Wealth&Finance – Fintech Awards 2023
Merlin Investor was awarded “Best Investment Planning Software 2023” by Wealth & Finance International. Here is the full article as published in the special edition of the magazine. See how Merlin Investor, a trailblazing fintech company, is revolutionising the investment landscape. With a mission to democratise financial inclusion and empower all investors, the company’s innovative multi-asset platform and client-centric philosophy are reshaping how individuals and institutions navigate the complexities of the financial world. We explore the story behind Merlin Investor’s commitment to innovation, its award-winning solutions, and the team’s unwavering dedication to shaping a brighter financial future for all. Prominent fintech company, Merlin Investor is taking bold strides to democratise financial inclusion and revolutionise investment management. At the heart of its mission is an innovative multi-asset educational, strategising, and tracking tool designed to empower retail investors of all backgrounds. In recognition of their exceptional contributions, the company has seen prestigious success within the FinTech Awards 2023. Merlin Investor’s groundbreaking technology is poised to reshape the investment landscape. Its visionary approach seeks to enhance conscious investing for a broad spectrum of investors, regardless of their level of knowledge or experience. Through a user-friendly platform, Merlin Investor provides insights into strategic planning and the importance of risk diversification, enabling users to confidently navigate the complexities of investing. The company’s innovation extends beyond individual investors. Merlin Investor offers a white-label product that financial institutions can seamlessly integrate into their digital applications. By incorporating this solution, institutions can elevate their trading platforms, offering their clientele a holistic and innovative experience. This strategic move positions financial institutions to attract and retain the emerging generation of retail investors, providing them with a comprehensive investment journey that goes beyond the mere execution of trades. Drawing from a wealth of experience in the automotive sector, Merlin Investor’s approach to client service is one of excellence. Recognising that innovation and quality are prerequisites, the company puts its customers first. This involves fostering a strong and accountable partnership with them, where both sides contribute their expertise to design optimal solutions. Merlin Investor acknowledges that challenges are inevitable in any journey, but proactive collaboration with clients paves the way for overcoming obstacles. By standing alongside clients through thick and thin, the company underscores the symbiotic relationship between its success and the success of its clients. As a fintech enterprise operating in an ever-evolving market, Merlin Investor’s strategy hinges on continuous innovation and adaptability. The company’s ability to envision novel solutions is rooted in its refusal to be bound by outdated practices and regulatory constraints. By remaining true to its innovative DNA, Merlin Investor keeps itself at the forefront of industry developments. In addition to technological innovation, it closely monitors shifts in user behaviour. This vigilance is maintained through market analysis, collaboration with fellow fintech firms, and engagement with clients. This approach ensures that Merlin Investor’s solutions remain pertinent and user-centric amidst the changing financial landscape. Founder and CEO, Guido Petrelli believes that commitment, accountability, passion, and ambition are non-negotiable attributes for the team. The company seeks team members with a relentless work ethic and a willingness to challenge themselves. By uniting around shared values and a collective drive, Merlin Investor ensures that its internal culture fuels its success and sets it apart in the market. Merlin Investor’s journey is a testament to its visionary leadership. While the specifics of its plans for the future are yet to be unveiled, the company’s mission to achieve transformative change and continuous innovation is unfaltering. As it steers through the dynamic currents of the fintech industry, Merlin Investor is poised to redefine financial inclusion and investment management for years to come. In conclusion, Merlin Investor’s exceptional achievements and dedication to innovation stand as a beacon in the industry. With its groundbreaking solutions and unwavering dedication to clients and innovation, the company is primed to shape the future of financial inclusion and investment management, one strategic step at a time.
Technology Innovators – Cover Page
Guido Petrelli, Founder & CEO of Merlin Investor, has been featured as the cover story in the special edition Top 25 Fintech CEOs of 2023, published by Technology Innovators Media Group LLC. Read the full interview as published in Technology Innovators magazine. An experienced corporate executive with demonstrated history and track record in creating and running international companies in several industries and regions, Guido Petrelli is the CEO of Merlin Investor, a fintech company that aims to democratize financial inclusion and investment strategies through a software for market study, investment planning, and portfolio tracking designed for any kind of investor. In an interview, Guido speaks on an array of subjects. Excerpts: Conception of Merlin Investor Says Guido that the world has seen an unprecedented shift in the approach to investing, with the new generation of retail investors being reluctant to entrust third parties for managing their own money while seeking to achieve financial freedom. “Still, we identified the need to educate and empower them with the necessary tools for conscious investing, risk management and strategic planning, as the key elements to become successful and the one and only master of their own financial future.” He adds that trading platforms did a great job in starting a democratization process in the investments space, still they mainly focused on the execution, which alone is not enough and may trigger a gambling approach, especially for beginner investors. “That’s why we saw the need of supporting the new generations to manage the whole investment cycle, while understanding the importance of strategic planning and risk diversification as the key to achieve positive results.” The Merlin solution The Merlin Platform is a multi-asset educational, strategizing and tracking tool, complementary to any trading platform and designed for any kind of retail investor, regardless of the level of knowledge or experience. “Our technology has been developed with the goal to enhance conscious investing for everyone and to empower the new generations to easily understand and manage the full investment cycle all in one place, while also taking into consideration the role that social media plays today when it comes to investing.” To complete the trading experience already offered by banks and trading platforms, the technology has been designed as a white label solution that financial institutions can easily integrate into their own digital platforms to offer an innovative, complete, and comprehensive digital investing experience to their clients. Merlin Investor—the conscious way of investing Maintains Guido that only through strategic planning is it possible to balance and diversify risks while building long term positive results. “To buy and sell assets without a plan would only set you up for potential catastrophic losses. It’s the norm for all professional investors, and it shall be the same also for the new generation of retail investors considering they are playing the same game.” Guido explains how the company found out most young folks who trade are investing without a strategy mindset. It’s a very risky approach for them, and therefore for the society, because historically markets have ups and downs, and only thanks to a positive sum game based on risk management is possible to build long lasting wealth and reach a real financial independence. “The analogy I can see is that the spread in the use of retail trading platforms has given anyone a Ferrari to drive, a very powerful but risky solution, but before doing that we missed to educate and equip them with the basic tools for conscious driving.” The result is that when the weather is nice, and there are no bumps or holes in the road, meaning when we are in a bull market, everybody believes to be the best driver in the world. Then when the conditions change the probability to crash becomes huge.” Based on this analogy, the company is on a mission; its moots for conscious investing and strategic planning, that is made accessible to all, regardless the level of knowledge or experience. “Through our product, we gamified the full investment cycle by making market study, investment planning, and performance tracking, understandable and fun for the new generation of retail investors, with the ultimate goal to help and empower them to become the one and only master of their own financial future. Then by embedding our white label technology into their own digital platform financial institutions can go beyond the sole execution of trades while offering a full and professional investment experience to anyone and all in one place.” Creating perfect synergies between fintech companies and financial Institutions “I believe fintech companies have a great spirit of innovation which is not biased and affected by old best practices or past consumer behaviours. This is combined with high flexibility, speed, and risk attitude. At the same times banks have a strong understanding in terms of compliance, which is very important to make a new technology deployable into the market, together with deep market reach and a huge and loyal consumer base acquired through the years, which makes possible to effectively deploy a new technology to a wide audience in a very short period.” Guido adds that combining the expertise of fintech companies and financial institutions, to exploit synergies and to create the perfect mix for a huge market success of new financial technologies should be the new approach. “Our approach is to work very close to the banking system in a proactive and constructive way, so that each party can learn from the other and add value in identifying the best formula for the best product market fit towards mutual success. That’s why I personally see a very collaborative and synergic approach between Fintech companies and Financial Institutions as the key for proper innovation in the banking system in the interest of both sides, and more important in the interest of the customer base who is ultimately served.” Innovation—The key Guido believes that the success for fintech startups comes from their strong ability to innovate and quickly deploy cutting-edge and cost-competitive technologies into the
Finovate Blog – Written Interview
Guido Petrelli, Founder & CEO of Merlin Investor, sat down with David Penn from Finovate to discuss the evolving retail investment landscape and how Merlin Investor is working to democratize access to investment strategies for a new generation of investors.Here is the full interview as published on the Finovate website. Meet Merlin Investor: Democratizing Access to Investment Strategies for a New Generation Launched in the fall of 2021, Merlin Investor is on a mission democratize access to investment strategies. The fintech offers a while label, multi-asset, educational, strategizing and tracking tool that helps investors accomplish two critical goals: building long-term positive results and limiting potentially catastrophic losses. Merlin Investor’s technology is compatible with all trading platforms. The technology is suitable for both retail and professional traders, and is available for both the desktop and mobile. Merlin Investor enables users to retrieve market data and sentiment from multiple sources and apply that data to a massive range of tailor-made investment strategies. With offices in both West Palm Beach, Florida, and Lugano, Switzerland, Merlin Investor made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope earlier this year. The company returned to the Finovate stage in May for FinovateSpring. We caught up with Merlin Investor founder and CEO Guido Petrelli (pictured) this summer to learn more about the company, its mission to democratize access to investment strategies, and what to expect from the company in 2023 and beyond. What problem does Merlin Investor solve and who does it solve it for? Guido Petrelli: Merlin Investor was born as an intelligent protection and conscious guide for a more farsighted management of investments aimed limiting potential catastrophic losses while building long term positive results. Thanks to the Merlin platform, retail investors can educate themselves, study the markets, and create and track their own investment strategies to easily understand, balance and diversify investment risks. In other words, we help and empower a new generation to invest with strategy in mind. This is the key to becoming successful and is the only factor distinguishing between gambling and investing. As we are on a mission to democratize financial inclusion and investment planning, our technology was built to allow anyone, regardless the level of knowledge or experience, to become independent and the one and only master of their own financial future. How does Merlin Investor solve this problem better than other companies? Petrelli: In the retail investor space, we see many companies focusing on execution, meaning focusing on the act of buying and selling assets. But executing without evaluating multiple sources of information first, combined with the lack of a diversified and balanced investment strategy, can lead to uncontrolled and unlimited potential losses because of the market’s ups and downs. While it may imply the chance for quick gains, it’s actually not the norm as wealth is usually built over time by managing a positive-sum game. That’s why from the very beginning Merlin was designed as a complementary product to a trading platform and not as a substitute solution. Merlin Investor addresses the strategic essence of investing while the majority of the competition just focuses on enhancing the trading experience – which is already well supported by several financial institutions in a pretty similar way. Who are Merlin Investor’s primary customers. How do you reach them? Petrelli: Our primary customers are financial institutions focusing on educating a new generation of retail investors and offering the possibility to trade different asset classes through their digital banking platforms. We attend multiple fintech events in several countries that are attended by financial institution decision-makers responsible for delivering an innovative and digitalized experience to their clients. We also analyze the markets to identify those prospect clients we believe to be a fit in terms of services and client base. Then we look for the people focusing on retail digital products and platforms and reach out to them to introduce our company and technology. Last, we work to be featured in fintech-specialized magazines having financial institutions as target audience. Can you tell us about a favorite implementation or deployment of your technology? Petrelli: We offer our technology as a white-label solution that financial institutions can easily embed into their own digital platforms through API keys, while having the possibility to customize product’s appearance and features. As result, our product is delivered to the final users in the bank’s name and as a sub-section of the same app/e-banking they are already familiar with. Through our B2B partner’s portal, we grant to financial institutions the flexibility to choose from the full Merlin product those asset classes, sections, features, and contents they intend to integrate based on their own specific needs. In this way, they can design a tailored solution and experience for their own clients, while sticking to the overall structure and design of the banking platform they already offer. What in your background gave you the confidence to respond to this challenge? Petrelli: In a nutshell, it was the combination of my knowledge around investing and the problem I personally experienced as a retail investor that led to Merlin Investor. In fact, I was just a teenager when I first started to trade. Then I quickly realized that executing trades “per-se” – meaning the simple action of buying and selling assets – is the less strategic and relevant part to achieve long term positive results. Instead, studying different market sources, and then designing a diversified and balanced investment strategy, are what make the difference in the end. Still, (available) banking and trading platforms were not enough to educate me about investing, or to (help me) design and analyze my own investment strategies. As a result, for years I was forced to create time-consuming and unfriendly spreadsheets to the point where I couldn’t accept it anymore – not in a world like today’s where we have an app for everything we do! At the same time with trading platforms booming basically everywhere, it became more and more clear that a new generation wants to invest autonomously and in
Fintech Finance News – Video Interview
During Finovate Europe 2023 in London, Merlin Investor’s Founder & CEO, Guido Petrelli, sat down with a reporter from Fintech Finance News to discuss the company’s origins, mission, and future plans. Below is the abstract from the FF News website. The full video interview is available here: https://ffnews.com/fintech-tv/merlin-investor-guido-petrelli-finovate-europe-2023/ At Finovate Europe 2023 in London, we had a conversation with Guido Petrelli, the founder and CEO of Merlin Investor. Merlin Investor is a fintech company on a mission to democratize system investment strategies and offer software for strategic investment planning and management to retail investors. “The Merlin platform is an educational strategizing and tracking tool that can be used with any kind of asset. It’s complementary to any trading platform and designed for any kind of retail investors. Basically, what we have seen is a new generation of young investors that start to buy and sell assets through the several trading platforms that are now available, but they did that without developing a plan before. So, without the concept of diversifying the risks that you take when invested.” “So, Merlin Investor was seen as a guide in the process of being educated and becoming more expert in order to be autonomous in trading but doing that with a strategic approach and with an experimentality.”
Medium – Written Interview
Hannah Clark, Editor of The Product Manager on Medium, sat down with Merlin Investor’s Founder and CEO, Guido Petrelli, for an exclusive interview about what it takes to build a highly successful App. In the conversation, Petrelli shared insights drawn from his experience launching Merlin Investor’s platform, discussing key elements such as user-centric design, continuous feedback loops, and staying focused on solving real problems for everyday investors. Here is the full interview as published on Medium magazine’s website. Guido Petrelli of Merlin Investor On 5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Highly Successful App. An Interview With Hannah Clark, Editor of The Product Manager. Get to know your potential users. If you don’t know them well, then it’s very unlikely you’ll come up with a product that will solve their needs. As a very first step, it’s crucial you identify your target audience. In our case the target audience is Gen Z and Millennials in North America who are already using a trading platform, as that demographic is driving the growth of trading platforms and would be interested in complementing their investing experience through our product. There are millions of apps out there. Many are very successful, but most are not. What are the steps taken by successful app makers that distinguish them from unsuccessful ones? In addition, many people have ideas for an app but don’t know where to begin. What are the steps you need to take to create a successful app? As part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Guido Petrelli, CEO and Founder of Merlin Investor: Guido Petrelli is an experienced Corporate Executive and Founder & CEO of Merlin Investor, a Fintech company on a mission to democratize access to investment strategies and offering a software for market study, strategic investment planning and portfolio tracking to retail investors. To empower the young generations to limit potential catastrophic losses and build long term stable results with the ultimate goal to become financially free is what gets him up in the morning. Before starting Merlin Investor, for more than a decade Guido was the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of a multinational automotive group where he was responsible for scaling the company globally and for running its worldwide sales and operations. Guido earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Finance from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. When he is not working, Guido loves spending time with family, investing in the financial markets and watching soccer. Thank you so much for joining us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you grew up? I was born and grew up in Italy in a small town and from a middle-class family. I moved to Canada for high school and earned my diploma before going back to Italy for college where I studied business administration and finance. Once I graduated from college, I moved to Singapore and worked in the business consultancy field helping European companies expand internationally to the Asia-Pacific region. After that, I joined a multinational automotive company and served as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operations Officer for about 14 years. During that time, I was focused on growing the company’s global presence and opened several locations from scratch. I spent most of this time travelling all over the world to manage this business, especially in United States. During this time, I started to get fascinated by the world of technology and its application to the financial sector, which then ultimately inspired me to start Merlin Investor. Most of us have been around a lot longer than apps have. What were your hobbies and interests in your youth before anyone knew what an ‘app’ was? Yes, you’re definitely right, most of us have been around a lot longer than Apps have! Today, it’s hard to imagine our life without Apps, however, growing up I did not feel this way. During my childhood I spent most of my time playing sports (mainly soccer as it is a deemed religion in Italy) and liked spending time with friends and traveling. However, I also enjoyed trading in financial markets — a hobby that helped me create Merlin Investor. I was just sixteen when I opened my first brokerage account and I started to buy and sell stocks, which was a hobby not common for my age, but I was intrigued by the world of trading and wanted to grow my passion more. Little did I know that I would go on to create a company dedicated to empowering a community of young retail investors to take control of their own financial future. It has been said that our mistakes are our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that? Every mistake comes with a price and a very important lesson that I hope will offset the cost in the long term. The bigger the mistake, the higher the cost, and therefore, a more important lesson. One of my biggest mistakes happened when I was presented with a very promising, almost life changing, “safe” investment opportunity which was expected to deliver a high return in a short period of time. I decided to trust the advisor that was sponsoring it and take it, but I lost everything in it. I learned that you don’t become rich overnight and that although something may seem safe, easy and rewarding, this is not always the case. I also learned that it takes time, hard work and a step-by-step approach to build long lasting and sustainable returns. But let’s not get too serious here. Another mistake I made happened when I was visiting a facility in China and an employee had just returned from maternity leave. Making casual office conversation, I asked
Benzinga – Press Release
Benzinga celebrates the launch of Merlin Investor’s investment platform, now available to retail investors. The platform empowers users to strategize effectively and stay in control of their investments. Here is the full article as published on Benzinga’s website. EXCLUSIVE: Merlin Investor Launches Investment Platform To Provide Financial Data And Analytics Personal investment solutions provider, Merlin Investor, announced the launch of a platform providing retail traders with strategic planning capabilities and a broad view into their investment portfolios. Users can access financial data, social sentiment, news, and content to create their personal investment strategies on the platform. The assets covered by the platform include stocks, cryptocurrencies, ETFs and funds, currencies, bonds, indexes, NFTs, real estate, and more categories. Merlin Investor’s platform is currently equipped with about 40 widgets, with more to come. It also has integrations with news websites and social media feeds, and chatrooms. The aim behind creating the platform is to democratize access to investment strategies by forming a community where retail investors can analyze market trends, generate their own strategies, learn from peers and track investments over time. “There is a clear gap between retail investor trading and the current access to educational and strategizing tools to help traders make more informed decisions about their investments,” CEO Guido Petrelli told Benzinga. Users can choose from four different subscription packages, titled Camelot, Lancelot, Excalibur and King Arthur, which range from no cost to $49.99 a month. The platform is available through desktop on the Merlin Investor
