Patrick Berthé, President and Founder of Vaziva, explains the advantages and benefits of the solution he developed, which now has over XXX users worldwide.

Can you introduce us to Vaziva?

Vaziva was created in 2015. It now has about twenty employees. Its regulation is in London with a European passport. In this respect, we will very soon start our activity in Germany, Portugal and Spain. Vaziva's ambition is to distribute managed payment cards to employees. Why "manage"? Because we control the management of the grants directly on the chips on the cards, just as we control a telephone card in a telephone.

Why use Vaziva?

Because it's easy to use: digital technology allows us to send a grant to a large number of employees in just a few clicks, since our computer system allows us to load 6,500 cards per minute. It also saves money, because with Vaziva, there are no longer any costs for the delivery of boxes of vouchers, nor for publishing or transportation. For the security it provides: there is also no longer any risk of loss of value, if cheques are misplaced or lost.

What are the advantages for employees of using Vaziva?

The first advantage, apart from having your allowance in your pocket via a payment card, is being able to pay to the penny. The ability to pay without contact at merchants and to use the card in a large number of countries are also strong points. A very large number of merchants, over 30 million to date, accept Vaziva cards. Not to mention the advantages of cash back or cash reward, via leisure offers and content that are associated with this card through our ticketing marketplace.

How does Vaziva offer a breakthrough to employees benefits organization and HR?

Vaziva decided to turn the tables in 2015, by being the first company to offer to condense all endowments on a single managed payment card. This was first and foremost a psychological breakthrough, then a breakthrough in usage, and in the operational and logistical mode of distributing the vouchers. Now, the practice has become part of people's minds. Disruption is always a source of progress, innovation and improvement, and this is one of the challenges that Vaziva has taken up. Bringing an innovative way of operating to a market that was a bit static, via a unique distribution for 4 years, is a success we are proud of.

Can you talk to us and explain what Logeos is?

Logeos is the software that structures Vaziva. It is the business brick that allows us to manage and control grants on the different employee cards according to the mandate given to us by our client - HRD or Work council. An intelligent software brick that allocates the different grants on the cards, without mixing the different grants, according to the legal constraints. This brick was created on my initiative, several years ago. It has evolved over time and continues to evolve.

What innovations does Vaziva offer in the dematerialized market of restaurant, vacation and leisure vouchers?

Before the Macron law, gift vouchers could not be used at all points of sale. The terms and conditions of use were not always to the benefit of the employee beneficiaries. They had to choose brands that were predetermined on the vouchers. This was complicated.

Now, with the payment card that we have implemented, the purchasing power of employees is expressed in a free and flexible framework. The endowment can be used at more than 30 million merchants around the world.

This is where Vaziva was an innovative company in 2015. We were the first to understand and implement a payment card to dematerialize gift, culture, vacation and now lunch vouchers. We were then followed by many companies, which followed in our footsteps, but we are still the first to have innovated in this direction. We were awarded a prize at a trade show in Lille for this innovation.

Where can I use Vaziva?

One could rather say, where can one not use Vaziva? Because Vaziva can be used anywhere in the world. As long as there is a TPE - a Mastercard reader - you can use your gifts wherever you go, in France or abroad. On the gift side as well, buying a back-to-school gift in Spain on the way back from vacation is now possible. We offer an international dimension. This is one of the differentiating factors compared to our competitors in the sector. In concrete terms, you can use the Vaziva card in 143 countries and 34 million merchants.

What are Vaziva's medium- and short-term ambitions?

Our medium-term objective is to expand into different countries to build a larger European network. Our short-term objective is to complete our product offering, with an offer that we call Vaziva for all. This offer is dedicated to individuals and complements the CSEs. It will allow small or very small companies to access the services of large companies while benefiting from the same advantages, through pooling.

Why and how do you support Vaziva's financial development on all fronts? Whether on a day-to-day basis or during exceptional operations, Christophe Kourdouly sheds light on his missions and the challenges faced by Vaziva's Finance Department.

Who are you in a few words?

I am Christophe Kourdouly. I am 54 years old. I come from the capital market environment and today I work for Vaziva as CFO. We are a FinTech company, dedicated to employees’ benefits. My role at Vaziva is to oversee the finance department and eventually business development issues.

What's your background?

I have a Master's degree in market finance, obtained at Paris II La Sorbonne. My background is eclectic, even though I have always worked in the world of finance.

I started as trader for stocks, bonds and futures, on the stock exchange. I worked in New York, London and Paris, in the 90s and 2000s, before testing the entertainment world in the financing of films for production companies. I mostly worked for American productions, in the distribution area. In 2015, I joined Vaziva.

Why did you embark on the Vaziva adventure?

The sectors I was working for suffered from the automation of stock market transactions and the advent of new financing models, particularly in films with digital platforms.

Vaziva was for me a new starting point and an adventure that combines my two passions. On the one hand, ethics, in the sense that we take care of people by giving them money, and on the other hand, leisure and culture, which I had appreciated a lot during my previous experiences. Finally, the company's international deployment objectives really appealed to me. I think that Vaziva is full of potential. The well-being of employees is a very important value to me, especially in the current context.

What is your activity within Vaziva?

My work at Vaziva consists of several missions. With the listing of the company on the stock exchange, I was in charge of the technical listing, intended to allow the listing of the company on Euronext. This mission is very time consuming. I had to fill in prospectuses of several hundred pages and ensure meetings with market players.

With the latest recruitments within the company, I have refocused on the financial part and the deployment in Germany and Spain. We will be planting flags in Dusseldorf and Madrid at the end of the year, so that we can deploy the business there.

In 2015, as in all start-ups, we wore more than one hat icluding sales, but since we have grown the team and industrialized the processes, I am focusing on the financing and the European deployment of the company.

What does the financial division consist of?

In the financial division, our team works on several missions, including the accounting management with the chartered accountants and auditors. The debt and equity fund raising to sustain the company’s development. We are also in charge of compliance and risk issues and the marketing of the company. Finally, we also have a monitoring activity with reporting, publication of half year figures and financial communication.

Why does Vaziva need a CFO team?

Vaziva is a financial technology company with regulated partners and all the constraints of our business. A sophisticated market where we have to combine no room for maneuver with the regulator, the institutional clients themselves, under the domestic regulation, and now a listing on a financial market requiring financial publications that are timed and verified by the financial regulator.

All these missions require rigor, strong expertise and committed teams, which we are fortunate to have.

How is the compliance department structured at Vaziva and what are its objectives and ambitions? Henri Riou, Director of Operations, discusses the challenges they face on a daily basis and details the rigorous missions of his teams and management.

Who are you in a few words?

I am Henri Riou. I am the Chief Operating Officer at Vaziva. In my role, I am responsible for all aspects of financial products, operations and compliance. So I oversee and act on a lot of cross-functional activities that touch on business issues, marketing and compliance.

What's your background?

I started very young Navy training school, at the age of 15 and staid 15 years sailing all over the world. After this service, I wanted to experience a more stable professional life. I had been trained in IT during my military duty, then I turned towards a sales career, first into in IT sector, then in telecom and, for the last ten years, in financial products.

Why did you embark on the Vaziva adventure?

I met the Vaziva team as a customer when I was a prepaid card provider. By affinity, I tried to understand what they were doing. I then understood how their platform worked and how it contributed to the added value of my product. Then, there was a natural connection between Vaziva and me. Our complementarity was obvious, since I brought a know-how of financial products and they had a strong business expertise on the employees’ benefits and IT related, which attracted me a lot.

What is your activity within Vaziva?

I am the COO. It's a transverse position. I talk to all the company's departments, both sales and marketing to get feedback from the operating side. I really need this to understand where we need to improve and how to make the solution evolve, and ultimately meet our customers’ expectations. In addition, I am also in contact with our various service providers, whether it be the electronic money institutions, the bank processor or the card manufacturer.

Finally, I am also responsible for the compliance dpt that I manage an entirely. This vast area of expertise extends from transaction monitoring, to cardholder identity verification, and so many other key steps in the chain. This expertise is time consuming and requires a dedicated team at Vaziva.

What exactly is compliance?

Compliance means ensuring that the rules for managing and verifying the use of cards have been properly implemented. To put it another way, we must meet all the regulator’s requirements and the Monetary & Financial Code.

In the meantime, this practice protects users, as soon as we operate in the banking cards’ environment. It is a card provided by the works council, but it remains a CB with all the protections that can be put on this type of payment tool. Compliance includes several fundamental pillars, such as the control of money laundering, CFT, the financing of terrorism, corruption and data protection.

How is the compliance team organized?

Creating a compliance department is a commitment to verify and protect cardholders and the management of their personal data. The ultimate goal of the compliance department is to create conditions for the product to be as virtuous and clean as possible. Compliance also requires a duty of care. The compliance department works to ensure that obligations are fully met and that the above pillars mentioned are respected. This is why we have compliance divided into various actions and services.

One is in charge of the regulatory, documentary and reporting aspects. Another one is dedicated to monitoring. Then one is in charge of compliance on uses. And the last one is dedicated to the customer service. Every mission is key and is managed to strengthen the company and the quality of our services.