Ángela Álvarez: A Prolific Leader in FinTech and Corporate Finance Industry

Whether you are looking for financing, investment opportunities, a joint venture partner, or selling non-core assets. Aglaia Capital is an easy way for making that happen through its network of investors, funds, family offices, UHNWI, institutions, financing providers, and trusted partners. Featured as Top Fintech Influencer, Top Women Leaders, and Elite league of innovative entrepreneurs – Ángela Álvarez is the Founder & Executive Chairman at Aglaia Capital. An interview conducted between Insights Success and Ángela speaks about Corporate Finance, Fintech, Blockchain, and decentralized technologies.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Kindly take us through your journey on becoming a proficient tech business leader.
Some traits are shown since childhood but stay latent until something triggers them, and they appear stronger again, enriched by all the discoveries learned along the path. The challenges that I had to face in my life, having my vision and opinions, people that have influenced me, and people that I have influenced, have shaped my vital growth without losing my essence.
A good dose of authenticity, passion, ambition, honesty, courage, generosity, resilience, curiosity, appetite for knowledge, vision, and purpose have been good companions on my personal and professional journey, together with that inner impulse of doing better every day, and of making an impact to make a better world.
Emerging technologies are having a key role for the evolution of core industries where I have developed my professional career, such as Corporate finance, M&A, Investment banking, and Financial Services. They attracted my interest some years ago as a way to solve most of the issues that I have found in the industry along my professional career, so I started to go deeper in the possibilities that they can provide to our industry.
How do you diversify your organization’s offerings to entice the target audience?
Aglaia Capital surge as an expression of my vision on my industry combined with new technologies businesses, anticipating the needs of the clients and the industry itself.
It lies in two main areas. One, focus on advisory Corporate Finance, M&A, focused on off-market deals, mainly in Spain and Europe, and selectively in other geographies, specialized in Financing structures, Hotels and Real Estate. Having born with the mission of mixing traditional corporate finance and the financial industry with the new digital world, it has a second line of business focused on Blockchain projects for Financial Services, Fintech, and Digital Assets. Besides, we offer Aglaia Capital Club, an Investment Club with services for Investors.
How do you cope up with capricious technological trends to boost your personal growth?
I am usually very keen on following Emerging technologies. I am particularly more focused on technology for the transactional financial services industries, where DLT/Blockchain are considered an essential catalyst for the evolution of the world’s financial infrastructure, making it more efficient, resilient and reliable, particularly in the big areas of payments, and asset management. It facilitates access to new markets by automating low value-added tasks, and provide a standardized and immutable method to interconnect financial institutions, as well as considerable cost savings.
As per your opinion, what roadblocks or challenges were faced by you in a corporate business? And how did you overcome them?
I have faced many challenges that are part of my growth process. An inner impulse, vision, and purpose have been the main tools to overcome them. Keep the passion, resilience, flexibility, and being surrounded by allied with the same mission, values, and objectives than me, have made this entrepreneurship trip easier to travel.
Have you in any way contributed towards the cause of women empowerment.
I have grown in a professional career that is typically dominated by men, and have done so without thinking about gender. The achievements and the influence that I may have had in others may have also been one contribution to Women’s empowerment. I usually focus the energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.
Diversity and sustainability are at our ethos at Aglaia Capital. Diversity is needed for a better understanding of this complex world and will be a competitive advantage and a selective evolutive differentiation in the corporate world.
Where are you focusing your energy now, and where do you hope to make an impact next?
Aglaia Capital was born with a strong focus on traditional corporate finance, and on transactional technology for the Financial industry with emerging technologies, blockchain, and both will be developing.
Current goals are the consolidation of Aglaia Capital, continuing to grow our core Corporate Finance business, aiming to be a reference for off-market deals, and on the technological side, developing a platform for digitalization to provide liquidity for some of our clients.
We will aim to develop also a Private Equity Strategy to make easier making investments, leveraging our knowledge of the markets and deal flow, to digitalize those vehicles to make them more efficient, profitable, liquid, and transparent for our investors.
What would be the biggest challenge for the next generation of women and how can one be a strong role model for them?
I think that the biggest challenge for the next generation of women is just “be”, without looking back to past stereotypes. Preserving anyone’s uniqueness can make a difference also for others, and I think it is more valuable than following models or any stereotype.
What are the vital traits that every businesswomen should possess?
Ambition, determination, resilience, vision, courage, and creativity.