November has been an eventful month for DAC. Our team members participated in many events. Some, like Natalia – our Marketing Manager, travelled the world to interview our clients. In this article, you’ll read an interview with Bitbond’s founder and CEO – Radoslav Albrecht. During this inspiring exchange in Berlin, Natalia and Radoslav talked about the company, its history, plans and, naturally, the collaboration with DAC.digital.
Read the full interview with Bitbond below and watch the video recording of the conversation.
The full interview with Bitbond
Natalia: Hello. Today we are talking with Radko, the CEO and founder of Bitbond company. Nice to meet you in person and thank you for having this interview with me today.
Radoslav: Sure. Thank you for having me.
Natalia: Yeah, no problem. Great. Maybe we can start from the very beginning. Maybe you can tell us something about yourself?
Radoslav: Yeah. Yeah. So I’m Radko. I’m the founder and CEO of Bitbond. I have a background in financial services. I started my career at Deutsche Bank in London. After that, I worked in management consulting, and then, at some point, I decided to start my own company with Bitbond.
Natalia: Okay, so please tell me more about Bitbond. What are you doing exactly?
Radoslav: So, Bitbond went through an evolution, I would say, as a company. We originally started out as a lending platform but, at some point, we abandoned that business model, for several reasons, and started to go into tokenization. In the year 2019, we issued Germany’s first tokenized security that received regulatory approval, from the Boffin regulator. And we had so much demand, and so much positive press coverage from that security token we offer, that we started to productize our own token organization software for third parties, primarily for banks. And so, at that time, we switched completely to focusing on tokenization. And today, we have two business lines, essentially. On one hand, we have a tokenization product, that banks and all kinds of other users utilize when they want to issue security tokens, but also one for NFTs and other types of tokens. And on the other hand, we also consult banks and larger corporates in their digital asset strategy, and in their implementation of digital assets technology.
Natalia: Okay. So who are your clients besides the banks?
Radoslav: So, banks make up the biggest portion of our clients. And then, besides banks, it would be everybody who wants to issue a token, whether that token is because, you know, they need a utility token, they want to run a token sale, they wanted to do an NFT drop, either to employees or to customers. So this could be individuals, even like marketers, and influencers, up to small, medium-sized, or even larger corporates that want to use tokenization.
Natalia: Okay, I get it. And what business idea brought you to us, to DAC?
Radoslav: So, at some point, we wanted to develop a product that was more consumer-facing because up until that time, we had an enterprise-only product. And we wanted to get that started quickly because we had some concrete demand for it. And so, we didn’t have the time to hire engineers on our own quickly enough. And we were looking to work together with a software house that could, you know, bring in the necessary expertise and scale it up quickly enough. And that’s how we started to work together with DAC.
Natalia: Okay. And who is this application for – the Token Tool?
Radoslav: So, originally, it was just made for a specific group of public customers, but we have since developed it further into an, I would say general-purpose organization product. And today it’s being used both by small and medium-sized enterprises that want to tokenize assets, as well as some of our enterprise customers because we have also developed an enterprise version of it.
Natalia: Okay, great. Good to know that. Thank you. And what factors were important to you, while you were choosing a technology partner? And why choose us, of course?
Radoslav: Yeah. So, I mean, there are a lot of software houses out there and a lot of potential partners, so it’s actually not easy to make a decision. So, I have to say, for us, the references were extremely important because we knew some of the people who were working with you previously, and that was probably, at the end of the day, the decisive factor. But we also looked at some of the work that you have done previously and that made a really good impression on us. So we thought, might give it a try.
Natalia: Great. Nice to hear that. And what did you want to achieve, to build an end-to-end solution?
Radoslav: So, it was more of an MVP at the beginning. So, we had some requirements for a few functions and we wanted to get that out very quickly. And we needed someone who could get started quickly. I think we had just one or two very short video calls and then we got going. So that was one other factor that, you know, when we spoke to other agencies, they were not available as quickly as we needed. So that was definitely something that was also driving the decision.
Natalia: Okay. How would you describe your cooperation with our team and management team?
Radoslav: I would describe it as extremely efficient, which is important for us. So we don’t spend a lot of time in meetings. We communicate through Slack and I think it’s fair to say that we have very direct communication with each other. And that’s, I think, one of the most important things for us.
Natalia: Okay. Are you satisfied with the outcome? So far, so good?
Radoslav: Yes. So far, so good. Absolutely. I think all kinds of milestones that we set together have played out very well, and the work that we wanted to get done was done in really good quality, and on time. And, you know, that’s everything that counts.
Natalia: Perfect. Maybe you can reveal what are the next steps for Bitbond?
Radoslav: So, we currently have an extremely strong footprint within the banking sector because banks have started to recognize the, I would say, benefits of blockchain technology and the settlement of all kinds of financial assets, primarily securities, but also a few other asset classes. And this is where we also, you know, have the biggest expertise when we look at all kinds of industries that use tokenization. At the same time, as a company, we are growing and one way to grow is, of course, to grow within, you know, the banking industry. But other growth paths are also to go into other types of industries that look into tokenization. So, you know, as a company strategy, that’s part of it to go into other verticals and not only do banking but also go into other verticals. And then that also reflects in our product strategy because we are, on one hand, keeping tailored functions that are important for banks, but also adding other functions that might be important for other types of customers that are not necessarily banks.
Natalia: Okay. Okay. Thank you for letting us know. That’s all from my side. Thank you for having me here. And thank you for this interview.
Radoslav: Yeah, thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure. And yeah, I hope we will continue the good cooperation.
Natalia: Yeah, I also hope for that. Thank you.
Watch the video recording of the interview
About Bitbond
Bitbond is a leading software service provider for bank-grade tokenisation and digital assets technology, based in Berlin, Germany. They provide their technology and expertise to banks, financial intermediaries and large issuers. Bitbond delivers blockchain-powered financial technology since 2013 in the fields of SME lending, tokenisation and digital asset custody.
