In this episode of The Connector Podcast, host and CEO Koen Vanderhoydonk interviews Frederik Simoen, Strategy & Innovation Manager at Area42, a venture‑builder launched by Credendo to innovate trade finance for SMEs. Frederik explains Area42’s mission to democratize and simplify B2B trade finance by delivering API‑first, automated solutions that fit into existing corporate processes. The team adopts an incremental‑disruption approach: new products are disruptive in impact but are introduced without overhauling legacy workflows. While keeping a technology‑agnostic stance, they monitor blockchain and Web3, using them only when they add clear value. A flagship offering, Termstack, is a B2B buy‑now‑pay‑later (BNPL) service that enables online marketplaces to extend payment terms via fast, API‑driven decisions. Area42 operates as a separate fintech unit outside Credendo’s core to avoid legacy constraints and collaborates freely with banks and other fintechs. Their European‑distributed team (Belgium, Prague, Lisbon, Paris, Italy, Romania) helps stay attuned to cross‑border SME needs. Frederik shares expectations for the upcoming Digital Finance Summit (DFS): inspiration, networking, and new partnership opportunities, and invites anyone involved in trade finance to connect via LinkedIn or the Area42 website.
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Welcome to the Connector Podcast, an ongoing conversation connecting fintechs, banks, and regulators worldwide. Join CEO and founder Koen Vanderhoydonk as you learn more about the latest available trends and solutions in the markets.
Welcome to another podcast from the Connector in collaboration with Belgian Fintech. And we're running up to the Digital Finance Summit. And today I've got Frederik with me. And Frederik works at Area42. So tell us more about where you work from and who you are.
Okay. Hi, Koen.
Nice to be here.
So I'm working for Area42 as the strategy and innovation manager. And yeah, what we do at Area42— Area42 was launched by Credendo, a Belgian credit insurance and trade finance company.
To explore innovations in the trade domain. And trade is for us anything that is B2B and that is commerce. So it's not trade of financial products, it's trade in the real economy, trade of goods, of services between companies, between countries that we're interested in. And then we as Area42, we are a type of venture builder. So we try to test and develop new products, new services for companies that trade internationally. And again, my role is to be in charge of strategy and innovation. So I manage basically our portfolio of ventures and future ventures that are in development.
Wow, super interesting. And what would you see would be the real mission that you guys have, or what are you trying to achieve?
What we want to achieve in the end is have products out there that are actually used by these companies, by these B2B companies that trade internationally and make it for them easier to do business, to make business smoother, more digital, more transparent. That's the objective for us.
Yeah. So you actually want to democratize and to simplify trade finance?
Yes, we want to democratize.
We want to simplify trade finance, definitely.
And we do that by leveraging technology in everything that we do. We do that both on an external as well as an internal way.
So when we do that externally, we want our solutions to be as easily implementable, usable as possible. That's why we work with APIs and everything we develop. That's why our decision-making is as automated as possible. We don't want to have people doing things and people taking decisions and basically slowing everything down. We want everything to be accessible and as easily and as quickly applicable as possible. We also don't want to create new tools or new frameworks in which people want to start working. We want to be where they already are and implement in their own processes, in their own systems.
So it's sort of incremental innovation.
So yes and no. I think we want to bring disruptive products to the market, but we want to do that in an incremental way. So we want to solve the problems that people have today with new solutions.
We're not doing things that already exist. We're doing new things, but we don't want to bring spaceships into people's life.
We want to—
we want them to continue working in the way that they do.
Now, trade finance, it's a very specific type of industry. Could you maybe tell us a little bit more what would be the typical business sort of challenges that you come across within this domain?
Yeah, I'm going to narrow it down then a bit because trade finance, every, as I said before, every B2B company that trades goods or services internationally needs some kind of trade finance.
Now we at Area42, we focus on the smaller companies. So we focus on SMEs, startups and scale-ups because we see that for them there are still gaps to overcome. Where the bigger companies, they have extensive finance teams, they have experienced CFOs and financial profiles. That is not necessarily the case. Or this SME that has 20, 30 employees has maybe 2 people in the finance team who don't have time to build the files, to make the dossiers to get their international trade financed. So that's why we want to be there for them so that they don't have to rely on the expensive middlemen or on the very cumbersome administration that is more accessible for the larger companies. And that's why we want to bring digital, easily accessible tools and solutions for the smaller companies so that they can trade internationally as well.
Is that then the reason why for many years it was the big banks that were sort of having these innovative projects around trade finance and very often related to their first use cases on blockchain and everything. Is that, is that then the main difference between you and all this innovation that was happening within the banks itself?
Yeah. So I think a lot of innovation has happened in the banks and still is happening in banks and other large incumbents. And it's necessary because they also have a big position in the market. But for them, it's harder to be more disruptive. And to actually bring their solutions to market. I think that is also why Credendo chose to have Area42 outside of the core of the company so that we are in a freer position. We are not messing in internal Credendo systems and technology. We are also not impacting their existing customer relationships. We're testing things out there without impacting the mother company. So we are in a more free position as a fintech, not bound by the larger incumbent organizations, such as the banks that have been innovating and continue to innovate. And also, I think, collaborate quite successfully with fintechs.
So you're liberated from legacy systems.
That's very important in innovation.
Yeah. Would that mean that you're not necessarily also looking at same technologies like There's a lot happening around digital currencies, CBDCs to an extent, blockchain, DLT. Is that— you see that coming back in the initiatives that you guys run?
I think those technologies are really interesting, and I've been also looking into them myself for, I think, almost 10 years now.
I think they're coming back. I think there was a period when everyone was doing something with blockchain, but there clearly was no Use case for it. It was just a technology that was interesting.
I think in the next couple of years, blockchain could be coming back.
I think what is for us at Area 42 very important is we want to solve real problems. So we are technology agnostic. We want to find problems that are impacting businesses today and where businesses need solutions for today. And if blockchain or any other type of Web3 component can be part of that solution, then we will implement it. So that's why we are keeping an eye on it. That's why we're following everything that is happening. But we will never start a blockchain project for the sake of using blockchain, because in that way we are not creating value for our customers.
No. And to that extent, I feel that the move you made, or what you describe, is pretty much something that is happening also within the banks. You see that much more of the innovation within the banks is literally to solve real problems. Now, could you give us a couple of examples how, or one example, how you actually made a big change for one of your customers through the innovation triggered by Area 42?
Yeah, sure. So I think a case that we like to mention is one of our products, which is Termstack. And Termstack is a B2B BNPL, so buy now pay later service that we have been developing from scratch. And we've been on the BNPL train since it started, I think about 3 years ago with this specific solution where we are very confident that our solution is a very good one and is actually being used by customers to their benefit. So we have several online marketplaces out there that are using our terms tech BNPL to offer their customers better payment terms without impacting their own finances, without impacting the customer's finance, and where we as a fintech intermediary with our solution can bring value in the way that I described before. We're not drastically changing their business processes. Payment terms have been around forever. But with an easily implementable solution based on APIs without or with very limited human intervention, we can give them fast decision-making and payment terms at beneficial rates for their customers.
Sounds very exciting. And talking about excitement, in the beginning we started with DFS. So what are you expecting from DFS?
What I'm expecting from DFS is what I'm expecting from any type of fair like DFS.
I'm going to be attending Web Summit in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure DFS is at the level of Web Summit yet, but still—
Slightly different.
I expect to be inspired. I expect to have interesting conversations and be in touch with people who can introduce me to new opportunities in the market or even just make me aware of technologies or solutions that I haven't or I had not encountered before. So for me, DFS, I'm really looking forward to it as a day of inspiration and a day of connection with the outside world.
And what type of organization should come to you? Is it only when you're involved in trade finance or you're more open and say, wait, this is a domain where I'm particularly interested in?
Yeah, I think trade finance, it can be defined in a very narrow or in a very broad way.
And I'm always interested to have a conversation. It doesn't mean that we have— if we have a conversation, that we will also have a partnership or that we will work together. But I think anyone who feels that they are remotely involved in trade finance, I would be very interested to have a chat with them. And we can collaborate in many different ways. Maybe they have a problem that they want to see solved in their business and that they think we can be involved in solving that. Maybe they have a solution that they want to bring into the market. We have invested and partnered with external startups before as well. Maybe they want to join us and work in our team in building those solutions, or maybe they just want to have an interesting conversation. So I'm basically open to anyone who wants to have a chat to reach out to me and to have that conversation.
Oh, nice. And I think that that is one of some of the magic that always happens at DFS. So I think that will be not a problem necessarily. Maybe one question before—
why I will be joining DFS.
Exactly. Well done. It's good to see you there. One thing that was still on my mind is—
Sure.
And that was triggered a little bit by the fact that you say we do innovation for the SMEs, the small and medium enterprises, but trade as such is by definition almost a global element. So how do you ensure that with smaller companies, you still keep the relevance and adaptability going on in this world of trade finance? Smaller companies, larger scope.
Yeah, that's correct.
And that is a challenge. I think one of the ways in which we are trying to work around that challenge at Area42 is by being maybe not globally, but definitely Europe-oriented.
So our whole team is spread over Europe. We are not a team of people sitting together in an office in Brussels.
We have colleagues in Prague, we have colleagues in Lisbon, we have colleagues in Paris. There are colleagues in Italy and in Romania as well. So that's how we try and stay in touch with the whole of Europe, even if it's not in a structured way. By having all these people in all these different countries, we know that more things will come to surface.
And that's what we also do by attending conferences.
Of course, me as a Belgian, I look forward to attending DFS in Brussels. But I also don't limit myself to Belgian conferences with Belgian attendees. You have to look what's out there and you have to stay connected to see what is happening.
And maybe it's one last question, because you said you're open for collaboration and conversations, but how can they get to you? What do they— how do they come to you?
Yeah, so first, first of all, I hope to run into people at DFS, of course. So if you see me at DFS, come and say hi. But my LinkedIn, I'm Frederik Simoen. You can find me there and connect with me, or even on the Area42 website.
There's a form there where you can reach out to me directly and get in touch. So if you want to get in touch with me, I don't think it should be an issue to find me and to have that conversation.
Great. Thank you so much. It was a great conversation. I learned a lot. So thank you again. And also to the listeners, thank you very much for staying tuned and hope to see you all at DFS in December. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Koen.
See you all there.
Bye-bye.
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