Episode 32 - Giorgio Seveso
In this episode, I sit down with Giorgio Seveso, founder and CEO of Tundr.
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Show notes
In this episode, I sit down with Giorgio Seveso, founder and CEO of Tundr.
Giorgio is the CEO and founder of Tundr, the first Italian fintech platform active exclusively on corporate welfare with a dedicated account and payment card, able to handle everything for the company and the final user, from HR to payments.
Prior to Tundr, Giorgio started his career in consulting, at Jakala first and Deloitte later, doing M&A and strategy for financial institutions. He launched Tundr in 2022 exactly because of those experiences, as he saw first hand how difficult it was to handle welfare in Italy for complex institutions.
With him, we will talk about the experience of a first time founder in Italy, the fintech ecosystem in the country, but also why not scaling globally from day 1 and how to be a champion in your niche.
In this episode
Giorgio Seveso explains why he founded Tundr to fix how Italian companies give employees non-salary benefits, and what it takes to launch a startup in Italy. He argues Italy's venture ecosystem is years behind France but catching up, explains why Tundr raised from Italian investors and wants to become the Italian champion before expanding, and sees employer-provided fintech, from salary advances to free accounts, as the next wave.
Chapters
- 0:00Introduction and Tundr
- 1:47Launching a startup in Italy
- 5:14Is Italy's ecosystem improving?
- 9:25Raising from Italian investors
- 15:53Winning Italy before Europe
- 19:26Fintech in a cash-loving country
- 23:48Which services to add next
- 27:21Exploitation vs exploration
- 30:12Educating users
- 34:19Benefit trends to watch
- 38:30Stock options as a benefit
Key facts
Giorgio studied at Bocconi, worked in consulting and founded Tundr in 2022.
Tundr provides corporate welfare and non-salary benefits through a payment card, connecting companies, employees and merchants.
Tundr's seed round was led by 360 Capital, with Digitalee also investing.
Tundr is following an Italian playbook for the next 12–24 months and will expand abroad only once its product is clearly competitive there.
The main non-salary benefit markets worldwide are Brazil, Mexico, France and Italy; France's Swile pioneered the category and raised about 200 million euros.
Every Tundr employee has a stake in the company through a stock option plan.
Giorgio's master's thesis found Italy's venture ecosystem roughly eight years behind France's.
Venture capital must be treated as its own asset class with a long-term horizon, not as a branch of private equity.
Because employers introduce the product, a benefits card solves the customer-acquisition problem that neobanks face.
Salary advances and free bank accounts delivered through employers are the benefit trends to watch; BNPL on its own is a feature, not a business.
Questions and answers
Is Italy a hard place to start a company?
Yes, because of bureaucracy and less capital, but the ecosystem is improving fast, helped by universities adding entrepreneurship.
Why not expand abroad early?
Going abroad just to say you are there adds little; win Italy first with a product that beats local champions.
How does Tundr decide what to build next?
It splits effort between improving proven products and exploring new services, iterating with both companies and employees.
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