Interviewer: So we are in Singapore, coming to you live once more from Definition at token 2049, and it's the event where institutions and builders and tokenized credit, yield and stablecoin meet. And of course it's powered by Accountable, which is the verification layer bringing institutional finance on chain. Joining me right now is Alessio Marinelli, founder and CEO of Credi. Alessio, welcome to FinTech TV.
Alessio Marinelli: Thank you for having me.
Interviewer: So you have spent more than 20 years in credit and structured finance, including at KPMG and Deloitte. What brought you into digital assets?
Alessio Marinelli: Yes, um, yes, it's been quite an interesting career. I, I've always worked in, uh, quantitative modeling from, I was an engineer originally, um, and then eventually applied that to finance, um, and credit, uh, specifically. Um, I started off my career, uh, originally in traditional B2B. Uh, lending here in Asia, in fact, uh, to start with, and then eventually found, founded my own non-bank lender in the UK and, uh, it was great because it, you know, applying technology to a problem like lending, it was amazing and it solved a lot of the issues, but one of the things that we were still, um, anchored by was the, uh, the fact that we needed capital from large institutions and it took a long time to get capital and a long time to. Um, bring modifications to any of the product we wanted, so it would take probably 9 to 12 months to onboard the new institutional, uh, liquidity provider and then the same amount of time to change that. So, uh, after my experience, experience as a lender, I I had the opportunity of working with Web 3 and realized the amazing opportunities and improvements to private credit in terms of infrastructure and access that blockchain would bring.
Interviewer: So let's talk more about credit. What is credit's mission and how does it connect private credit with on-chain capital?
Alessio Marinelli: It's a great question. So our mission is to become the infrastructure layer of choice for private credit through which billions of dollars of liquidity will fund. Uh will flow, um. So, um, that, that's effectively our mission, but it's private credit is an amazing asset class, particularly in the B2B space, the way I, I see it anyway. Uh, and it's, it's an asset class that has grown and established itself through the years. One of the historic issues that, uh, private credit has had is access. So private investors or, or small institutions don't have access to Private credit and private credit is one of those asset classes that um it's supported by amazing uh legal frameworks for capital protection and can deliver really robust yields so I I think that's kind of our mission is to really connect that with uh fantastic opportunities. The other, the other of course within private credit as I said, it's um we have many different asset classes and. I am particularly passionate about business lending because uh we can solve two problems uh providing access to uh investors with uh for investors to private credit opportunities and then using that capital to fund the real economy. So I think that's, that's, that's really what we are trying to achieve here.
Interviewer: And, and where do you see the biggest opportunities in private credit today?
Alessio Marinelli: Well, today, at the moment, uh, to give you an idea, we are, we are, we, we are deploying capital on two different markets. Those markets alone, um, are worth trillions of dollars globally. And I think the, the, the, the great opportunity there is to, um, is to expand on this and, and to start driving institutional capital uh to these opportunities. At the moment, the funding of those uh opportunities is limited somewhat to small funds, family offices, and, uh, and, and institutional investors where we could potentially open this up to institutions.
Interviewer: Right. And, and you, you previously managed a large real world, uh, asset portfolio for Maker Dow. Uh, what did that experience teach you?
Alessio Marinelli: Oh, that experience taught me a lot. So, so that was my first experience with Web 3, and I, I've just come from, uh, from a traditional finance experience, and, uh, um. You know, it, it was a fascinating world to start with, but I think uh the key takeaways was there is clearly a lot of uh Um, misunderstanding between the two worlds, let's call it like that. So there's a lot of education to do on both traditional finance and web 3 on, uh, on, on, on, on the, uh, if you want a mismatch of, uh, terminology, expectations, and so on. So there was partly that and, uh, partly the importance of, uh. Accurate and transparent reporting that the blockchain can support.
Interviewer: And what do you think blockchain credit infrastructure needs to look like in order to work at institutional scale today?
Alessio Marinelli: I think too much emphasis historically has been put on let's create a token and then put something behind it, and I think that's an issue that has affected private credit and other asset classes. Uh, so far, what I think that really needs to happen is Find, find a good product, a good assets, and then toganize it or use blockchain to improve the infrastructure that affects that specific asset class. So I think that's, that's, yeah, that's one thing that is stopping private credit at the moment.
Interviewer: And what are the real world advantages of on chain financing for a borrower in specific?
Alessio Marinelli: Well, look, I think, I think. Well, well, for, for a borrower using blockchain finance could resolve a lot of issues. So at the moment, uh, verticals that we, we, at the moment we look at invoice finance and, uh, uh, funding settlement cycles of, uh, credit card transactions, for example, but we're starting to look at cross-border payments. And supply chain finance where, uh, you know, uh traditional payment rails and uh finance rail. Um, really underserved this kind of, uh, this kind of markets, so blockchain can really bring a lot of advantages to those borrowers, right, and a lot more capital.
Interviewer: Yeah, absolutely, and, and you have already, uh, moderated today's panel on, uh, private credit, and I wanna ask you what stood out from, from that conversation in your opinion.
Alessio Marinelli: I think, I think we, we had very different, um, perspective on the panel, but I think everyone, it was great to see everyone agree on the fact that. You know, the, as I, as I, as I mentioned earlier, there's a lot of emphasis on the, on tokenization as an abstract thing. And, and people tend to forget that when you talk about private credit, there is also the so-called boring stuff, which actually is the most important stuff, which is the legal recourse, the recovery, the security, the uh agreements that allow you to safeguard the capital and that still remains off chain.
Interviewer: Right. And how do you see blockchain's role in, in mainstream finance over the next few years?
Alessio Marinelli: Yeah, I think, I think the, the biggest advantages that blockchain could bring to main, main, uh, stream finance are accessibility, so access to opportunities you wouldn't normally have access to. Transparency, how often do you, do you put your money or pensions into a fund and never know exactly what your fund, uh, what you're investing in. And efficiency, I mean, uh, obviously blockchain, uh, um, uh, enables to improve the infrastructure and eliminate inefficiency that currently occurs in, uh, uh, along the way in traditional funds that erodes returns for traditional investors so that can deliver more benefit to both borrowers and investors alike, right?
Interviewer: Alessio, it's been a great pleasure talking to you. Thank you for coming.
Alessio Marinelli: Thank you for having me.
Interviewer: Thank you. Thanks so much.
