Valentina Drofa, the Founder and CEO of Drofa Comms, recently sat down for a conversation with Finance Magnates, discussing the fintech market’s growth over the past several years, as well as her own path in this field. 

She began her story with how she started the journey in the world of finance. Valentina came into the financial market in 2007 – that field has been the only focus of her professional life. She started out as a regular account manager at a trading company providing services to FX clients. In 2010 Valentina set up a lecture course in finances – the chosen format for the lectures were webinars, which at the time were still a novelty. This led to the platform becoming one of the first projects in the EdTech field. In addition to that, she had a PR consultancy set up in 2011, that was developing in parallel with the EdTech platform. By the end of 2014, Ms Drofa decided to sell the platform and focus her full effort on the consultancy.

Speaking about how the sphere of fintech has changed over the past decade, Valentina emphasised the introduction of electronic payment applications like UMoney, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and others. They fundamentally changed the way that billions of people worldwide accessed their finances and conducted transactions.

The development of blockchain technology, the introduction of Bitcoin, followed by a wave of other cryptocurrencies, became another major event that greatly impacted the transformation of the global fintech market. Drofa Comms has been working for years with crypto and blockchain companies that seek to apply this technology to innovate various industries, from straightforward payments to cybersecurity, AI education, healthcare, and others.

Valentina also shared how her company works with its clients. Only a few firms that come to Drofa Comms ever want promotion across just one market. Valentina`s company is located where its clients are concentrated: Cyprus and London. Until 2020 Drofa Comms also had a representative office in Shanghai.

Drofa Comms worked with the UK media for 2 years before making the decision to set up a local office in London. The decision was guided by the desire to streamline business processes and make them clearer and more efficient. With the London office now open, and working in direct contact with the UK market, Drofa Comms can provide higher quality services to its clients. 

Valentina is also interested in expanding to the US and UAE – New York and Dubai are both prominent financial hubs in their own right, and opening offices there may turn out to be beneficial in the future. 

Drofa Comms also has to adapt to the constantly changing conditions in the field of fintech, which it copes well with. The company`s managers regularly monitor top international media to stay ahead of the news agenda. Often they employ the services of experts, hiring them as consultants to deepen knowledge on the market tendencies. In order to keep up with the tides, Drofa`s team regularly take part in major fintech and crypto events to stay on top of all the recent developments and prominent players in these markets. All these measures help Valentina`s business understand the market, communicate with clients on the same level, and bolster its PR services.

Read the full version of the interview on Finance Magnates.