Mitsubishi for nine years, Sabadell United Bank for five years, and has taken all that expertise to Wizest for the last four years. Axel has managed and launched a brand new digital bank from scratch.
Sabine and Axel discuss why we need to make investing simple, the challenges with the current mass market wealth management platforms, how Wizest works, and the target market and sources of success.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Wizest democratizes access to the stock market through technology so everyone can invest just like the top 1%. A Wizest client has access to a team of financial experts who invest on their behalf, and the client gets to choose which expert they have on their team with one simple click, instantaneously copying their portfolios.
- Axel had an interesting path before doing Wizest. He was a mechanical engineer for the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi group in charge of developing parts for electrical vehicles. When attempting personal investment for the future, Axel found the process complicated and unsupportive, and this is when he became inspired to enter the banking world, gaining experience from launching a digital bank from scratch, and eventually dedicating his efforts to making investment simpler with Wizest.
- Wizest solves the problem that limited capital investors have with the minimum investment barriers that banks place on investors, the investor’s lack of experience and knowledge of the stock market, and the reluctance felt by the investor by the lack of inclusion and transparency of earlier platforms.
- When you use Wizest for the first time, you see people. It is very welcoming and personal, with the financial investors sharing their personal profiles first, so you can get to know them before you see their recommended portfolios and understand their styles of investment.
- Wizest is working to form partnerships with corporations to increase their reach by offering Wizest memberships to their employees. This kind of service is to offer a service in between savings and wealth management or private investment. There is global potential for this kind of financial accessibility solution.
- Axel recommends approaching investing as a personal experience. Rather than just approaching a bank and taking the standard road to retirement-type investments, take some time to consider your current financial situation and your goals fully. Stick to your plan and try not to react to every financial crisis.
BEST MOMENTS
‘This is a journey that is shared by many of us. When we want to start investing with limited capital, we tend to go with cheap or even free solutions. If you don't have any finance background and don't know what to buy and what to sell, it's tough.’
‘It's not about the service itself, which is about being able to invest or trade, but how the investing happens. So that's what we decided to change with Wizest, which is different from the others because it's not only making it more convenient and accessible, but it is also changing how it is happening.'
‘From there, the user can choose one or several investors they like to build a team. They can build a team that is going to work for them. When I say that when you have $2,000, $5,000, and $10,000 to work with in Wizest, you then work with your team. Your experts help you build your real portfolio. The way you manage your portfolio is not by managing your underlying holdings but by managing your team.’
‘It’s not like setting up a lemonade stand. To be able to launch Wizest, we have to be able to make sure we have a secure solution that is compliant with regulations and that we have the right sort of technical integrations.’
‘When you put the plan in motion, the most important thing most people forget is sticking to the plan. Don't be affected by what is happening today or tomorrow in the market or overreact and be scared because when we look historically over the last hundred years, the markets are always up and down.'
ABOUT THE GUEST
With his team, Axel aims to make personal investing more accessible, more engaging, and more consistent with today's digital platforms and changing consumer behavior. Today, people think that investing is complicated and intimidating. What if there was a platform to pair novice investors with financial experts?
Before Wizest, Alex worked in banking for over six years.
- Led and guided4 M&A/integration projects for banks ranging from $300M to $15B
- Led strategy/ transformation initiatives
- Managed a digital Bank and launched a new bank from scratch
https://www.linkedin.com/in/axel-thibon/
ABOUT WIZEST
Described by Forbes as “far more authentic than Robinhood will ever be," Wizest is the next-generation investment trading platform. Our technology is democratizing access to the stock market so everyone can invest, like the 1%. Build a team of financial experts to invest on your behalf by copying their portfolios in one click. Optimize with performance leaderboards, pick experts you relate to and align with your values, then learn why they make their trades in your news feed. There’s no limit to the expertise at your fingertips!
Wizest aims to democratize the stock market and make investing accessible for everyone. The team believes everyone should be able to invest and achieve their financial goals, regardless of their experience or background.
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ABOUT THE HOST
There are over 140,000 FinTech ventures out there, including FinTechs, InsurTechs, HealthTechs, and WealthTechs. And the number keeps on changing every month. One statistic remains the same: 25% of these ventures have received investment and support from the financing world. 75% of these businesses still seek financing support from institutional and corporate investors alongside value-creating commercial collaboration opportunities with Global Fortune 500.
Through this podcast series, I would like to demystify the world of corporate venturing, including how corporations collaborate with growth ventures, how venture capitalists and corporate venture capitalists make investment and collaboration choices in ventures and give tech founders and entrepreneurs, the strategies, tactics, tools, and techniques to build, grow and scale their business by understanding how those with financing power think. So, listen in, share and comment as you see fit.
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