Today, we’re joined by Lex Sokolin to talk through a few interesting developments in the world of fintech.

M&A is a continued trend in fintech, with the most recent candidates reported to be UBS and Credit Suisse, the latter of which is also in the news with a new digital bank. Will their effort somehow be different than the abortive attempts of their international peers, including JP Morgan Chase in the US and RBS in the UK?

Klarna raised $650 million at a $10.6 billion valuation, making it the most valuable private fintech in the world. Why is Klarna successful where OnDeck and, arguably, Kabbage weren’t?

Lastly, we venture into Lex’s realm of digital assets, with MasterCard’s fun new toolkit to help countries test Central Bank Digital Currencies and Kraken’s newly granted Wyoming bank charter.

To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

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

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

Consumer behavior in China has captivated the West for years, and behavior around fintech and payments is no different.

Ant Group’s planned $200 billion upcoming IPO raises more questions than it answers in the minds of many in the West, who like me don't have direct experience with super apps and ubiquitous QR code based payments.

We recorded a breakdown of Ant Group’s upcoming IPO last week with Max Friedrich and Lex Sokolin, which is under compliance review and will be released soon.

Today’s conversation brings unique perspective to the exploration of fintech in China, told through the eyes and anecdotes of two Chinese tech entrepreneurs.

Linda Jiang is a deep tech founder and serial entrepreneur. In 2010, she co-founded Umeng, a mobile analytics and developer platform that grew to support 180,000 apps and become the largest platform of its kind in China before selling to Alibaba in 2015. She is now an advisor to Baidu Ventures, an early stage deep tech focused fund backed by Baidu, one of China’s tech giants.

Yi Luo is the founding Chief Strategy Officer of FreeUp, a company unlocking daily salary payment for workers. In 2019, FreeUp was acquired by Greensill, and then rebranded as Earnd, where Yi now leads strategy and expansion. Yi is also a keen angel investor.

This conversation was recorded in February 2020, pre-COVID and before I relocated to New York, which may explain some of our references.

To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Linda Jiang and Yi Luo.

Mike Massaro is the CEO of Flywire, a payments technology company fresh off a $120m Series E led by Goldman Sachs. Matt Harris is a Partner at Bain Capital Ventures and one of the smartest fintech VCs on the planet.

Both Mike and Matt have been on Rebank before, in episodes I highly recommend everyone check out.

In this conversation, we dig into the embedded finance opportunity and Bain Capital Ventures’ prediction that we’re at the beginning of a platform shift that will be as big as the Internet, Cloud and Mobile.

The combination of Matt’s investor perspective and Mike’s insight at the helm of a leading payments company make this a fascinating discussion.

To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Mike Massaro and Matt Harris.

We’re joined by Lex Sokolin to break down recently published annual reports from Revolut, Starling and Monzo, three of the leading European digital banks.

There are some fascinating insights to be drawn from the documents, especially in the context of the broader global fintech market.

This is rich subject matter, and we surely didn’t cover everything. You may even disagree with some of our analysis! Let us know.

Please get in touch with thoughts, opinions and corrections. We’ll share all the high quality communication we receive with the entire community.

To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

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

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

Rob Moffat is a partner at Balderton, a leading European VC, with investments including Revolut, Nutmeg, Wagestream, Zego, GoCardless, ComplyAdvantage and many more.

In this conversation, Rob and Rebank co-host Aman Ghei discuss the state of the venture market, fundraising during a crisis, the most interesting new business opportunities in fintech and much more.

To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Rob Moffat.

The fintech world is not taking the summer off. New developments are coming fast and furious, from fundraisings to product launches to government intervention.

Banking for brands startup Bond raised $32 million to capitalize on the exploding trend of B2B2C banking.

Samsung Money launched, leveraging SoFi’s infrastructure. As SoFi again seeks a national banking charter, they could become the de facto leader in this space.

Kabbage and Intuit launched small business bank accounts as extensions of their already deep relationships with SMBs.

And WhatsApp is trialing all sorts of financial services in India just as Chinese fintech super apps are being banned from the country.

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.

Seth Pierrepont is a partner at Accel, one of the most renowned venture firms in the world and a backer of companies including Facebook, Spotify, Slack, Dropbox and many more.

Seth invests in financial technology and data infrastructure and has led the firm's investments in companies like Privitar, AnyFin, Soldo, Worldremit any many others.

In this conversation, Rebank co-host Aman Ghei of Finch Capital and Seth discuss how VCs have been adjusting to the new normal of investing remotely, the pieces of open banking they expect to be transformational, including credit and payments, and the importance of privacy for CIOs and executive decision makers in a rapidly evolving world.

To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Aman Ghei and Seth Pierrepont.

Krik Gunning is the CEO and co-founder of Fourthline, one of fastest growing companies in Europe. Fourtline verifies the identities of millions of customers for clients like N26, ING, SolarisBank, Degiro, Flatex and many others.

Aman and Krik discuss the genesis of KYC and the constant struggle between compliance and risk at regulated institutions. They look at real world examples of how companies are stopping financial crime and how technology offerings in this commoditized market stand out.

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, Aman Ghei and Krik Gunning.

Charlie Olson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pando, a Series A stage fintech designing new ways for high financial variability performers to manage financial risk and upside.

Pando’s platform allows professional baseball players and more recently business school graduates to pool future earnings potential in ways that smooth income volatility for the group. In theory, this type of approach could help society better allocate talent against opportunities, without the constraint of personal financial risk appetite.

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, Charlie Olson.

Mike Cagney is the Co-Founder and CEO of Figure, a full stack financial services blockchain company with consumer offerings in market or on the way in lending, banking and more.

In late-2019, Figure raised $103 million at a $1.2 billion valuation and continues to grow.

Prior to starting Figure, Mike co-founded and ran SoFi, one of the most successful consumer fintech companies ever.

In this conversation, we discuss Figure’s routes to asset origination and capital markets disruption, Figure’s previously unannounced consumer banking and payments offering, lessons learned building and scaling multiple billion dollar companies and more.

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

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

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

Manuel Silva is the Head of Investments for Santander InnoVentures, Santander’s Corporate Venture Capital arm and a leading fintech investor.

InnoVentures' investment portfolio includes companies like Kabbage, Ripple, SigFig, Tradeshift, Curve, Payjoy, Roostify, Trulioo, Klar and Upgrade.

In this conversation, Manuel and I discuss advice for founders in a recession, potential for COVID-driven consolidation in fintech, opportunities in LATAM and thoughts on the digital banking business model.

Robo 1.0 success Personal Capital was acquired for nearly $1 billion by Empower, a major retirement savings manager.

Softbank-backed insurtech darling Lemonade IPOed at less than $2 billion, in a successful fundraise and listing, and has since seen its market cap rise to over $4 billion. The IPO is a landmark for an insurtech industry in desperate need of successes.

And PayPal announces the impending launch of crypto trading to its 325 million uses. The move isn’t overly interesting in its own right, but the implications for the crypto space are worth exploring.

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.

Stuart Sopp is the Founder and CEO of Current, a leading US digital bank.

Current has over a million users, with a focus on young, financially excluded Americans.

In this conversation, we discuss how Current achieves profitable unit economics, what differentiates Current from competitors, key differences between the US and European digital banking markets and more.

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, Stuart Sopp.

Mike Packer, Partner at QED, and Michael Sidgmore, Partner at Broadhaven Ventures, are active investors in Latin America, with collective portfolio companies including Credijusto, Loft, Nubank and many more.

In this conversation, we discuss market dynamics, nuances and opportunities in Latin American fintech and much more.

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, Mike Packer and Michael Sidgmore.

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

And boy, is there a lot to talk about.

WhatsApp launches payments in Brazil and is unceremoniously shut down by the central bank a week later, MasterCard buys Finicity to protect itself against Visa’s recent acquisition of Plaid, Checkout.com continues its largely silent meteoric rise in payments, Softbank-backed, DAX 30 index component Wirecard “loses" $2 billion from its balance sheet and files for insolvency, Upgrade raises $40 million at a $1 billion valuation to extend its personal credit offering.

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.

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

Andy Rachleff is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wealthfront, one of the world’s leading investments and personal finance companies.

Building around a core investments offering for young professionals, Wealthfront has added checking, savings and debit functionality plus automation, with the ultimate vision of delivering self-driving money, where personal finance is fully automated by software.

Today, Wealthfront is announcing the launch of checking account features in a significant extension of its existing offering.

Prior to founding Wealthfront, Andy co-founded Benchmark, one of the most respected venture capital firms on the planet.

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, Andy Rachleff.

Oliver Hughes is the CEO of Tinkoff Group, one of the world’s most successful digital banking groups with over ten million customers.

Tinkoff is publicly listed, which brings clarity to its operating model in a time when many noteworthy consumer digital banks are pursuing customer acquisition at the expense of profitability.

Oliver has led Tinkoff through three financial crises, so brings experience and perspective to the current COVID crisis.

This is a fascinating discussion about unit economics in digital banking and winning business models with a CEO with thirteen years of experience in this game.

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.

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

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.