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Product cover image for Astyanax Kanakakis at norbloc: A Founder's Experience with the DIFC Fintech Hive

Astyanax Kanakakis at norbloc: A Founder's Experience with the DIFC Fintech Hive

Hill, Linda A.; Begag, Lydia

Product #:423066
Supplier:Harvard Business School
Discipline:Organizational Behaviour/Leadership
Setting:Middle East;Singapore;UAE;UK;Sweden, 2020
Details:Supplemental Case (PDF) • 11 pages • 2023-02-22

Subjects:

Financial strategyGlobalizationInnovationIT infrastructureLeadershipLeadership developmentLeadership stylesOrganizational behaviorOrganizational changeOrganizational cultureStrategyTechnology adoption lifecycleStart-upsCorporate financeEconomicsIT managementLeadership and managing peopleOrganizational developmentBusiness managementEntrepreneurshipOrganizational cultureOrganizational behavior

Industries:

Financial service sector

Geography:

Middle EastSingaporeSwedenAsiaEurope
Your Price:$7.50

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norbloc was founded in 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden, by Astyanax Kanakakis and his co-founders, Vitalii Demianets and Sam Saatchi. Kanakakis and Demianets got to work to address a key gap in the industry: Know Your Customer (KYC) data sharing. As the first distributed KYC utility in the world, norbloc focused on platforms that connected financial institutions and governments, allowing the auditable sharing of sensitive information with the consent of the owner. norbloc connected with Emirates NBD in 2017 as one of 12 start-up finalists in the first cohort of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)'s fintech accelerator, known as Fintech Hive (The Hive). After the formal program ended, Kanakakis and Emirates NBD's leadership joined forces to make a step-change in KYC. In February 2020, after over two years of negotiating legal agreements, conducting pilots, and reviewing the regulatory implications of the platform, Emirates NBD signed a production agreement with norbloc. After announcing a collaboration with UAE banking players to develop a UAE KYC Blockchain Consortium and scaling norbloc's internal operations, Kanakakis reflected on how these opportunities all started with the DIFC Fintech Hive accelerator program.

Learning Objectives

This case offers multiple teaching objectives. First, the case allows readers to explore the challenges of being an early-stage start-up, and what it takes to innovate with legacy systems and mindsets and to do so in a regulated industry. The case also enables readers to explore what it takes to build a successful accelerator lab, including how relationships must be carefully built and maintained throughout the development process. The case illustrates a successful working relationship beyond an accelerator program between a corporate bank and a start-up, working to solve common issues and innovate for a shared purpose. Finally, the case prompts readers to consider how collaborations between partners in a common ecosystem can provide opportunities for all parties involved.
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Supplemental Case Study: Astyanax Kanakakis at norbloc: A Founder's Experience with the DIFC Fintech Hive (English version) | Ivey Publishing