Alex Manson is the global head of SC Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of financial services firm Standard Chartered, which he has led since its inception.
Manson speaks to GVR about how banks need to reconcile themselves with society’s expectations of them, which they possibly lost some sight of in the wake of the financial crisis, and SC Ventures’ rare multi-pronged ecosystem of an accelerator, a corporate venture capital fund and a venture-building capability – explaining how the three complement, interact and need each other to form a complete package.
He talks about how the fintech investment landscape has changed in recent years – with focus shifting from investment themes like remediation and risk management just a few years ago to cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure and systems integration today – and how digital assets are here to stay and infrastructure needs to be built for them (which SC Ventures is wasting no time doing).
He also explores the necessary role of regulators and how lenders can play a bigger role in venture capital, among numerous other topics.
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