Wharton Fintech Podcast

Zoey Tang and Rocky Gowni sat down with Rex Salisbury and Nik Milanovic. In today’s episode, we discussed -Latest updates from This Week in Fintech and Cambrian -Nik and Rex’s experiences as solo GP -Their perspectives of the latest fintech ecosystem and what to look forward to in 2024 About Nik Milanovic & This Week in Fintech Nik is the founder of This Week in Fintech. He has been a key organizer in building the fintech community, bringing together fintech enthusiasts all over the world. Last year, he also started the Fintech Fund as the solo GP. About Rex Salisbury and Cambrian Rex is the Founder & Solo GP @ Cambrian VC. He started Cambrian previously in 2016 to cultivate a community focused on founders and builders in fintech. His community building had accidentally led him into the world of venture, as he ultimately became a founding member of a16z’s fintech practice, investing in companies such as Tally, Deel, and Oyster Technology. For more FinTech insights, follow us on: WFT Medium: medium.com

Nate Gee hosts Gal Krubiner, Co-founder and CEO of Pagaya, whose AI-driven network of investors, lenders, and borrowers aims to reshape the credit underwriting process and extend financial opportunity to more consumers. In this episode, they cover: - Gal’s motivation for founding Pagaya - How qualified loan applicants can be left behind in traditional credit underwriting - Pagaya’s AI-driven lender network and how it works - The future of AI in financial services - Pagaya’s IPO in 2021 - And much more! About Pagaya Technologies Pagaya was founded in 2016 with a goal to promote financial inclusion through improved credit underwriting and evaluation. It aims to build the leading AI network to enable better outcomes and create new credit opportunities for financial services providers and their customers. The company became publicly listed in 2021 (NASDAQ: PGY). About Gal Krubiner Gal Krubiner has served as Pagaya’s Chief Executive Officer since he co-founded the company in 2016. Prior to co-founding Paga

In today’s episode, Joshua Benadiva hosts Dan Kimerling, founder and Managing Partner of Deciens, a leading early-stage fintech venture capital firm. Dan shares insights into the fintech industry, emphasizing the importance of timing in entrepreneurship and the need for businesses to have increasing returns and moats as they scale. In this episode you will hear about: - Dan's journey in the fintech industry and the founding and selling of Standard Treasury - The challenges and opportunities within the fintech space - The role of coaching in venture capital and the importance of customer satisfaction in the banking industry About Dan Kimerling: Dan Kimerling is deeply committed to investing in transformative companies at their inception, holding board positions in several Deciens portfolio companies like Chipper, Therma, and Treasury Prime. Before Deciens, he co-founded and led Standard Treasury to its acquisition by Silicon Valley Bank, establishing leading API solutions for the financial services industr

Zoey Tang sits down with Sarah Hinkfuss and Saanya Ojha from Bain Capital Ventures. At BCV, Sarah and Saanya partner with growth-stage founders building the next generation of software products, with a particular focus in Fintech. Before joining Bain Capital, Sarah started her investing career on the growth team at KKR. She previously worked at Applied Predictive Technologies, an enterprise SaaS company in the predictive analytics space that was acquired by Mastercard in 2015. Saanya is a proud Wharton alum. After starting her career at Goldman Sachs, she joined Coatue in 2019 and then Bain Capital Ventures. In today's episode, we got to know about Sarah and Saanya’s stories and their views on the impact of Generative AI on Financial Services. -- As always, for more Fintech insights and opportunities to collaborate, please find us below: WFT LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Blog: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Home: www.whartonfintech.

In today’s episode, Joshua Benadiva hosts Asaf Horesh, Managing Partner at Vintage Investment Partners. Asaf recently co-led a $200m raise for Vintage's new growth fund. In this episode, he discusses the importance of building meaningful relationships in venture and the unique structure of Vintage's investment strategies. He explains the structure and metrics of Vintage's data platform and shares insights on trends in early-stage fintech investments. Asaf also discusses the challenges faced by companies with valuation issues and the targeting of specific verticals in the secondary market. He offers advice for those looking to grow their careers in venture and fintech. For more FinTech insights, follow us on WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Josh's Twitter: @josh_benadiva Josh’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jbenadiva/

Russell Matambo hosts Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goel, co-CEOs and co-founders of Esusu, a leading Fintech platform that reports on-time rental payments to credit bureaus so renters can build credit while building owners and property managers maximise their portfolio health. They discuss how Esusu is expanding financial access in the US, Esusu’s growing pains and lessons learnt along the way, Samir and Wemimo’s principled and purposeful leadership as Co-CEOs, and much more! About Wemimo and Samir: Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goel are co-CEOs and co-founders of Esusu. Esusu is the leading Fintech platform providing rent reporting, property management analytics, and rental assistance to unlock financial access and stability for renters and property owners in the US. In 2023 alone, Esusu unlocked $21.9 Billion in new credit activity for Esusu renters, by enabling 107,000 renters establish credit score for the first time while helping many more with existing credit scores increase theirs by at least 36 points. Most rec

Kailee Costello hosts Jack Zhang, the CEO and co-founder of Airwallex. Airwallex is revolutionizing the way that businesses operate globally; their financial infrastructure provides a modern tech stack for businesses of all sizes to operate internationally without the challenges of the current global financial system. They discuss: - Airwallex’s growth story - How Airwallex built their global money movement infrastructure - AI opportunities Airwallex is pursuing, including using LLMs to improve KYC and onboarding processes - Why Jack does not expect crypto to play a significant role in cross-border payments For more FinTech insights from Wharton Fintech, follow us on: WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Kailee’s Twitter: @KaileeCostello_ Kailee’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaileecostello/

In today’s episode, Joshua Benadiva hosts Bobby Morrison, Chief Revenue Officer at Shopify. Bobby was previously the Chief Revenue Officer at Intuit and a Senior Vice President at Verizon. In this episode you will hear about: - What makes Shopify unique and so fast-paced - Bobby's vision for the future of enterprise e-commerce - Shopify's product-led growth motion with enterprise e-commerce - Using Shop Pay, highest converting checkout experience, to illustrate the value of Shopify with little integration costs - How Shopify thinks about partnerships vs. building features themselves, what they call "main quests" vs "side-quests" - Building out omni-channel features and working alongside ERPs - Why massive brands are moving over to Shopify For more FinTech insights, follow us on WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Josh's Twitter: @josh_benadiva Josh’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jbenadiva/

Matt Watson, Origin Co-Founder and CEO - Financial Advice for Everyone by Wharton Fintech Podcast

In our final episode of 2023, Trevor Prince sits down with Tommy Nicholas, the Co-Founder and CEO of Alloy. Alloy is a platform that provides banks and FinTechs with a unified operating system for risk, fraud, and credit evaluation and monitoring in retail financial services. In this episode, Tommy discusses his background, Alloy’s business model and what it took to scale the company, Tommy’s outlook on Alloy and FinTech heading into 2024, and much more. About Tommy Nicholas: Tommy has served as the CEO of Alloy since co-founding the company in 2015. Prior to Alloy, was the Head of Product at Knox Payments, and spent time as a software developer. He was born and raised in Richmond, VA, and graduated from the University of Virginia, where he received a Bachelor’s in History and African American Studies.

In previous episodes we’ve touched on emerging fintech payments products that are attempting to take a piece of the payments pie. Today, we’re going to talk about Fiserv with Sunil Sachdev on the fintech giants’ approach to Embedded Finance and the changing paradigm in payments. About Sunil Sachdev: Sunil is a global fintech executive with a significant breadth of experience in banking, acquiring, DeFi and payments at companies such as American Express, Meed, Pershing and Fiserv. He has worked at Fiserv for nearly a decade in various roles and geographies, including leading the Fiserv payments business in international markets when Fiserv partnered with SWIFT to launch real-time payments in Australia. In recent years, he headed up the U.S. Community Bank segment for Fiserv before taking on a new role leading the Fintech and Growth segment to build out Fiserv’s self-service, low-code services and extend the dual-core and banking-as-a-service capabilities from Fiserv. These diverse experiences have helped dee

In today’s episode, Kailee Costello hosts David Brear, the CEO and co-founder of 11:FS and one of the hosts of the Fintech Insider podcast. In today’s episode, David shares his insights on 3 topics: 1. How digital technologies and fintechs have unleashed innovation in commercial banking. We talk about the unmet needs of SMEs and why David expects to see a transition to more service-based models in the future. 2. The banking battlefield. The competitive landscape is shifting from being about the “number of customers you can acquire” to a landscape where digital is increasingly important. We discussed strategies that incumbent banks can take to stay competitive. 3. How fintech and financial ecosystems differ across different global markets. We spoke about the impact of generational and cultural differences, and why David expects there to be different winners in different regions. Check out the 11:FS podcast ‘Fintech Insider’: https://content.11fs.com/podcasts/fintech-insider For more FinTech insights fro

Russell Matambo hosts Henry Ward, CEO and co-founder of Carta, a global equity management platform on a mission to unlock the power of equity ownership for more people in more places. They discuss Henry’s entrepreneurial journey, the challenges of simultaneously innovating and scaling a company, Carta’s mission to democratise ownership, and much more! About Henry: Henry is the CEO and co-founder of Carta. Carta manages over three trillion dollars in equity for over two million people globally. The company is trusted by more than 40,000 companies, and over 7,000 funds and SPVs to manage cap tables, compensation, valuations, liquidity, and more. Prior to Carta, Henry was founder and CEO of Secondsight, a portfolio optimization platform for retail investors. He also held leadership positions at software companies including Reddwerks Inc. and BetweenMarkets. Henry graduated from the University of Michigan with a BGS in Mathematics and Computer Science and holds an MSC in Market Finance from EDHEC Business Schoo

Russell Matambo hosts Serigne Dioum, Group CEO of MTN Fintech, an African mobile financial services platform and subsidiary of MTN, Africa’s largest mobile network operator. With a footprint of 16 countries, over 69 million customers, and an annual transaction value of over US$220 billion, MTN Fintech is among the largest mobile financial services platforms in Africa. They discuss MTN’s ambition to scale Africa’s largest fintech platform, the strategic importance of carving out MTN Fintech and its partnership with Mastercard, and much more! About Serigne: Serigne Dioum is the Group CEO of MTN Fintech. Prior to this, Serigne was the MTN Group Executive for Mobile Financial Services. Serigne joined the MTN Group in September 2013, and has since then been responsible for driving MTN Mobile Money (MoMo) and related mobile financial services products and services across the MTN footprint. Serigne is passionate about financial inclusion and is spearheading MTN’s ambition to build Africa’s largest fintech platfor

Zoey Tang sits down with Vinay Nair, founder and CEO of TIFIN, a fintech platform that drives personalization for wealth using AI and investment intelligence. TIFIN operates a collection of fully-owned subsidiaries in wealth and investments that are shaping the future of investor experience. Vinay was also the Founder and Chairman of 55ip, which was successfully sold to J.P. Morgan. As a serial entrepreneur and investor, Vinay was also a former finance faculty member of Wharton. His teaching focuses on venture capital, private equity, and entrepreneurship. He is also recognized as an expert in the areas of sustainable and responsible investing and has written “Investing for Change”, a book published in 2008 by Oxford University Press. In the episode, Vinay covers his journey from academics to entrepreneurship, how TIFIN is helping transform Wealth Management for consumers and financial advisors, and how TIFIN is pioneering in the space using Gen AI through partnership with incumbents.

Nate Gee hosts Anthony Scaramucci, Founder and Managing Partner of SkyBridge Capital, an alternative investment firm with a significant focus on digital assets. In this episode, they cover: - Anthony’s partnership with FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried - What led to FTX’s 30% stake in SkyBridge, and takeaways from FTX’s collapse - Risk-taking, facing criticism, and moving on from mistakes - Insights from Anthony’s time as White House Communications Director - Recent performance and the road ahead for SkyBridge - Bitcoin, other digital assets, and the future of money - Anthony’s macroeconomic and geopolitical concerns - SkyBridge’s SALT Conferences - And much more! About SkyBridge SkyBridge Capital is an alternative asset manager and investment advisor whose holdings include digital assets, public and private equity, and hedge funds. It was founded in 2005 by Anthony Scaramucci, also the founder and chairman of SALT, SkyBridge’s venture studio and networking forum covering public policy, finance, and technology.

In today’s episode, Kailee Costello hosts David Haber, General Partner at a16z. David focuses on technology investments in financial services.David was previously a senior executive in Firmwide Strategy at Goldman Sachs where he helped lead partnerships, new ventures and M&A. Before joining the firm, David was the Founder and CEO of Bond Street, which aimed to transform small business lending through technology, data, and design. Bond Street was acquired by Goldman Sachs in 2017. In this episode you will hear about: - The outlook for fintech: challenges and opportunities - How seeing the world from the perspective of an operator, an entrepreneur, and an investor has shaped David’s investing today - David’s current investing theses - David’s learnings from Bond Street about the importance of “leading with software” - How David’s lessons from Bond Street and his time at Goldman Sachs have influenced what he looks for in an investment and a founding team - David’s rationale for leaving his VC role at Spark Capi

Zoey Tang sits down with Mark Fiorentino, partner at Index Ventures. Founded in 1996, Index Ventures is a global Venture Capital firm with offices in San Francisco, New York City, and London. Index Ventures has previously invested in prominent fintech companies such as Adyen, Plaid, Robinhood As part of the early members of the San Francisco team, Mark is focused largely on fintech and application SaaS. He is especially interested in fintech infrastructure, verticalized payment workflows, and SaaS tools disrupting legacy incumbents. He’s currently invested in RevenueCat, Loop, Catch, Pomelo, and Mercantile. Prior to Index, Mark helped build and lead business strategy and finance at Stripe from 2015 to 2019, driving key initiatives for sales operations, global growth, and fundraising. He helped the company assess international product market fit, grow from a couple hundred to nearly 2,000 people, and move upmarket into late-stage and enterprise. Before that, Mark was an investor at GI Partners, focusing on v

In this episode, Blythe Masters reflects on her career that spans three decades within financial services. She discusses pivotal moments, from navigating through major mergers and market upheavals to becoming a mother at an early age. Addressing the evolving landscape of financial services, she delves into the transformative impact of AI and technology on Motive’s investment thesis, portfolio companies and day-to-day operations. Her experiences and observations provide a unique perspective on the industry's past, present, and future, making this podcast a must-listen for finance professionals and enthusiasts alike. About Blythe Masters Blythe Masters joined Motive Partners in 2019 and is a Founding Partner. At Motive, Blythe sources and executes investment opportunities with a focus on strategy and growth for Motive portfolio companies, through her extensive experience as a financial services and technology executive. Blythe is Chair of Motive Ventures, the early-stage investment capability at Motive Partne

In today’s episode, Kailee Costello hosts Nikhil Lakhanpal, Co-Founder at Narmi. Narmi’s mission is to offer financial institutions the best digital banking platform in the industry. Narmi does this through an API-driven platform that layers on top of existing banking infrastructure to give these financial institutions access to Narmi’s products, including digital account opening, consumer and business digital banking, and an admin platform. In this episode you will hear about: - Nikhil’s journey from running a financial institution during his undergraduate years at Georgetown to founding a fintech. - How Narmi integrates with the tech stack for financial institutions to provide a superior customer experience - How Narmi thinks about segmenting and targeting potential customers - How Narmi approaches selling to financial institutions (which have typically been risk-averse and slow to adopt new technologies) - Who Narmi’s main competitors are, and how Narmi distinguishes its value proposition from theirs -