The trading and investment solutions industry is growing at a rapid rate. Many companies are operating within the sector and the industry is facing intense competition. Around these circumstances, the DOTO Group, a financial and investment solutions provider for both retail and corporate clients, has taken the step of onboarding the experienced Dr Demetrios Zamboglou as the Chief Executive Officer.
To discuss Dr Zamboglou's plans with the company, Finance Magnates sat down with him for an exclusive interview. We touched on several topics, including Dr Zamboglou's experience, Doto's product plans as well as plans for growth.
1. Please introduce yourself and tell us about what you do at Doto.
My name is Dr Demetrios Zamboglou, and I am the Chief Executive Officer of the Doto Group of companies. I have an extensive background in trading and investing, comprised of both practical and academic achievements dating back to the early 2000s.
My practical background comes from my working experience at some of the largest brokers in the world in various top management positions. As for my academic background, my research in behavioural finance has enabled me to dive deeper into the world of trading and investing – an endeavour I pursue to this day through my lectures as a Visiting Professor in Finance at Rome Business School.
At Doto, my primary responsibility is to create products that satisfy our clients' needs. As part of my role, I am responsible for implementing innovative technologies that provide our clients with the means of harnessing the most from trading and investing platforms in a straightforward way. The most critical factor in accomplishing our plans is building a team of top-tier professionals able to extend our capabilities while raising the bar for the entire retail trading industry. At Doto, we look after our people and they, in turn, look after our clients.
Our ability to identify, recruit and retain top talent helps us to develop innovative tools and expand at a faster pace. To recruit talent, we are offering attractive terms of employment in addition to building a working environment where all our people have everything they need to excel. Our Data Scientists, Web Developers, Creative Content Writers and Client Service professionals are just a handful of speciality roles for which we continually seek new talent.
2. How has your experience at CFI helped you expand your leadership and decision-making skills?
My working experience at CFI can be characterised as one of the brightest highlights of my career, involving, among other things, building teams for large-scale projects from scratch. In addition, my primary responsibility was to methodically design viable business processes that delivered optimal results.
The outcomes I helped to deliver exceeded my initial expectations, largely because of the fantastic team I helped to build. Both myself and my team members accumulated expert knowledge that laid the foundations for our eventual success. Collaborating with my colleague and close friend Hisham Mansour, we managed to deliver a business environment destined for success, including developing excellent fintech solutions and improving the client experience significantly.
Regarding self-development, I am a big proponent of perpetual learning. As a result, I dedicate much of my time to studying new technologies that can disrupt our world and create new opportunities. Over the past few years, I have undertaken several courses in IT, Fintech, Blockchain and others while participating in various seminars and industry events where I was privileged to engage with leading professionals from various fintech-related industries.
3. What differentiates Doto from other players in the financial services industry?
The Doto vision is to rebuild, rebrand and launch an exceptional product. All these stages require a productive decision-making process. Therefore, we strive to keep our working environment efficient and pragmatic. We are driven by technical expertise, facts and, most importantly, a clear vision for the future.
A huge competitive advantage that distinguishes us from others is that we will offer a trading platform that considers and rectifies mistakes made by other users. With this new approach, we will add a range of new features and eliminate inefficiencies that other brokers have. For example, many brokers talk about a “smooth customer journey” for traders, but upon detailed examination, the actual experience is often underwhelming and disappointing.
At Doto, we want to push against the industry tendency of most announced features essentially being promotional campaigns, proffering promises which are rarely delivered. Starting from the onboarding process and moving further to the most vital functions, such as depositing/withdrawing funds, liquidity and execution , very little is in line with what was promised. It would seem that many brokers have forgotten that the underlying service is what matters most, and the product offering is what we care most about at Doto.
4. What sort of products Doto is planning to launch in the future?
Doto, as an online broker regulated in various jurisdictions, will offer CFDs (Contracts for Difference) and equities, focusing on the rapidly expanding crypto industry. To do this, we’ve hired a technical team with a deep understanding of blockchain, cryptography and DeFi protocols. This broad experience will help us to release various new services for our clients over the coming years.
Tremendous opportunities are envisaged for both short and long-term investors. Doto will be built to accommodate traders and investors irrespective of their trading styles, with the primary aim of providing suitable instruments that best suit our clients’ needs.
5. Are there any specific regions Doto is targeting for global expansion?
As of now, we are in the process of building our strategy, although I can confirm that Doto will serve both developed and emerging markets equally. We are already familiar with many regions with a high demand for high-quality trading and investing solutions.
As I’ve already mentioned, our primary focus is the underlying product and our clients. Our research-based approach allows us to bridge the gap between client expectations and the services we can offer. For starters, we will offer support in three languages and, at a later stage, more markets and partners will be considered. The licences we currently have already allow us to operate in key global regions such as the European Union, Asia and South Africa.
6. Amid rising inflation and uncertain global economic conditions, where do you see the financial sector in the next few years? (Retail as well as Institutional).
Currently, there is an ongoing debate as to whether the global economy is heading towards a recession or not. We are most definitely living in volatile times. Inflation, especially in the US, is at record levels, while oil and gas remain as volatile as ever. Bitcoin and cryptos, in general, have receded from all-time highs, with several crypto projects collapsing in the process. Various progressive projects in the NFT space are still trying to discover real-world benefits. The next phase of the crypto revolution is the focus on the so-called 'meta-verse' and virtual worlds through greater online connectivity and participation. Therefore, working with secure and solid partners has never been more crucial.
Where do I see the future? Where are we heading? I am often asked such questions, and my answer is always the same: I envisage our clients and the broader financial community using specialised apps to enhance their lives. More than likely, brokers will attempt to take an omnichannel approach, looking to provide multifaceted solutions via multiple platforms installed on multiple devices.
Whether it’s investing, purchasing, transmitting funds or other day-to-day functions – nowadays, the power of mobile devices and wearable technology is thriving. At Doto, we’re embracing the brave new world of technology while ensuring our clients are not left behind.
Dr Demetrios Zamboglou is the CEO at DOTO with more than 16 years of experience in forex, crypto, fintech and risk management and more. He has held several key executive roles as well as a senior advisor to a number of companies and institutions.
