From traditional finance to Web3: How PixelPai is bridging the future of financial services
In the contemporary financial world, both creator economies and traditional businesses encounter significant challenges in effectively monetizing their data and efforts. Complex finance and business systems, coupled with a lack of understanding of technology’s potential, often hinder their ability to thrive in a digital environment. To tackle these challenges, PixelPai offers a creative solution.
Co-founded by Henrik Axelsen, a veteran with over 25 years of experience in financial and professional services, PixelPai has pioneered a compliant financial infrastructure that connects virtual economies with the specific regulatory requirements of the creator economy. In our most recent discussion, we encouraged Henrik to shed light on his blueprint for redefining the future of finance through the lens of PixelPai:
You bring years of experience in financial and professional services to PixelPai. How has this background influenced the strategic direction of the company?
“Well, as you say, I have spent most of my working life in financial and professional services, first as a lawyer, then as a managing director inside the industry and the past 20+ years as a consultant to the industry working with risk management and compliance. That is what I do best. The past 3 years, however, I have been completing a PhD looking into how to bridge Web3 technology and traditional finance and our business model is very much focused on that- creating a platform that will pioneer the future financial internet based on distributed ledgers and artificial intelligence.”
PixelPai aims to reshape the way individuals interact with their finances. How does the company translate this vision into practical solutions for its users?
“To address our clients’ difficulties, we emphasize three key areas: digital identity, digital finance, and digital assets. By digitizing these elements, we enable real-time transactions and execution of any required assets. For example, a creator or freelancer looking to monetize their intellectual property or skills and operate across various markets and financial systems currently faces high costs, lengthy transaction times, and fraud risks. Our digital financial ecosystem offers instantaneous traceability and transactions, ensuring only the actual owner of an asset can transact. As we enhance our platform, we aim to better support the circular economy. It already affects finance today, but there is still a lot of ‘greenwashing’ taking place because of lack of integrity in markets. Our platform’s architecture supports full traceability and resource preservation, which can promote the reuse, sharing, and recycling of resources, while incentivizing contributions and allowing smarter monetization.”
With your extensive project experience across different industries and regions, how does PixelPai tailor its solutions to meet the diverse needs of its clients?
“Having worked with very big organizations and across many countries has given me some understanding of how to work in multinational/multidomestic settings. And the exposure to the Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) and the token economy, which are particularly fit to emerging markets, has given me a broader perspective and understanding that we can do things better and more inclusive than we do today. We have some hypotheses on pains and frictions in the existing business that we then test with our network and relations. Once we have designed something we think will work and we find clients who want our solution, we use an agile approach and co-create the solution, looking to standardize our service offering so we can replicate the core of it while also tailoring the particular product if the client wants bespoke elements. In terms of industry experience I think we have a very open mind to what use cases we can meet across the business system.”
Given your expertise in risk management and compliance, how does PixelPai navigate regulatory landscapes to ensure global compliance while fostering innovation?
“It is always hard to innovate while being subject to regulation as you have to balance financial policy objectives with innovation. However, we see an opportunity in the market for a company that can bridge traditional finance and new technology and leverage our experience in navigating the new regulations on digital finance with stakeholder requirements and building something that can deliver a better user experience at less cost, if you navigate it properly. We carefully assess the regulatory requirements and design our solutions with user centricity in focus, but as we are not burdened by legacy systems or culture, we can move much faster as we innovate.”
As a global leader in the digital banking landscape, what role do you see PixelPai playing in shaping the future of financial services?
“We believe in a future of financial services where finance embraces distributed ledger technology (DLT), recognizing blockchain as a subset, albeit not the sole one. In this future, financial networks will seamlessly interoperate with each other, prioritizing user-focused financial services. We want PixelPai to pioneer and accelerate this development and to become the gateway into these different systems, orchestrating the interoperability- so our clients can own, transport and monetize their data and intellectual property anywhere, in real-time at lower cost and in a compliant manner.”
You express curiosity about technologies like DAOs, DeFi, and blockchain. How do these interests influence your approach to leading PixelPai?
“I became quite fascinated with decentralized organizations and -finance some years ago. As I mentioned in the beginning, I have been focusing on this topic for the past 3 years as part of doing a PhD in computer science. Our platform architecture very much builds on advanced technologies and lessons learned from that, and we follow the research agenda on web3 very carefully to ensure we adopt a forward looking perspective and use the best technologies to solve it. There is quite a lot of innovation happening in this space and we want to be sure that what we build meets client demand now but is also positioned for the future. For example, while our platform is currently very centralized, we design our solutions so they are ready to be decentralized, when the world becomes ready to decentralize.”
As a Co-founder, what values do you prioritize in building and nurturing the PixelPai team and culture?
“We’re still a very small team but I think we all like to mirror the decentralized way of thinking – with an open culture, having fun and integrity, being independent and taking responsibility for yourself, your work. Have a mindset that 1+1 can sometimes become more than 2 if you are constructive and team up with your colleagues. And of course buying into our common vision to advance financial inclusion by driving economic growth and supporting a sustainable circular economy with innovative tech.”
How does PixelPai’s approach to digital finance enhance efficiency in financial systems?
“By enabling seamless interactions across various financial ecosystems, we reduce the need for intermediaries, thereby minimizing waste and boosting efficiency. This unique approach positions us to support regenerative finance by providing tools for transparent and efficient resource management. Our technology not only drives economic growth but also supports the principles of a circular economy, making us an ideal partner for initiatives aimed at reducing environmental impact and promoting sustainability.”
