In conversation with Cedric Van Duffel

Read time: 2:30 Minutes

Cedric Van Duffel, Senior Associate at Mouro Capital, attended a panel discussion on “Global Growth, Local Bets: Where Investors See Fintech Winning”, and stayed on for some more questions.

Cedric, your panel was very focused on AI, and you mentioned how interesting that is for high-volume, repetitive tasks like debt collection. Can you tell us more about that?

Cedric Van Duffel: I think what’s most exciting, especially in this day and age with AI, is that you can capture the low-hanging fruit very easily. But it’s much harder to work with regulated workflows and regulated data.

So, for debt collection, take AI voice agents as an example. An out-of-the-box AI model doesn’t work right away. You need access to the data points, the scripts for how you interact with customers, and how you collect.

You need a very precise go-to-market, distribution, and pilot plan. You start with a smaller dataset, prove your value there, train your model, and then scale over a couple of weeks with a certain amount of calls before going to the next stage.

These are things that previously you could only do with a call centre. You needed humans there. Now you can effectively ramp things up much faster, cut costs, and drive revenue for the bank or the debt collector.

So again, it’s a bit of a paradigm shift where AI is enabling and automating things that weren’t doable before.

Among the companies you work with at Mouro Capital, looking beyond the AI hype, do you see other use cases where AI will truly make a difference?

Van Duffel: Yes. The way I think about AI enterprise adoption really making a change comes down to a few variables: procurement, compliance, security, and integration.

They’re not the most exciting areas, they are the “unsexy” areas, but for a bank or anyone in a regulated environment, they’re critical. You have to go through all of those hoops.

What I’m seeing is that companies might start with one, maybe procurement or security, but there’s a natural evolution where they try to cover more of those steps to become a platform that helps enterprises adopt technology faster.

It can feel boring because it’s deep in the infrastructure. You’re in the guts of the business. You need to get workflows right, governance needs to be precise, and you’re working with very sensitive data.

This isn’t something a high-level AI wrapper with a shiny front end can solve. It really has to be built properly within the core of the business.

In terms of geography, where do you see the most interesting activity? What does Mouro Capital focus on?

Van Duffel: Our focus is really the intersection of financial services and technology. That means we can also invest in horizontal AI companies that sell into financial services as one of their verticals.

It’s not just pure fintech. We look for where new technology can generate marginal benefit and economies of scale for financial services.

In terms of location, London is a huge hub for us, which is why we’re headquartered there. It attracts top talent in AI and new technology, and there’s a high density of financial services.

But the paradigm is shifting. Teams can work remotely, so it’s less tied to one location than before.

What about Latin America?

Van Duffel: In terms of deal flow, you still see most of it coming from San Francisco and a lot from London and Europe. But there are amazing founders in Latin America, and the talent there is incredible.

We have a strong network in the region. Brazil in particular is probably the most technology-forward market.

That said, it’s slightly different in what you see. It’s more consumer-focused, marketplaces, neobanks, things like that, rather than heavy B2B enterprise infrastructure. So, you have to approach it with a different mindset.

But ultimately, we’re in the business of investing in talent, and the talent density there is very strong.