We’re joined by Lex Sokolin to talk through a few recent events that are indicative of what’s important in fintech right now.

Varo raised $241 million in preparation to start operating under its own banking license  later this year. Is a banking license an asset or a liability if you’re a digital bank?

Marqeta is reportedly now valued at $4.3 billion, as banking-as-a-service continues its mature.

And LA-based fintech Stackin’ raised $13 million to scale its messaging-based offering designed to help Gen Z find the right fintech. What should we make of this?

For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

To subscribe to Lex’s amazing newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com.

Eric Poirier is the CEO of Addepar, a leading investment technology company with a ten-year track record serving institutional clients.

With more than 400 institutional investor clients with approximately $2 trillion in assets on Addepar’s platform, Eric has a fantastic view into how the smart money responded during the COVID crash and where funds are likely to flow during recession and recovery.

Addepar has raised $245 million since inception to build and scale its platform and recently launched primary and secondary market investments in alternative assets to its clients.

For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Eric Poirier.

Today, we’re joined by Max Friedrich and Lex Sokolin.

Max is a fintech analyst a ARK Invest, a public markets investment manager focused on disruptive technologies including autonomous tech, robotics, fintech, genomics and next generation internet.

Max recently published a report on digital wallets, including Venmo and Square’s Cash App, which is available for download on ARK’s website.

I loved this conversation, which could have been twice as long as it was, and hope to continue exploring this topic in the future.

We're also joined by Lex Sokolin, author of the Fintech Blueprint.

For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

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

Clay Wilkes is the founder and CEO of Galileo, one of the leading digital banking and payments platforms in North America.

Galileo provides much of the technology that powers banking and payments for companies including Chime, Robinhood and Varo, plus the US operations of Monzo, N26, Revolut and many, many more.

In April, SoFi, one of the absolute leading US fintechs and an increasingly full service financial institution, announced the acquisition of Galileo for $1.2 billion. The tie up will deliver, among other things, SoFi’s full suite of lending products and balance sheet into Galileo’s API platform, making them available to all of the customers Galileo supports.

Already a dominant player in the US, Galileo is expanding into Latin America, where Clay sees a rich emerging fintech market.

For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Clay Wilkes.

Today, we’re joined by Lex Sokolin to talk through a few recent events that are indicative of the fintech world right now.

Brex raised an additional $150 million at a slightly improved valuation vs. its last round just as Monzo is reportedly looking at a 40% down round. Why?

Shopify launched bank accounts for its merchants and an Amazon competitor plus Klarna, just as it worked with Facebook to support the launch of Facebook Shops and joined the Libra Association. Lots going on.

Lastly, Lex explains why Goldman’s M&A activity over the past couple years leads to the natural conclusion that they should buy Schwab.

To sign up for Lex's amazing weekly newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com

For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

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

Radboud Vlaar is the Founding Partner at Finch Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm and one of Europe’s most active series A investors.

Prior to starting Finch in 2013, Radboud was a Partner at McKinsey, where he worked for ten years.

Finch recently published a fantastic report on fintech in a time of crisis, which forms the basis for our conversation today. The report is available at https://www.finchcapital.com/covid19.

For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Radboud Vlaar.

Laurent Le Moal is the CEO of PayU, a leading emerging markets payments company.

As CEO of PayU, Laurent has grown annual volumes to nearly $30 billion and overseen close to $1 billion in strategic investments in companies including Citrus Pay and Paysense in India, Iyzico in Turkey and Remitly in the US, where he is also a member of the board.

As if that weren’t enough, Laurent and PayU are founding members of Facebook’s Libra project, which we touch on in this conversation.

Prior to joining PayU in 2016, Laurent ran EMEA for PayPal.

For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Laurent Le Moal.

Ohad Samet is the Co-Founder and CEO of TrueAccord, a company using machine learning, behavioral economics and empathy to reimagine the debt collection process.

TrueAccord is a fantastic example of fintech's most fundamental promise: using technology and a fresh perspective to create outcomes in financial services orders of magnitude better than traditional approaches, at a fraction of the cost.

Ohad is a seasoned fintech founder and executive. The first company he worked for was acquired by PayPal, where he worked for three years before founding a company that eventually exited to Klarna. He served as Chief Risk Officer at Klarna for three years before founding TrueAccord.

In this conversation, Ohad, Lex and I discuss the ability of machine learning to create empathetic customer experiences, AI’s ability to be creative, expectations about COVID-19’s impact on consumer borrowers and the economy as a whole, and TrueAccord’s performance vs. traditional solutions.

For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

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

Today, Rebank co-host Aman Ghei of Finch Capital is joined by Mike Laven.

Mike is the CEO of CurrencyCloud, one of the leading FX and payments companies in Europe, powering some of the most successful financial institutions and consumer fintech unicorns. Mike has spent over 25 years in financial technology, with executive roles at a number of large venture backed firms. Mike joined CurrencyCloud in 2011 and has raised over $140m in funding for the company.

In this conversation, Mike and Aman discuss the immediate impact of COVID-19 on the broader FX and remittance market as well as potential longer term implications, why API delivery has been so successful in payments, consolidation and the future of payments, and what the next 12-to-24 months have in store for CurrencyCloud.

For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Aman Ghei and Mike Laven.

Today, we’re joined by Lex Sokolin to discuss recent developments in digital money, including stablecoins, CBDCs and a new Facebook Libra proposal.

A digital world needs digital money, and a few influential players are actively working to build it. China’s BSN initiative and Facebook’s Libra embody the East’s public sector led approach to building and owning the internet of value, and the West’s private sector led (and public sector challenged) attempt at cheaper commerce on the web. While the nature of the approaches may be different, the data and privacy considerations are eerily similar.

For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

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

Today, we’re joined by Brett King, founder and Executive Chairman of Moven, one of the original digital banks, and Lex Sokolin, Global Head of Fintech at ConsenSys.

Lex and I discussed Moven’s recent announcement to shutter its B2C business on episode 170 of Rebank, and we're happy to have the opportunity to connect with Brett directly to discuss the decision in more detail.

Of particular interest in this conversation are Brett's learnings from ten years of running Moven about B2C vs B2B as a digital banking strategy, the missing pieces in the current US and European challenger banking business model and where the space will go from here.

For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

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

Today, Rebank co-host Aman Ghei of Finch Capital is joined by Silvi Wompa.

Silvi is the head of portfolio underwriting at Swiss Re, one of the largest reinsurers in the world with over $30B in revenue.

Over the past 18 years, Silvi has built an international executive career in insurance across Life & Pensions, Property & Casualty, Broking and the Lloyd’s Market at companies like Hiscox, Old Mutual and Willis Towers Watson. She also co-founded Ch.AI in 2018, an insurtech start-up based in London focused on mitigating price risk in raw materials.

In this conversation, Aman and Silvi discuss the insurtech landscape, why disruption in insurance has not kept up pace with other areas of fintech, why enablement may trump disruption in insurtech, and what incumbent insurance companies are doing to stay relevant.

For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today.

Please welcome, Aman Ghei and Silvi Wompa.

Today, we’re joined by Lex Sokolin to discuss the ways in which COVID-19 is influencing consumer and business behavior and what changes are likely to be permanent.

Digital is booming in areas where it hasn’t before, both on the consumer and business sides. This genie will not be put back in the bottle. We are in the midst of a quantum leap forward in digital adoption.

Fintechs that have long struggled for regulatory acceptance are punching through with solutions for SBA loan and stimulus check disbursement. This pivot toward a more mainstream role doesn’t feel like a change that can be reversed.

Apple and Google are building tools to enable us to give up even more privacy in the name of public health. Times of crisis reorder moral priorities.

For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

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

In this special episode, we’re joined by Lex Sokolin for analysis of a few important recent fintech developments.

Lex is the author of the Future of Finance newsletter, the CMO & Global Fintech Co-Head at ConsenSys and a genuinely next-level thinker.

In this conversation, Lex and I examine the recent SoFi acquisition of Galileo, Moven’s decision to close its B2C digital bank and what if any impact rapid fintech product developments in response to COVID-19 will have on the future of financial innovation.

For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today.

Please welcome, Lex Sokolin.

Today we’re joined by Abhishek Gupta, Head of BBVA Open Platform, BBVA’s banking-as-a-service offering.

As most people listening this podcast know, BBVA is a leader in financial innovation among incumbent banks, having taken a very proactive approach to the role of technology in banking.

The Open Platform is the productized, public facing version of BBVA’s core banking infrastructure, offering bank accounts, cards, payments and KYC via API to fintechs and brands.

In this conversation, Abhishek and I discuss the emerging banking-as-a-service industry, the most compelling fintech and brand use cases of bank APIs and BBVA’s broader approach to financial innovation.

For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Abhishek Gupta.

The fintech industry has rapidly matured in recent years. Once a collection of aspirational early stage founders catering to tech early adopters, fintech companies are increasingly offering highly respected, professional grade solutions to mainstream consumers and businesses.

Challenger banks, online lenders, payments companies and API connectivity layers once competed for fringe customers in a handful of urban centers.

Now, they’re pursuing global rollouts, pushing $10 billion valuations and piquing the interest of incumbent acquirers from FIS to Fiserv to Visa.

How far will private funding take fintech? Will a wave of IPOs follow? Will M&A entice leading startups before their valuations make takeovers uneconomical? What will happen when local fintech successes clash at the global level?

This special episode was recorded live at a Rebank event in London hosted by Shearman & Sterling, a global law firm with a specialist fintech practice. Visit fintech.shearman.com to find out more.

In this conversation, we're joined by Noel Monro, Director at Rothschild & Co, an investment bank, Tim Levene, CEO of Augmentum Fintech, a venture capital firm, Ian Sutherland, CFO of Tide, a business banking service and Pawel Szaja, Capital Markets Partner at Shearman & Sterling.

For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today.

Please welcome, Noel Monro, Tim Levene, Ian Sutherland and Pawel Szaja.

Today, we’re thrilled to be joined by Adrian Nazari, founder and CEO of Credit Sesame.

Credit Sesame is a free credit score monitoring and management service.

Credit Sesame has 16 million registered users and has raised $120 million since its inception nearly ten years ago.

In this conversation, Adrian and I discuss the company’s new banking offering and how it fits into the core business. We also discuss the competitive landscape in retail digital banking in the US and how Credit Sesame intends to differentiate.

We also discuss the extremely pressing subject of supporting Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck is the midst of a global pandemic and recessionary fallout. Credit Sesame and other mass market fintechs have a tremendous opportunity to contribute in this time of social and personal distress.

For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Adrian Nazari.

Today, we’re thrilled to be joined by Hussein Kanji, a London-based venture capitalist.

Hussein co-runs Hoxton Ventures, a firm he started in 2013.

Hussein has invested in and/or served on the boards of some amazing companies, including Deliveroo, Babylon Health, DarkTrace, Behavox and many more.

Prior to starting Hoxton, Hussein worked on product at Microsoft and then at Accel, one of the world’s premier venture firms.

For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Hussein Kanji.

Today, Rebank co-host Aman Ghei of Finch Capital connects with Steve Toland, founder and CEO of TransFICC, an e-trading technology company providing solutions for fixed income and derivative markets.

Steve has over 25 years experience working in the global capital markets. He was previously the Head of LMAX Interbank, led global sales for MarketFactory, and held the positions of Head of FX Sales for EMEA and America at ICAP and Head of Sales for Americas at Thomson Reuters.

Aman and Steve start by discussing why there has not been much innovation in capital markets infrastructure compared to traditional retail brokerage and how trading desks at various product groups like fixed income are waking up to the new wave of API driven technology to provide the best speed of execution in highly regulated markets.

It's interesting to think about how trading desks at big banks and asset managers will need to adapt to an increasingly competitive and technology driven marketplace.

Thank you very much for joining us today, please welcome Steve Toland.

Victor Trokoudes is the founder and CEO of Plum, a personal financial assistant that sits atop your existing bank accounts and automates financial success.

Plum is a leader in the personal finance management, or PFM, space, and Victor has interesting views on what the future of the segment will look like.

For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Victor Trokoudes.

Magnus Larsson is the Founder and CEO of Majority, a digital bank for migrants in the US.

As anyone who listens to this podcast knows, digital banks are making headlines all over the world.

Some people are beginning to see the market as saturated, with seemingly dozens of offerings vying for consumer spending power. Early results suggest digital challengers are struggling to convert customers at scale or to bank them profitably.

We’re extremely early in the redesign of the stagnant, centuries old retail banking industry, and we’ve yet to see much business model innovation.

Majority is an early example of what I expect to be a wave of banking offerings rethinking the role banks play in people’s lives and the relevant combinations of services to deliver value around money and the experiences it enables.

Magnus is a serial entrepreneur with decades of experience in telecom. Prior to launching Majority, he was the CEO of Rebtel, a digital telecommunications company serving migrants in Europe.

Magnus brings deep insight into the challenges faced by migrants, including but extending well beyond access to financial services.

Majority’s launch proposition includes free banking, international calling and remittances all for a low monthly subscription.

Banks have been subsidizing checking accounts with lending and fee-generating products for decades. Majority is doing the same with intrinsically linked ancillary services that reinforce community around its offering.

For all of our past episodes, and to subscribe to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Magnus Larsson.

Today, Rebank co-host Aman Ghei of Finch Capital connects with Wayne Marc Godfrey, founder and CEO of Purely Capital, an entertainment finance platform.

Wayne is a prolific film producer and financier, having raised over $300 million and produced over 125 films with over $1 billion in production spend. He recently closed a $150 million facility for Purely Capital from a leading institutional lender.

Media and entertainment is one of the biggest industries in the world, grossing over $700 billion annually. Underpinning all those receipts is a web of financing and distribution deals with networks and streaming operators.

Aman and Wayne discuss the media financing value chain and why now is the right time to build a finance technology business in this space. They also explore how traditional funders are reacting to changes in production and consumption habits, and more.

This is a fascinating conversation about how financial services are interpreted and reinterpreted in other industries, and how rapid technological change in other sectors, in this case media, is impacting innovation in financial services.

In addition to the audio version of this podcast, today's conversation is also available on video on our YouTube channel, thanks to LaunchPod studios. Link in description.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome Wayne Marc Godfrey.

Platform banking’s role in the growth of fintech can hardly be understated, with companies including Monzo, N26, Revolut, Chime, Acorns, Betterment, MoneyLion and many, many more starting or expanding on top of regulated third-party banking partners.

Similarly, the promise of embedded finance, where non-bank brands and consumer experiences deliver banking and other financial services directly to customers is predicated on the availability of platform infrastructure.

Platform banking offerings are clearly fit for purpose, right? Far from it.

In today’s conversation, Aman and I are joined by David Jarvis, founder of Griffin, a seed-stage platform bank in London, to discuss the current state of platform banking, the shortcomings of existing offerings and the role of the next generation of platform banks in delivering the future of finance.

For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, David Jarvis.

Today we explore the wild and wondrous world of equity primary markets. We’re joined by Anand Sambasivan, Co-Founder and CEO of PrimaryBid, Marcus Stuttard, Head of UK Primary Markets for the London Stock Exchange, and Aman Ghei, Principal at Finch Capital.

To get the conversation started, former investment bankers Anand and Aman walk us through the quirky and questionable dynamics of investment bank led IPOs and share sales. We then explore alternatives to that model, including direct listings, along with a number of interesting considerations about private vs. public market capital raising, risk taking vs. value capture, preference stacks and more.

For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome Anand Sambasivan, Marcus Stuttard and Aman Ghei.