International Business Magazine recently announced DKK Partners as the ‘Leading Provider of Foreign Exchange (FX) Services, UK 2023’. DKK has garnered a reputation for being one of the most trusted FX liquidity market maker. It provides 24-hour global access with a specialisation on frontier markets.
Founded by Khalid Talukder and Dominic Duru in 2020, DKK Partners holds the ambition to unveil a whole new crop of high-potential enterprises led by prolific entrepreneurs. Co-founder Khalid Talukder gave us exclusive insight into the key investment pockets, value chains, global investor scenario and the expectations to be met for the startups and the MSMEs.
The following are the excerpts from the exclusive interaction with the co-founder-
- According to you, what are the current trends, top segments, key investment pockets, value chains and competitive scenarios in some of the emerging economies around the world?
Co-founder Dominic Duru and I have backgrounds in emerging markets and have lived the struggles these regions face in terms of access to financial services, technology and support. These barriers have long held back the progress of developing nations and frankly this has gone on for too long. That’s a driving force behind DKK, and I pride myself on ensuring we have regional experts in every country that we operate in – people who have also lived these barriers and have the same determination to unlock the gateways to emerging markets.
DKK’s ultimate goal is to truly provide access to first-class financial services in emerging markets to empower local economies and business to thrive. There is so much potential in regions such as Africa and the Middle East and with proper support, technological infrastructure and access, these economies can deliver global business growth.
Scaling globally also presents obvious geographical challenges, communicating with on the ground teams, getting licencing, and building networks sometimes from scratch.
But it’s all a part of the journey. We have excellent teams growing in countries such as Senegal, Cameroon & Ghana to mention a few who share a passion for the development of financial services in emerging markets and there’s no slowing down here, we want to continue expanding into new regions.
I also believe that blockchain will advance significantly off the back of digital currencies from economies, and it is only a matter of time before digital currency becomes more common in the UK.
2. How are you attracting the younger generation of tech-savvy global investors?
Entrepreneurship promotes innovation and action above all else, creating a drive to solve problems and succeed because you have to.
DKK was set up to be a disruptive fintech company focused on emerging markets that empowered our customers with a combination of the latest technology and market expertise. We also wanted to create a new kind of fintech business that leads the way on CSR, diversity and forward-thinking. The first three years have been an incredible journey, but we have so much more to do, and this is just the beginning.
Our platform offers an alternative way to access G10 and emerging market currencies without relying on central banks. Our expanding range of products includes FX emerging market liquidity, FX hedging & risk management, and various channels for cross-border payments. We have bootstrapped our company with zero debt and have processed $100M+ in FX transactions for FY 2022.
To maintain stability in their currencies, manage payments, and build confidence in economic crises, central banks in emerging and frontier markets need to hold significant reserves of foreign exchange. The limited availability of G10 currencies, particularly the US dollar, can impede access to global financial markets for banks and businesses in these regions. Thin market liquidity leads to volatile prices, high transaction fees, and slow transaction times.
Our solution: Stable coin (USDT/USDC), which is a ‘pivot’ through secure digital wallets (vaults) to provide an alternative method for transferring value. Having in country nostros allows us to effectively trade both sides of the transaction and move value between fiat currencies and non-fiat alternatives in real time.
3. Do you provide any special features for the startups and SMEs?
We support start-ups, non-bank financial institutions (NBFI), local banks and SMEs to launch their business offerings internationally with FX, payment and liquidity management solutions, backed by DKK’s team of financial experts built with deep in-region knowledge and years of industry experience.
DKK also provides a Virtual IBAN (International Bank Account Number) for payments businesses to enable multi-currency, multijurisdictional accounts. Our solution gives businesses in the payments space a crucial competitive edge through offering international business bank accounts, unlocking access to new territories and currencies to promote international trade and expansion working closely with our partners. Our customer’s customers can make and receive payments to unique addressable IBAN’s in multiple jurisdictional formals via local and cross border payment rails. DKK is truly a champion of international collaboration and overseas growth.
We strive to solve the issues that businesses face with barriers to international payments, holding them back from growth in emerging markets through a combination of innovative technologies and financial expertise. We want businesses to have access to the tools they need to thrive in overseas markets.
4. Give us a short description of some of the salient services of DKK Partners
DKK Partners launched in 2020 and offers unrivalled liquidity across emerging and frontier market currencies, offering customers access to real-time pricing, execution and settlement. We act as a one-stop entry point for day-to-day exposures in foreign exchange, balances, and risk, monitoring, market fluctuations and live market news feeds. The real-time aspect provides businesses with unique control in the market which makes our proposition unique.
Being an entrepreneur in DKK Partners has also meant being empowered with the resources to tackle social issues. We founded DKK with a clear mission statement to deliver first class services to our clients, but that’s only part of who we are, and this initiative is the first of many that will allow DKK to play a crucial role in supporting important causes and making a difference where it really counts.
Last year, for example, we supported a campaign with Shelter, going on the frontline in the fight against homelessness. Shelter is an incredible organisation with dedicated volunteers, and the work they do protects the wellbeing of so many people.
5. Kindly share a success story of one of the clients of DKK Partners.
Due to our country expansion through the West Africa region over the last couple of years, and leveraging USDT and USDC, we have been able to effectively clear emerging market currencies into G3.
We have been particularly focused on major importers of FMCG products into west African markets sourced internationally. Everyone is aware of the length of time it takes settle international invoices through ‘clunky’ corresponding legacy banking rails which affects working capital for these firms and profitability.
By leveraging DKK’s deep liquidity pools and our proprietary ‘clearing’ rails by partnering with strategic financial institutions we can achieve same day or at worst next day settlement where typically this would take anything between 5-7 days.
6. What are the future prospects and ambitions of DKK Partners? What are the upcoming events that your clients should look forward to?
One of my proudest achievements of recent times was being inducted to become a Freeman of The Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs. It was a special occasion and vindicated all the work that’s gone into building DKK Partners over the past few years. It’s also been a great achievement to be invited to speak at a number of industry summits in the halls of Parliament, debating key topics such as regulation and the future of AI alongside esteemed industry leaders and policy makers as we carve out a roadmap for the intersection of financial services and technology over the coming years.
We’ve rapidly increased our staff numbers over the past few years, bringing in specialist teams to serve on the ground markets in West Africa, Central Africa, Dubai, as well as the UK, with plans for continued expansion in a further 3-4 countries in the second half of 2023. Our motto for the has been ‘the year of scale’, aiming to expand our reach globally to new emerging and frontier territories and hiring more on the ground staff with deep local knowledge of the market.
We have grown year on year by an average of 150 per cent in revenue and through further expansion in 2023, we aim to continue that rate while maintaining the quality of our products and services through the hires of industry veterans as well as up and coming entrepreneurs to continue building our excellent team and delivering access to first-class FX solutions.
Excerpts of Email Response from DKK Partners
