Andreas Iten and the five o’clock theory of fintech

At five o’clock, the experiment acquired a label. A beer label, to be precise. Andreas Iten once described how F10, the Zurich fintech incubator he co-founded, put its name on a local beer and offered it free after 5pm. Here, he said, bankers and blockchain nerds could meet over a drink. There was a qualification: quantities should remain conducive to innovation. Even the refreshments had a business objective.

The detail is funny because it makes a fairly abstract career tangible. Iten builds places where people with different professional instincts can work together. One group knows how a financial institution survives. Another has an idea about what it ought to do next. Getting them into the same room is a start. Getting a working product out of that room takes considerably more effort.

Today, he is co-founder, CEO and general partner at Tenity, the business that grew out of F10. Its work spans early investments and corporate innovation programmes. His own route there includes an internet startup, corporate technology, a stock-exchange operator and venture capital. He has occupied several seats around the table he now spends his time assembling.

The internet arrived. The timing declined.

In the late 1990s, after studying business informatics in Zurich, Iten founded a company that let customers trade shares online. Then the internet bubble burst. The business had yet to scale, and he had to find another job. He tells this part of his history plainly, without turning the setback into a conveniently disguised victory.

Management roles followed, across different industries. He eventually joined SIX, first as an external consultant and later as chief information officer of its Financial Information division. His professional background also encompasses information technology, airlines and transportation. These were working organisations with systems to operate, rather than companies that existed mainly in a pitch deck.

The early venture deserves its place in the story because it puts a limit on the romance of being early. A useful product and a receptive market do not necessarily arrive together. Years later, when discussing expensive startup valuations, Iten pointed back to the internet bubble and urged investors to examine businesses carefully. The enthusiasm survived. So did the memory.

A foot on each side of the glass

Iten co-founded F10 in 2015. He also co-founded the SIXHackathon, bringing developers into contact with financial technology problems. Both activities made room for people outside the established institution to contribute. There is a practical continuity between a coding event and an accelerator: a promising team needs somewhere to take its idea when the weekend ends.

His education includes Digital Innovation and Business Transformation at the University of St. Gallen. By his 2020 Swisspreneur podcast appearance, his responsibilities covered both F10 and SIX FinTech Ventures. The episode’s questions concerned why large companies engage with startups, how collaboration succeeds and how to persuade opponents. The topics offer a useful picture of the job: part technology, part institutional negotiation.

His present remit still carries both sides. Alongside leading Tenity, he advises SIX FinTech Ventures and holds fintech board positions. For a founder, access to a bank can matter as much as access to an investor. For the bank, understanding what a young company can realistically deliver matters too. Iten’s career has made these overlapping conversations his working territory.

Permission to leave the answer open

A decade into the work, Iten set out what he thought companies routinely misunderstood about open innovation. They could know the outcome they wanted without knowing the solution. That distinction creates a demanding assignment for a large institution: explain the problem clearly, share enough strategic information to let a partner help, and accept that the method may change.

He described three stages: selecting suitable startups, helping the parties explore each other’s products, and working together on a product or use case. Alongside those stages sit decision points and feedback. His account is concerned with who agrees to what, when a project proceeds, and how its value can be judged. The paperwork has a role in the plot.

One example involved an unnamed bank in the Middle East and North Africa seeking digital investment solutions. Tenity selected fintech partners, and the work produced proofs of concept. Iten also described a change in the bank’s willingness to engage with startups. A project could leave behind a different habit of working, as well as something to demonstrate.

The meeting is the easy bit

His writing on startup scouting moves further into the mechanics. An unsolicited approach can look like free access to a promising company. It still requires research into competitors and suitability. A database can supply names and filters, but a corporate buyer needs context before it can make a decision. Discovery is only one portion of the work.

Tenity’s approach includes developing a thesis with the corporate partner, evaluating potential matches and supporting engagement. That can mean finding an internal champion, defining a limited pilot, or helping a startup negotiate procurement and legal processes. The point where a young company meets a large organisation is full of small decisions that determine whether anything happens.

This is where Iten’s public work becomes most specific. He is interested in the conditions surrounding the idea: the person authorised to say yes, the expectations attached to an introduction, the next step after a promising conversation. A list of interesting companies is easier to assemble than an arrangement in which one can actually work with you.

F10 gets a longer horizon

In February 2023, F10 became Tenity. Explaining the name, Iten connected the old ten with an ambition to go further. The business had already expanded beyond Switzerland. Singapore appealed partly because it shared characteristics with the Swiss market: compact geography, strong infrastructure, spending power and international connections. Some Swiss partners were already active there.

He also stressed the value of remaining close to finance and insurance, rather than pursuing every new trend. Expansion and specialisation could coexist. His preferred maxim was brisk: “Execution eats strategy for breakfast.” It suits someone whose business depends on moving from the meeting to the pilot before everyone finds another reason to postpone it.

“Execution eats strategy for breakfast.”

Andreas Iten, on Tenity’s expansion

The partnerships became more concrete as the network grew. In June 2024, Tenity and Swiss software company Ergon announced a collaboration connecting startup support with digital transformation expertise. For Iten, the combination gave the companies in Tenity’s orbit access to another set of technical capabilities. It was a further attempt to shorten the distance between a proposal and a usable system.

New tools, old expensive problems

By June 2025, Iten was writing about an industry whose attention had shifted towards AI. His interest lay in what cheaper development and delivery might make economically possible: products for smaller businesses, specialised financial infrastructure and services that had previously cost too much to provide. He asked whether AI belonged in the business model, rather than merely in the description.

His preferred areas included specialist fintech products, infrastructure built around AI, embedded finance for businesses and cross-border compliance. These are choices about where to look, rather than guarantees about which companies will succeed. They also keep him close to the expensive, repetitive work that financial institutions have to perform long after a technology loses its novelty.

There is a recognisable temperament in that argument. Iten remains receptive to emerging technology while asking what customers will gain and how the company will endure. His public positions allow room for optimism and examination at the same time. A new tool still has to earn its place in a working business.

Further afield, closer to the machinery

At Davos in 2025, Iten discussed Saudi Arabia’s innovation economy with Huda Alfardus of Saudi National Bank’s corporate venture fund. He challenged corporate venture building that rushed past customer research and problem validation. He also argued that founders should see Saudi Arabia as a market for their products, rather than approach it solely as a place to raise money.

That conversation adds a useful dimension to his aspirations. International reach involves understanding where a company might find customers, partners and permission to operate. The same collaboration problem appears in another setting, with different institutions and assumptions. His work follows it across borders.

In March 2026, Keyrock announced a Series C at a $1.1 billion valuation. Iten described a relationship stretching back to early support through SIX FinTech Ventures. The milestone placed a named company behind his interest in digital asset infrastructure. Credit for building Keyrock belongs to its team; for Iten, the development supported Tenity’s continuing attention to the category.

September brought Felix Haldner to Tenity’s board. His experience included Partners Group, PwC and the presidency of the Asset Management Association Switzerland. Iten welcomed that institutional background as Tenity sharpened its focus on fintech, AI and digital assets. The appointment put private-market structuring and governance experience alongside the pursuit of new technology.

Meanwhile, Tenity co-initiated Swiss Fintech Week with Finanz und Wirtschaft Forum, announcing a Zurich programme for June 2026 with the Kongresshaus as its central venue. It was another way to put founders, institutions, investors and researchers within reach of each other. The scale had changed since the F10 beer label. The recurring task remained familiar: arrange the encounter, then give people a reason to keep working together after it ends.