Two years after deciding to leave the Union des entreprises luxembourgeoises (UEL) to take over the reins of his fintech Seqvoia and put it back into orbit, was almost fed up with people looking at him with a slightly naive admiration, as if he were the head of the famous American private equity fund Sequoia. “If I was the head of a company that manages $85bn, I would have moved to California a long time ago!”
Behind the good word that the entrepreneur never gives up on, he understood that he had to do something to give the fintech a clearer image, to make its strategy understood, to highlight the values it wants to promote. “Seqvoia is a software company that is pivoting towards a world that is more solution-oriented than product-oriented. We are talking about multiple solutions that are assemblies of technologies and we needed to create a brand that carries the solutions, modular according to the needs of the customers,” he explained.
“The name ‘Aventerra’ has a ‘we’re moving forward’ feel to it, but we’re moving forward ‘here on land too’ and customers appreciate that about us. We asked our customers what the value of the company was. They told us that the technology is very good, but what interests us most is the seriousness of the people. It’s a continuation of the strategy between building it, bridging the gap between where the products are invented and managed, and the big financial centres like Ireland and Luxembourg.”
Palana Services to accompany Seqvoia
And once the new name was finalised by a specialist agency, Buck realised that “the client doesn’t want to deal with the technology themselves, so they ask you to do it for them. Either you give them a technology, it’s Seqvoia, or you do it, it’s Palana. This is the second, particularly strategic, pivot: the creation of an outsourcing services company, Palana Services, which is run by , one of the leading experts in ‘managed services.’ We imagined cross-shareholdings between the two companies with the Collette brothers, who of course have a background as associates of Deloitte, the big leader in the managed services market in Luxembourg.”
Once the information of the day is out of the way, in his direct style, the man moved on to more personal matters. “It is also a pivotal moment for me in that I am taking the step into outsourcing for the first time. There is ambition. You don’t mix people. Mixing everything up is a source of conflict and you always have to keep a certain amount of innovation. Sometimes you have companies that do service that could be automated by technology, so they don’t really play the game. Service requires recruiting experts who have ‘business skills’ first and foremost. Clients are looking for these skills first, without really looking at what is going on behind them. Above all, they want a result. They don't care whether you do it with technology or an Excel file, except when there are mistakes. And the big difference in our association is that we come from the software world and when Palana is going to use our software, the client will have access to the software for much more transparency.”
We have seen large leaders, who have lost market share through lack of rigour, being bought out. There is currently a big battle between Kneip and Fundinfo for the distribution of this product data.
He was selling rigour in his software, he will sell rigour in his service company. “The regulations are increasingly restrictive in terms of outsourcing. We are going well beyond the framework of support PFS, the regulated entities will have to show more and more how they make their choices, what the risks are, have they done their due diligence... Many activities can be delegated in asset management. The regulator is watching to see that all this is done properly. We have seen large leaders, who have lost market share because of a lack of rigour, being bought out. There is currently a major battle between Kneip and Fundinfo for the distribution of these data products. With Avanterra, we are positioned more upstream of asset management for the management of data in its organisation and not necessarily towards the outside. These companies must have a register of product information. Luxembourg is a product centre, you need technology to manage products.”
On the full cycle of financial products
With about 50 people at Avanterra--a dozen in London and 40 in Luxembourg--and a dozen at Palana, the two companies want to gain market share in a profitable way and to position itself as an alternative to the market. “Knowing that the leaders, the Big Four--it's not mean to say it--always have this problem of independence! They do auditing, tax consulting, regulatory consulting, outsourcing... At some point, there will be limits to this development. And the market will need neutral players. Deloitte really developed because it didn’t have the same problem of independence, PwC’s presence was so large in auditing, they had a gateway to develop,” he assured, shrugging his shoulders, at the same time as he called for history to be remembered.
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“We need multi-disciplinary people who can very quickly start to get to grips with a specific issue. And that’s always been the big advantage of the Big Four: the multitude of talents and their skills are an inspiring model, they know how to manage knowledge. When you have a new topic, you put ten people on it and move on. Lawyers have the same skills. For me, coming from a tech background, it's very interesting. Interested, curious people in a complex world are a rare resource,” he acknowledged. But “Palana is run by a former Big Four executive who understands how to develop staff and take people from university and train them quickly. It's more complicated in the traditional world.”
The two stages of the rocket are in place for launch and will be in orbit in about 36 months. “Outsourcing and technology mandates are quite long cycle mandates, but financial industry clients are quite loyal clients,” said Buck.
“If you were looking for a little phrase to start with,” he repeated in an almost professorial tone, “say that our companies deal with the digitalisation of the financial product lifecycle, from ideation to distribution and to product end, in silos today. Okay?”
This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.