Samvit Ramadurgam is the Co-Founder & President and Kelly Rodriques is the CEO of Forge, a secondary market for private shares.

Forge provides access to shares of virtually all of the top 50 privately held tech startups, including Slack and many more, and offered trading in the likes of Spotify, Dropbox, Snap and DocuSign before they IPOed. According to Crunchbase, Forge has raised $88.5m from investors including Peter Thiel, Tim Draper, FT Partners and others.

Unlike earlier players in the space, Forge has focused on building out a robust technology platform, including institutional grade clearing and custody infrastructure to support global counterparties.

Forge’s proposition is particularly relevant as companies stay private for longer. More investor value is captured pre-IPO, so access to private shares is important. Additionally, because IPOs happen later, early employees are often unable to access liquidity for years, making it difficult to buy homes or diversify risk.

We dig into all of these issues with Samvit and Kelly.

In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates.

Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy.

For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Samvit Ramadurgam and Kelly Rodriques.

Dee Choubey is the Founder and CEO of MoneyLion, a digital bank combining a comprehensive financial offering with AI-driven personalized guidance.

With four million users and counting, MoneyLion aspires to build a private bank for the middle class, initially by providing financial access, education and advice to Americans underserved by the financial system.

I find MoneyLion’s vision highly compelling. As we’ve said before on the podcast, it feels like many B2C fintechs are converging to the same place. MoneyLion, on the other hand, has sought to be there from day one.

Dee and I connected at MoneyLion’s beautiful downtown San Francisco office, which meant sirens, honking horns and general urban background noise. We hope you’ll bear with us, as the conversation itself was excellent.

In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates.

Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy.

For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Dee Choubey.

Ryan King is the Co-Founder and CTO of Chime, one of the leading digital banks in the US. Chime offers free banking to over three million customers, helping them save hundreds a year on banking and gain control of their financial lives.

This episode was recorded at LendIt in San Francisco. A huge thanks to Peter Renton and his team for inviting us to participate.

As listeners know, digital banking is a space we follow closely. The US is a fascinating market to watch, given the importance of spending, borrowing and investing, prevailing incumbent pricing structures, digital penetration and customer expectations. And with the number of well-funded fintechs converging on comprehensive digital financial offerings, including Robinhood, Acorns, Betterment, MoneyLion, Chime, Varo and others, not to mention European digital banks like Monzo, N26 and Revolut, the space will get competitive fast.

In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates.

Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy.

For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ryan King.

Erin Collard is Co-Founder of Blend, a digital mortgage origination platform. Blend sits atop incumbent systems and digitizes the mortgage process, massively reducing costs for lenders and expediting origination.

Blend’s software is compelling. So compelling, in fact, that 25% of the market now uses Blend’s technology to originate $1 billion of US mortgages every day.

Blend has raised $160 million from leading investors including Greylock and Founders Fund.

Erin has a fascinating background, which he runs through to kick us off.

In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates.

Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy.

For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Erin Collard.

Michael Sidgmore is a Partner at Broadhaven, a market leading fintech investment bank and venture firm, with clients including ICE and the CBOE and investments including MoneyLion and ScaleFactor.

Prior to joining Broadhaven, Michael built the sales team at iCapital, now a multi-billion dollar platform giving investors access to leading alternative investment funds at low minimums.

Michael is close to the ground when it comes to US fintech, with an interest in Latin American as well.

In this conversation, Michael shares his views on SMB plays, opportunities in Latin America, platform trends, solutions for the gig economy and more.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Michael Sidgmore.

Catherine Wines is the Co-Founder of WorldRemit, one of the world's foremost digital remittance providers. </p>

Founded in 2010, WorldRemit has raised over $220 millionfrom Accel, LeapFrog and TCV. The platform lets users send money to friends and family in 150 countries, giving people in developing countries access to the financial system at a fraction of the cost of traditional remittance providers. In doing so, WorldRemit empowers local communities, especially women, as Catherine explains.

WorldRemit is creating huge value and solving massive problems. It's great to speak with founders as mission-driven as Catherine.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Catherine Wines.

Vinoth Jayakumar runs fintech investments for Draper Esprit, a premier venture capital firm and backers of the likes of Revolut and TransferWise. 

Today we grapple with the backend infrastructure of banking, updating on a subject we’ve covered in the past with 10x, ThoughtMachine, Mambu and others. These and other players have continued to build, recently signing big name clients that expect the future of core infrastructure to be provided by fintechs. 

This is a complex subject, and we didn’t cover everything. We’d love to get your thoughts on the subject on Twitter @RebankPodcast. 

If you enjoy today’s episode, please take 30 seconds to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. 

Today, we have a very special episode for you. Last week in London, we put on a live event, supported by leading reputation management consultancy Lansons, whose clients include Lloyds, Allianz, Atom Bank, BlackRock, Fidelity, Hargreaves Lansdown, JP Morgan, Invesco, Societe Generale, Vanguard, AXA and many, many more.

The topic of discussion was Crypto 2.0, Is Crypto Finally Getting Real?

Considered fringe for most of the past few years, crypto and associated technologies potentially represent a meaningful force in mainstream financial services as they mature.

Joining us to explore the near future in crypto and the implications for banking, finance and society as a whole are Lex Sokolin, Luis Carranzaand Alexi Esmail-Yakas. Each introduces himself at the opening of the discussion, so I won't duplicate it here.

If you enjoy today's episode and are interested in future live events in London, the US and around the world, please subscribe to our newsletter at bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today, and a huge thanks to Lansons for hosting this event.

Ricky Knox is the Founder and CEO of Tandem, a UK digital bank.

It's a fascinating time in digital banking, as tech-forward banks in the UK, US, Europe and elsewhere race for product and geographic coverage and players like Apple and Goldman Sachs, who recently announced a credit card partnership, encroach on retail banks' turf.

I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. As you’d expect, Ricky brings a lot of insight to this topic.

If you enjoy today’s episode, please take 30 seconds to leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ricky Knox.

Francesco Simoneschi is the Co-Founder and CEO of TrueLayer, an Open Banking API platform.

Since Open Banking went live early last year, progress has been slow, and reviews have been mixed. At the same time, companies like Plaid and Quovo in the US and Tink and Bud in Europe have raised eight- and nine-figure rounds to scale platforms to support the innovations Open Banking promises.

TrueLayer is squarely in the mix of leading Open Banking API platforms, quickly rolling out functionality and seeking full coverage of Europe by the end of the year.

If you enjoy today's episode, please leave us a review on iTunes.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Francesco Simoneschi.

Lex Sokolin started a roboadvisor way back in 2009, which was eventually sold to AdvisorEngine. As a result of that experience, and the strategy and advisory work he's done since, Lex has unique insight into the evolution of the digital investments space, one of the fastest moving areas of fintech today.

If you enjoy today's episode, please leave us a review on iTunes.</p>

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lex Sokolin.

SME banking is a particular interest of mine, as long-time listeners know.

We've covered it from a number of angles on Rebank, including challenger banking with OakNorth, digital lending with iwoca and Spotcap, payments with GoCardless and support services with Xero, to name a few.

If one area of fintech has been getting increasing interest lately, it's SME banking, and it's about time.

Last week, Pool A of the RBS Capability & Innovation Fund was allocated, with massive cash grants going to winners Metro Bank, Starling and ClearBank to enhance existing business current account offerings. The cash injections are sure to shake up competition in the space.

Today, we're joined by Richard Davies to talk through recent developments and the broader trajectory of the space. Richard runs business banking and sits on the Executive Committee at TSB, the UK's 7th largest bank.

If you enjoy today's episode, please take 30 seconds to leave us a review on iTunes.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Richard Davies.

Rishi Khosla is co-founder and CEO of OakNorth, one of the world's best funded and fastest growing fintechs.

We've had OakNorth on the podcast a few times before. In the past, I've generally referred to OakNorth as a challenger bank, which they were, but the company has developed beyond that description.

From its savings & lending origins, OakNorth has evolved into a world-class technology platform with a banking license, recently backed by investors, including SoftBank, to the tune of $440m, the largest ever fintech investment in Europe.

Prior to starting OakNorth, Rishi and his business partner Joel Perlman founded and sold Copal Amba, an outsourced financial research company acquired by Moodys.

It's energizing talking to great entrepreneurs like Rishi. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation, and I hope you do too.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Rishi Khosla.

If you enjoy today's episode, please take 30 seconds to leave us a review on iTunes.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Nicolas Colin.

Anytime I find myself thinking how much progress has been made in digital banking over the past 6 or so years, I stop to consider how much further we'll go from here. It feels like so much has happened since the paradigm shift brought about by the iPhone and the global banking crisis of 2008.

No one knows that better than Anthony Thomson.

Anthony is by any measure one of the most prolific banking innovators of the past decade. Anthony is the Co-Founder and former Chairman of Metro Bank and Founder and former Chairman of Atom Bank. As if that weren't enough, he's now the Co-Founder and Chairman of 86 400, a new digital bank in Australia.

Over the course of his career, Anthony has raised close to a $1 billion (and counting) in investment and helped shape the current global banking landscape.

What are the most important problems banking and fintech can solve? Are we thinking enough about the deepest customer needs or just iterating within existing financial services verticals?

Let us know what you think on Twitter @rebankpodcast.

If you enjoy today's episode, please take 30 seconds to leave us a review on iTunes.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Anthony Thomson.

We've seen a slow evolution in fintech from the early days - transitioning from disruptors and disintermediators to partners and platforms. Where do we go from here?

Tim Levene is the Founder and CEO of Augmentum, a fintech venture capital firm.

Prior to starting Augmentum, Tim worked for Bain, started London restaurant chain Crussh and founded Flutter.com, which merged with Betfair in 2001, at the beginning of the latter's rise to prominence.

Augmentum has invested in companies including Zopa, Seedrs, Interactive Investor, Tide, DueDil and more.

What's in store for fintech in 2019? Let us know on Twitter @rebankpodcast.

If you like today's episode, please take a second to rate us on iTunes.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Tim Levene.

The US could be one of the most lucrative markets for digital banks, but few new entrants have launched there. Why? How ripe is the opportunity, really?

Monzo, N26 and Revolut have all stated intentions to launch in the US, though none have yet navigated the regulatory requirements.

Colin Walsh is the CEO and co-founder of Varo Money, which is on track to become the first mobile-centric national bank in U.S. history.

Prior to founding Varo, Colin spent 25 years in consumer banking at American Express, Lloyds Banking Group and Wells Fargo.

How successful will digital banking startups be in US? Let us know on Twitter @rebankpodcast.

If you like today's episode, please take 30 seconds to rate us on iTunes and share it with a friend.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Colin Walsh.

Should people outside fintech care about fintech? Today, we're joined by Brad Goodall, serial entrepreneur and founder of Banked, to discuss.

Open Banking is hands down one of the most relevant themes in 2018, with legislation taking effect in Europe and the UK and being replicated and expanded in countries like Australia.

But so far, we've seen anything but tangible impacts from Open Banking, including products, services and new customer experiences.

Why?

To start with, banks dragged their feet in terms of implementation, and startups have been unable to deliver cross-platform experiences they imagined.

We've also taken a narrow view of what Open Banking means and how it will be leveraged.

This is where Brad comes in. Brad brings a richer perspective to Open Banking and sees it as an opportunity for much of banking to shift away from traditional financial services providers and over to consumer brands more relevant to customers.

In this conversation, Brad helps us think about how much fintech actually matters to people outside fintech - and whether the industry is getting excited about the right things.

Do you have a view? Join the conversation onTwitter, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.

If you like today's episode, please take 30 seconds to rate us on iTunes and share us with a friend.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Brad Goodall.