Last year, tomato pay CEO and co-founder, Nicholas Heller, got the opportunity to speak to Open Ocean on their Quick Pitch podcast.

Reid Jackson, Open Ocean's Investment Analyst interviewed Nick about tomato pays (formerly known as Fractal) journey to-date, his personal journey, how he ended up building tomato pay, and what the future holds.

Here are some key takeaways from the 20-minute podcast.

Reid Jackson: If all goes according to plan, where will tomato pay, formerly known as Fractal be in five years?

Nicholas Heller: There's an old adage that says if you shoot for the stars you might hit the moon, so I think we all need to think really big.

The challenge we are trying to solve is a global problem. We are working with the World Bank, and the IFC and they will tell you that this is a much greater problem than what the UK Treasury puts it at - £22 billion. It's more like a £4 trillion, globally.

All over the globe, small businesses struggle with the same issues - cash flow, financial management and accessing tailored financial services.

The aim is to be a global company that connects the fabric of finance around the world, and democratise access to the tools necessary so that a small business can be serviced efficiently in multiple different areas, whether that's big corporates, big tech and challenger banks - whoever that may be.

We're very mission driven, we believe that we should be strengthening economies and impacting small businesses in a relevant way.

Reid Jackson: Tell us more about you, Nick.

I have always taken the belief that if you want see change and access opportunities then you should do it yourself.

I was always enamoured by technology and the impact it was going to have on these institutions, I was looking at the traders in the room during my early years as a fixed-income trader, and started thinking, what is going to happen to them when the internet starts to revolutionise these industries? That's what led me to deep dive into technology.

You can hear the full interview here.

About Open Ocean: Open Ocean are a VC who invest in relentless European entrepreneurs building delicious data-intensive software that is quick-to-love and built on proprietary technology.

If you want to learn more about tomato pay, then we would love to chat to you. You can book some time to talk to one of our team members by emailing us at info@tomatopay.co.uk, or you can sign up through our contact form.