That is rather an easy one – I had the pleasure to get to know CRX Markets over the last year as a funding partner. I was always deeply impressed by the high quality and diligence delivered by CRX Markets, and the motivation as well as dedication of the staff. I learned in my first days, they call it superior execution. So when I was contacted regarding the opportunity to join CRX Markets, this experience motivated me a lot! And I can tell you, so far it seems that my due diligence was not wrong.

Being now part of the board of a FinTech with 100 employees, I am really looking forward to fast decision processes, a high degree of flexibility and the chance to try things without the immediate fear of failure.

And how can I make a significant impact? Having spent over two decades in banking, I bring experience, also international, from structured finance, coverage, and trade finance. Working closely with corporate clients on their large financial transactions has given me a deep understanding of their needs and I am convinced that these experience will allow me to make an impact especially for our clients. At the same time, being a banker for many years, I also know how banks tick. In my new role, I see a great opportunity to combine these perspectives and find solutions that create value for all parties involved. This, together with the eagerness of the CRX Markets team to learn and grow, I think that we are simply a perfect match.

My personal goals for my time at CRX are first and foremost to continue fostering the growth the company has demonstrated already for the last decade, and further push the expansion of CRX Markets into other regions outside the DACH area as well as becoming the go to partner and platform when corporates consider the setup of an innovative working capital solution.

First and most importantly, I will try to meet and get to know each of our corporate clients as well as financing partners as soon as possible. Having the chance to meet in person will allow me to learn more about the real needs of our clients and what we can do to even improve further.

As a first initiative I started a new series, the CRX Breakfast Club. We will come together in small sessions with clients and prospects to listen to their needs and show them how we can support their working capital strategy. The best dialogue on such occasions happens between corporates directly and we would like to foster this. The first sessions will take place in Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Hamburg some events together with our financing partners. Later this year we might also organize these events in France.

Lastly, I plan to be present on many events and conferences this year. This will not only allow me to engage with clients or prospects, and support my team in their sales activities to further strengthen our appearance. It is also a valuable chance to catch up with our banking partners, exchange insights, and explore further collaboration opportunities.

We have seen in 2024 once again that supply chain disruptions become more and more the standard instead of the exception to the rule. And as the start of 2025 has already demonstrated, it is very unlikely that this will change in the foreseeable future.

For that reason, I strongly believe that the need for state of the art working capital solutions will be unbowed. The key to success will be a sound financing mix that definitely includes working capital solutions. This view is underpinned by the introduction of more and more working capital KPIs implemented by corporates. We are constantly working on the development of our product suite to build a true one-stop-shop marketplace for clients on which they can access all working capital solutions.

One market trend right now is clearly the focus on so called pay solutions. The charm of these solutions is the fast execution speed that allows a corporate to see almost immediate results and impact on the KPIs.

Furthermore, we see a continued discussion of the inventory finance topic. It is not an easy one and far away of a plain vanilla off the shelf structure, however I do believe that there is a market that is worthy to explore.

Regarding the pay solution trend, I am very happy to say that CRX Markets is also able to offer such solutions on top of classical SCF programs. Most importantly, CRX Markets is offering native Multi-Bank solutions, always one of our key differentiators in the market. I am convinced that the new CRX Markets solutions SPS will develop quickly into a trademark.

Regarding inventory finance it is a bit more difficult to talk about leveraging this already now. We at CRX Markets do believe that there is a significant appetite for a product in the market and not many scalable solutions are offered yet. Finding such a scalable solution is not easy, but this is exactly what is motivating us.

But it is a fact, that in today’s manufacturing and supply chain environment, a staggering amount of capital is tied up in inventory and procurement By combining intelligent inventory optimization with innovative procurement financing, the path is emerging to revolutionize supply chain efficiency without compromise. And that is where we want to play an important role.

I absolutely do think so. The strength of a bank is the financing expertise, however a bank is not a software developer! Combining the strengths of both worlds can be beneficial for everyone at the end.

Already during my time as a banker, I was never afraid of FinTech and have always viewed them as a chance and potential supporters in ongoing challenges. And of course, this view has not changed. 😉

Banks as well as FinTech, they each have their respective merits and the combination will provide the best results for corporate clients.

Most importantly, I do think everybody will agree that we are talking about a very interesting industry that still has a lot to offer. Therefore, I personally do believe that we will continue to see a lot of innovations, however at the same time also a experience a phase of consolidation.

I do think the whole market is big and there is a lot of potential for the players out there still. I am also a sports guy and like a good competition a lot. My clear focus at CRX Markets are our clients and how to solve problems for them.

In general, I rather tend to see things from the positive side. While you could believe that these new disclosure rules will be tremendously negative, I do not think so. These rules will clearly allow for a stronger stability of the overall system.

If companies were using supply chain finance for commercial reasons, that had nothing to do with debt, then I would not expect a significant difference in the utilization of SCF programs. If however, the one and only motivating factor in using a supplier finance arrangement was using it because it is a kind of debt that you are not forced to call debt, then one should expect a different treatment.

At the end of the day, it is my expectation that the level of transparency will be greater for all players involved, corporates and providers.

I personally do think that one has to be careful to not mingle too many things and ultimately use AI as a buzzword instead of concentrating on the content.

CRX Markets sees its core strength in delivering a superior platform solution for working capital financings. As CRX Markets, we do not interfere with the original course of TMS system tools – where AI is showing positive use cases – and are therefore not directly involved in cash flow forecasting and financial risk management. We see our USP precisely in this noninterference, as it allows a treasury department to rely on state-of-the-art experts for both areas instead of integrating them too tightly.

As a result of the CRX Markets solutions, there will be a direct improvement in cash flow forecasting as well as financial risk management.

Does this mean CRX Markets is considering AI as not important? Not at all, we of course will use AI for our processes and have a defined roadmap with the clear goal that our clients will benefit from these AI based improvements at the end.

Important: In our AI roadmap, we leverage AI through a combination of in-house development, external tool adoption, and strategic partnerships, always prioritizing business value. One concrete example is that we are working on some AI based initiatives to enhance the onboarding process.