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Financial innovation, technology advances and social changes are sending shockwaves through the financial services industry. In an age of increasingly rapid change, important questions, debates and developments are unfolding before our eyes. These ideas, and the choices we make in response to them, will shape our future. Technology is vastly powerful, creating new industries in response to – or sometimes in anticipation of – changing customer expectations. Rebank explores the trends, developments and challenges that define our age and shape the future role of money, banking and financial services.
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Now displaying: April, 2021
Apr 21, 2021

Today, we’re joined by Shamir Karkal, co-founder of Simple, the first digital bank in the US, and now co-founder of Sila.

Founded in 2009, Simple was the original digital bank, conceived and built to give people more control over their money. After a few successful years, Simple was acquired by BBVA for $117m, under whose ownership it operated until early-2021, when it was shut down.

Simple was loved by its users and mourned following it’s closing, in what was a sad moment for fintech.

Today’s breed of digital banks, including Chime, Varo, Current and others, inherited a lot from Simple, who pioneered the space. However, few of Simple’s most popular features have been replicated by other players.

In recent years, we’ve seen huge user growth achieved by fintechs offering banking to previously underserved customers, especially those living paycheck to paycheck. Nonetheless, Simple leaves a powerful legacy, and many lessons learned, for the entire fintech industry.

In this conversation, we go deep on what worked and what didn’t for Simple, why it never hit escape velocity, why its users loved it so much and how Shamir and his co-founder Josh engineered life changing payouts for their employees through the BBVA acquisition.

We also discuss Shamir’s current company, Sila, which is building programmable money for the next generation of fintech companies.

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

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Shamir Karkal.

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