Taner Akcok

Product and Tech Leader

Forbes 30 under 30

Taner Akcok is a serial entrepreneur, intrapreneur, and investor, currently residing in Berlin, Germany. He serves as the CTO of Corporate Bank Germany and Global Head of API Banking at Deutsche Bank. Prior to this role, Taner worked as an Industry Advisor at Boston Consulting Group Digital Ventures. He has achieved three successful exits and has been recognized by Forbes "30 Under 30" in Europe.

Taner began his career at Microsoft, where he gained 4.5 years of invaluable experience. Following that, he founded AppAnalytics, a company recognized by Business Insider as the 2nd Fastest Growing B2B Startup in the World. In 2016, he sold AppAnalytics to Nomad Commerce. He later joined Webtrekk, where he played a key role in developing the first GDPR-compliant customer intelligence platform in Europe. Webtrekk became the 5th largest analytics solution in the world, according to Forrester Wave Research, and was acquired by Mapp in 2018. After Webtrekk, Taner founded finleap connect, where he served as Managing Director and CPO/CTO, driving the platform to become Europe’s leading financial API platform. finleap connect was later acquired by Finch Capital.

Taner possesses deep expertise in API Banking, Open Finance, BaaS, Embedded Finance, Contextual Banking, AI Platforms, and AI Banking. He studied Business Administration at Istanbul University and pursued Innovation Management at Stanford University, combining a strong technical foundation with broad business acumen. Additionally, he has completed programs on management, strategy, and innovation at Harvard University and London Business School.

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My Expertise

Banking as a Service

Core Banking with capabilities spanning accounts, cards, payments, operations, investments, and activation, designed for white-label banking under the license of a BaaS provider.

Contextual Banking

A robust technology and data foundation enables offering the right product to the right customer at the right time through the optimal channel, across the financial institution and its partners.

AI Banking

AI Banking with a strong focus on developing RAG architecture to implement advanced AI-driven decision-making frameworks, enabling financial institutions to leverage LLMs for intelligent and scalable banking solutions.

Embedded Finance

Creating new revenue streams by adopting innovative business models and delivering a seamless experience through partner solutions and platforms.

API Banking

Expertise in building API platforms that enhance collaboration, streamline operations, and deliver tailored, real-time banking solutions across diverse channels and partners.

Partner Network

Enabling seamless integration with partner ecosystems by building a robust partner network that delivers flexible, scalable financial services, fostering collaboration and innovation while expanding market reach and enhancing customer experiences across platforms.

Some Press Coverages

Career

+15 Years of Experience

Experience

2021 - Current

Deutsche Bank

CTO Corporate Bank Germany

Leading the Corporate Bank CTO organization in Germany, overseeing Security Services, Automation as a Service, and Agile Transformation Teams.
Spearheading AI/ML initiatives at the Berlin Technology Centre, driving innovation and technological advancements.
Serving as a board member at the Berlin Technology Centre, contributing to strategic decision-making and collaboration efforts.

2021 - Current

Deutsche Bank

Global Head of API Banking

Leading a global API banking team of 200+ across 7 countries, focusing on cost optimization and revenue growth through API banking and embedded finance.
Implemented cutting-edge technologies like Google Apigee Platform, Kafka as a Service Platform, Internal and External API Portals to drive digital transformation.
Established leadership in the DACH region with embedded finance use cases across Corporate Bank, Private Bank, and Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank.
Orchestrated large cloud migration and modernization initiatives of critical infrastructures which are driving over 50% of Deutsche Bank global traffic in infrastructure.

2020 - 2023

Boston Consulting Group DV

Industry Advisor

Industry Advisor for API platforms and API economics
API Driven company building and sustainable API platform creation
Ecosystem creation with connectivity layer and model driven architecture
Data transformation and enablement for micro-services architecture and ecosystem integrations
Established tenera venture - construct-tech API Platform as a MD/CPO/CTO in residence between July 2020 - March 2021

2018 - 2021

finleap connect

Managing Director, CPO/CTO

Built, started and executed financial API platform vision
Became Europe's leading open banking and financial API platform
M&A with finreach GmbH, figo GmbH and some other finleap ventures & functions
+700 B2B - Financial Institution Customers
65M financial account connection per month with +7B financial transactions
Holding PSD2 license and working as a BaFin approved MD

2016-2018

Webtrekk

VP of Product Management

Acquired by Mapp in 2018
Became the Top 5 Web Analytics solution in the world, according to Forrester Wave Research’2018
Designed and released the first corporative and GDPR-compliant Cross-Device data pool
Combined Web Analytics, Data Management Platform and Marketing Automation products in a single Customer Intelligence Suite
Conceptualized and built the most powerful segmentation engine and user-based analytics solution in the market, opposing to SAS, Google Analytics, MixPanel, and Adobe Analytics
Designed and launched the product Audience Stream with a partner ecosystem to activate the user data by the 3rd party marketing services
Gathered a successful product team from the scratch and implemented concept validation and requirement engineering culture, presented in Innovation Engine Framework by Hewlett-Packard
Formed autonomous development teams with tribes, chapters and guilds, explained in Spotify Engineering Culture
Implemented E2E customer service framework and knowledge center, including customer feedback evaluation in product roadmap development process

2013-2016

appanalytics

Founder, CEO

Acquired by a famous ISV, Nomad Commerce in January 2016
Became the 2nd fastest growing B2B startup in the world, according to Business Insider
https://read.bi/2JNYkEA
Received a number of achievements internationally, listed in the Projects & Awards section
Acquired over 1.000 customers, including Unilever, BNP Paribas and FIWARE
Built and orchestrated a successful product and re-seller partner network

2009-2013

Microsoft

Program Manager

Leading all the entrepreneurship programs, including Microsoft BizSpark, WebsiteSpark, Innovation Center and Open Academy programs.
Managing the development and operations of Open Academy ranging from system design to marketing and customer experience effort
Recruiting startups for BizSpark and BizSparkPlus (aka. Microsoft for Startups) in order to promote Microsoft platform adoption with the focus of Microsoft Azure
Building a partner network and recruited the most successful network partners to BizSparkPlus Network Program (aka. Microsoft for Startups)
Exceeding the scorecard by 160%, including Windows and Azure app development, and Azure migrations
Managing the eco-system relationships and organized events with the most famous WW network partners such as Plug & Play Tech Center, Founder Institute, Entrepreneurship Roundtable, etc.
Contributing to dev tools revenue target by strong BizSpark network and graduated startups. (+4M USD/year)