How Marko Maras Co Founder And CEO Of Fido Raised $1.3M To Build A Platform That Analyzes The Information Content Of Digital Footprint To Score Customers And Predict Credit Risks?

Marko Maras is an entrepreneur, investor, and advisor in mobile, digital media, and consumer internet.

He is passionate about starting and building high-growth businesses with innovative technology products and visionary teams. His journey as a tech entrepreneur started with his first company Onebip, a mobile payment solution provider.

At present, he is the CEO And Founder of Fido. Fido analyzes the information content of the digital footprint to score customers and predict credit risk. The Internet’s growth leaves a trace of simple, easily accessible information about every user – a trace that we label “digital footprint.”

Even without writing a text about oneself, uploading financial information, or providing friendship or social network data, the simple act of accessing or registering on a webpage leaves valuable information.

Fido is used to boost financial inclusion to parts of the population that lack access to services in the formal financial sector, especially among young adults. The use of digital footprint helps to overcome information asymmetries between lenders and borrowers when standard credit bureau information is not available.

In an exclusive interview with AsiaTechDaily, Marko says:

I am a big supporter of Steve Job’s fail fast philosophy. As an entrepreneur, my advice to someone interested in doing similar things would be just to do it!

Often people are trapped in their everyday life, their current job, their family, or whatever. There is always something preventing them from executing their great ideas. Just do it and fail fast.

I’ve been lucky to experience the fact that hard work pays off. That’s what motivates me to work harder to achieve greater goals in life.  

Sell, Sell, Sell! A good salesperson has great qualities that can be very important in life: the ability to listen, empathy, hunger, competitiveness, networking ability, confidence, enthusiasm, resiliency.

Read on to know more about Marko Maras and his journey.

Please tell me about your personal background and What motivated you to get started with your company?

Marko Maras: My journey as a tech entrepreneur started with my first company Onebip, a mobile payment solution provider. When I founded the company in 2005, we were operating our payment gateway only in Italy. By 2011 we were processing mobile payments in over 60 countries with more than 2 million customers. Neomobile then acquired us in 2011, which expanded our business in new territories and industries. 

After that experience, I’ve launched Audiens, a leading Customer Data Platform. We’ve developed a cloud platform to help small and large organizations pull their customers’ data from different sources to improve their digital marketing campaigns’ performance. NHN Group acquired the company in April 2020. Audiens now has offices in Italy, the UK, the US, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea. 

Fido, my new startup, is a natural fit for me based on my previous experiences in online payments and big data.

What is your current main product, and can you share any previous product pivot story to the current product? 

Marko Maras: Fido analyzes the digital footprint information content – information that people leave online simply by accessing or registering on a network of websites – for predicting consumer credit default.

The Internet’s growth leaves a trace of simple, easily accessible information about almost every user – a trace that we label “digital footprint.” Even without writing a text about oneself, uploading financial information, or providing friendship or social network data, the simple act of accessing or registering on a webpage leaves valuable information.

Fido’s alternative credit scoring model is used to boost financial inclusion to parts of the population that lack access to services in the formal financial sector, especially among young adults. The use of digital footprint helps to overcome information asymmetries between lenders and borrowers when standard credit bureau information is not available.

How much money have you raised in total so far? When was the recent funding round?

Marko Maras: We’ve raised a seed round of $ 1.3M in July 2020.

What were the internal decision processes in determining when to begin fund-raising, and what were the logistics for this? And how many investors have you met so far, and how did you meet these investors, and which channels worked best for you?

Marko Maras: We’ve decided to sell Fido shares to a very limited number of professional investors and local business angels. We were after “the smart money,” and we’ve picked our shareholders carefully, nevertheless the seed round was oversubscribed, and we were forced to reject some investors.

It’s always very hard to say no to money. Still, Fido is at a very early stage, and we want to focus on building an MVP, showing traction, and planning for a bigger Series A round to scale the business internationally next year.

Raising money in the middle of a pandemic has its challenges, of course. 

But on the other side, we’ve managed to optimize the logistics with virtual meetings. Our investors had their cameras switched off in some cases, so we didn’t even get to see their faces. Interestingly the ones with their camera off invested. 

What are the biggest challenges and obstacles that you have faced in the process of fund-raising? If you had to start over, what would you do differently? 

Marko Maras: The biggest challenge is to estimate the market size of a new category. When you are building something totally new, there are no researches or statistics. You can show people to convince them about their investment’s potential return.

With Onebip, we were the first company processing payments using carrier billing. Nobody else was doing it. Everybody was processing credit-card numbers; we wanted to process mobile phone numbers instead. It was a new category with no history and no comparables. 

Unfortunately, there is no way to solve this problem. It would be best if you came across visionary investors.

What are your milestones for the next round? And what are your goals for the future?

Marko Maras: We want to score over 1M people in your pilot country (Italy) next year and then roll out our scoring service globally.

How have you attracted users, and with what strategy have you grown your company from the start to now? 

Fido is a B2B solution, so we present it to companies that operate in industries with credit scoring needs such as banking, insurance, fintech, e-commerce, and online payments.

Which has been the best marketing software tool for the growth of your startup, and why? 

Marko Maras: Pipedrive. 

With Pipedrive, we have our commercial pipeline under control. We are pitching our beta version to the market, which helps us collect valuable feedback from customers that we then use to feed our product roadmap. 

What do most startups get wrong about marketing in general?

Marko Maras: They wait for the perfect product before testing the market. In the early stages of the company, startuppers need to kiss many frogs before finding a prince. You don’t need a super polished marketing deck or a fully functional platform in your first meetings. The agile methodology needs to be applied to all functions of your company, including marketing.

How do you plan to expand globally?

Marko Maras: We plan to grow the business directly by providing a self-provisioned solution that can be activated online and integrated via API from any country. Besides, we will also rely on distributors such as system integrators, consultancy firms, and credit rating agencies to promote our products and services locally.

What are the most common mistakes companies make with global expansion?

Marko Maras: In my opinion, hiring a country manager before creating the conditions to sell your product/service locally it’s a common mistake. A lot of preliminary work needs to be done from the headquarter to verify your product’s interest.

As a company, building relationships with local partners, distributors, and industry associations can help you get a good understanding of the level of interest and appetite for your services before launching a new country.

How do you handle this COVID-19 outbreak situation for your company’s survival in the future?

Marko Maras: Frido provides a digital service that solves a problem for consumers looking for credit approval on a new generation of financial services. As a matter of fact, COVID-19 has accelerated the need for banks and financial institutions to find new ways to score customers using alternative data sources that are not linked to traditional credit signals and events. Understanding the credit risk of a customer under a pandemic is more complicated; the market is looking for alternative solutions.

What are the most common mistakes founders make when they start a company? 

Marko Maras: Start-uppers need to get the priorities right; selling a product is more difficult than developing it. They need to start talking to potential customers before talking to investors.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? And What advice do you have for someone who is interested in doing similar things like yours or in a similar direction?

Marko Maras: I am a big supporter of Steve Job’s fail fast philosophy. As an entrepreneur, my advice to someone interested in doing similar things would be just to do it!

Often people are trapped in their everyday life, their current job, their family, or whatever. There is always something preventing them from executing their great ideas. Just do it and fail fast.

What are the top-three books or movies (TV series) that changed your life and why?

Marko Maras:

Book: Play Bigger, the last book I’ve read really interesting. It gives you a great overview of how innovators create new categories and dominate markets. 

TV Series: Money Heist would be my favorite TV series. I was totally addicted to it. I guess you need to be a little bit like Sergio Marquina, better known as The Professor, to run a startup. 

Movie: Sonic the hedgehog, I watched it with my 9 years old son the other day. While watching it, I realized I was playing Sonic on my Sega Game Gear almost 30 years ago; time flies!

How do you keep yourself motivated every day? 

Marko Maras: I’ve been lucky to experience the fact that hard work pays off. That’s what motivates me to work harder to achieve greater goals in life.  

What are the top- three life lessons that you want your (future) sons and daughters to know? 

Marko Maras: Sell, Sell, Sell! A good salesperson has great qualities that can be very important in life: the ability to listen, empathy, hunger, competitiveness, networking ability, confidence, enthusiasm, resiliency.

What would you like to be remembered for?

Marko Maras: I would like to be remembered for my companies.

You can follow Marko Maras here.

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