Aidana Zhakupbekova, Chief Financial Officer, Rydoo

Today we're meeting Aidana Zhakupbekova, Chief Financial Officer at Rydoo. They specialise in expense management solutions for businesses.

Over to you Aidana - my questions are in bold:

Who are you and what's your background?

My name's Aidana Zhakupbekova, I am the Chief Financial Officer at Rydoo, which is an B2B SaaS company that offers an expense management platform.

I grew up in Kazakhstan before attending the International Business School in Budapest to study Finance and Accounting, where I completed a placement year at IBM. This was the start of my journey into finance. I then did a Masters in Finance at IE Business School in Madrid, before returning to work at IBM.

After working in corporate finance for a while, I was ready for a new challenge and switched to the start-up/scale-up world. This definitely suits my personality and career aspirations better and led me to my current role at Rydoo. I love working in this space because it's fast-paced and at the forefront of innovation. We are innovating to provide something that there is a real need for, and that's very motivating.

What is your job title and what are your general responsibilities?

As Chief Financial Officer, my job is to oversee the entire finance function of the business, including managing the growing team, overseeing budget planning and working with the senior leadership team to set the business strategy and drive growth.

The role of a CFO more generally is definitely expanding and has evolved far beyond financial stewardship. Today, they're expected to navigate everything from geopolitics to technology shifts. With growing responsibilities, it's critical for CFOs to automate time-consuming, non-strategic tasks such as expense management using technology like AI. This not only reduces operational burdens but also frees them up to focus on high-impact strategic decisions that drive business growth.

I am always spinning a lot of plates, but what I love about this is no two days are the same. Some days I'm poring over spreadsheets, others I'm speaking at a conference.

I'm also passionate about women and diversity in finance. As a senior woman in fintech I feel a responsibility to advocate for women and I believe that this will drive greater innovation and growth in this sector.

Can you give us an overview of your business?

Rydoo is a smart expense management platform that leverages AI and automation to drive efficiency and productivity within businesses. Our mission is to make expense management the easiest part of work.

We are proud to be the number one expense management app on Apple and Google. Our mobile and web app enables employees to capture and submit expenses on the go, which reduces time wasted on monthly expense reports. Finance teams can approve these expenses in real time, which leaders to faster reimbursement and better oversight across spending and budgets.

Organisations can achieve a 70% increase in productivity by implementing our expense management solution, driving operational efficiency and freeing up time that is usually spent on admin.

The platform also gives finance teams greater control by identifying company spending patterns and ensuring compliant mileage reporting and Per Diem allowances wherever the company operates. Our software can detect out of policy spending, local compliance issues and even AI-generated deepfake receipts, enabling businesses to clamp down on expense fraud and other compliance challenges.

Tell us how you are funded?

Rydoo is a privately owned fintech company. In June 2024, we announced that the investment group Eurazeo had invested in Rydoo to become majority shareholders. This was an important milestone in the company's growth journey and it was encouraging that a global expert like Eurazeo recognised Rydoo's momentum and potential.

At the same time, our existing backers Marlin Equity Partners reinvested in the company. Finding partners who believe in the business and the team is hugely important.

Who are your target customers? What's your revenue model?

Rydoo currently has over 3000 customers across 130 countries. These are mainly mid to large companies and we are proud to have household names like Burger King, Deloitte and Arjo amongst our customers.

We offer software as a service using the subscription model, which includes standard and customised plans. Customers like this because it fits easily into monthly budgets.

If you had a magic wand, what one thing would you change in the banking and/or FinTech sector?

Data quality. A lot of challenges finance teams face come from that, and when you have good data, you can make more informed decisions, which makes it easier to operate a business.

This is especially important when you reach a certain stage of growth. If you don't have good data, you have to start auditing and cleaning it up, which takes time. So if I had a magic wand and I could do it overnight instead of cleaning it up over time, I would definitely do that.

What is your message for the larger players in the Financial Services marketplace?

A lot of traditional financial services organisations can be quite hierarchical, and a lot of finance teams live alone in the world of reporting, cash, etc. But if you get to a certain position, you can't do your job well without understanding what's happening around you.

My advice for senior leadership would be to encourage collaboration within your teams and make sure to spend 1-1 time with people of all levels where possible. It's important to work on those connections to understand everything the business is going through, where it's going and why.

You need to understand all the moving pieces to make decisions or give advice. Not only does this help to foster a positive culture, but you never know who might suggest a great idea!

Where do you get your Financial Services/FinTech industry news from?

Our customers are mainly mid-to-large companies, so I like to know what the decision makers at those companies are thinking and what they are concerned about, so that we can deliver solutions. The Financial Times is my go-to for this.

It's also important for me stay on top of developments across technology, particularly within fintech. Sector specific newsletters are great for this, particularly because I'm often short on time.

Can you list 3 people you rate from the FinTech and/or Financial Services sector that we should be following on LinkedIn, and why?

I could give you a really long list, since there's a lot of interesting conversations happening on LinkedIn right now, but let's try to narrow it down to three:

• Wouter Born, he's a General Partner at BornCapital and writes a newsletter for CFOs about AI's impact on finance, FP&A, and automation, which are topics I'm really interested in. I also appreciate the personal tone he adds to his posts, while sharing advice for finance leaders based on personal experiences.
• Linas Beliūnas, who's a business developer and FinTech strategist from Lithuania. He sends a daily newsletter with the latest updates in the FinTech world, which is great to keep track of what's happening around you. He also shares some of these stories on LinkedIn.
• Nicolas Boucher. I had a chance to meet Nicolas when he hosted a panel at an event Rydoo organised in Amsterdam, Forge Connect, where he discussed the impact of AI for finance teams. I've been following him on LinkedIn ever since, where he shares practical tips and actions for finance teams.

What FinTech services (and/or apps) do you personally use?

As someone who spends quite a fair amount of time on the road, fintech tools, especially digital banking, are a must, even for personal use. Solutions like Wise are great for managing different currencies and international transfers/payments and managing subscriptions. For personal investments I also use DeGiro – a Dutch online brokerage platform.

What's the best new FinTech product or service you've seen recently?

There are interesting things happening in the banking sector. One example is Green-Got, which is an eco-focused neobank that avoids fossil fuels and invests in climate-positive projects.

Finally, let's talk predictions. What trends do you think are going to define the next few years in the FinTech sector?

Automation and AI will continue to transform the fintech sector in the coming years, streamlining operations and driving efficiency within businesses and enabling more accurate fraud detection. As transactions become increasingly dispersed across different platforms, sophisticated fraud prevention tools are crucial.

Businesses that aren't adopting AI risk falling behind more agile competitors. As these tools continue to mature, their integration will shift from being a competitive advantage that enables greater productivity to a business necessity that is helping to drive growth.

It may be that this spills over into personal finance too and we may see an increase in consumer-focused smart financial management tools too.

Thank you very much, Aidana!

Read more about Aidana on LinkedIn and find out more about Rydoo at www.rydoo.com.