La French Tech’s Clement Boulais to lead TrueLayer’s expansion into France

Open banking provider TrueLayer is eyeing further French expansion with the appointment today of Clement Boulais as its first general manager for the country.

A well-known face among the French fintech scene, Boulais was previously head of startup engagement for La French Tech, the French Economy Ministry’s quango for promoting its startup sector.

He’s also been a mentor at Startupbootcamp and Techstars, and previously worked as a business development manager at Mangopay.

For TrueLayer Boulais will be leading its commercial strategy in France, helping the company to connect fintechs and larger financial institutions with the 90+ per cent of French banks it offers API access to.

“Open banking can solve many of the customer pain points in ecommerce, B2B, wealth and fintech,” said Boulais on his appointment.

“The growth of instant, bank to bank payments and the next phase of their evolution becoming embedded across multiple industries makes this an incredibly exciting time to join a market leader in TrueLayer.”

His appointment also comes just months after TrueLayer scooped an additional $70m in funding from Addition and others, cash it earmarked for accelerating its global expansion plans, as well as developing its premium open banking services.

Competition is rising quickly in the open banking sector, especially as Plaid recently reached a $13bn valuation, rival Tink is in the process of being acquired by Visa and the UK’s Bud has close partnerships with banking giants including HSBC.