Fund Shack Private Equity Podcast Fintech, Agentic AI & the Future of Financial Services | Apis Partners: Uday Goyal & Matteo Stefanel | Episode #78
Ross Butler speaks with Matteo Stefanel and Udayan (“Uday”) Goyal, Co-Founders and Managing Partners of Apis Partners, one of the world’s leading growth-equity investors in financial technology.
Founded in 2014, Apis Partners has built a global fintech franchise by applying M&A discipline to private equity: identify the likely acquirers first, then build the company to fit their strategic blueprint. In this conversation, Matteo and Uday explain how they turned two decades of deal-making experience, from DLJ and Deutsche Bank to advising on Visa, Mastercard, and Worldpay into one of the most distinctive investment models in growth capital.
They discuss:
How Apis built credibility as a first-time fund manager, raising $290m at launch and scaling to a multi-fund global platform.
The importance of the network as an asset, relationships forged over 20 years now drive sourcing, diligence, talent, and exits.
“Exit-first” investing, designing portfolio companies around known strategic buyers and building to a defined market demand.
Why 2025 marks the most disruptive moment in financial services history, as stablecoins, micropayments, and decentralised rails reshape how money moves.
The rise of agentic AI, where your personal financial assistant will soon negotiate directly with your bank’s AI.
Embedded finance and the subscription economy, from iPhones to autos, where distribution and customer ownership, not balance sheet, define value.
The democratisation of wealth, as technology opens private-market access to a broader investor base while raising new questions about fairness, data, and risk.
“Finance will be invisible, stitched into every product, every experience.”
This is a forward-looking discussion about what comes after banking, where technology, capital, and human behaviour converge to redefine how financial systems work and who benefits from them.
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🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹Thank you to our episode partnerBrookfield’s Private Equity Group: A Global leader in acquiring and driving operational transformation in industrials and essential business services.For more information, visit: www.brookfield.com/it-takes-industry🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹💼 Learn more at: 🌐 www.apis.pe🎙️Matteo Stefanel Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Apis PartnersLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matteostefanel/🎙️Udayan GoyalManaging Partner & Co-Founder, Apis PartnersLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ugoyal/Ross ButlerFounder and Host Fund Shack 🌐 www.fund-shack.comCONNECT on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/rossbutler1/🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹 📩 Subscribe to our Substack: https://privateequitypodcastfundshack.substack.com/ 📘 Pre-order Ross Butler’s book
Invest Like a Barbarian
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00:00 Fintech revolution begins, Apis Partners ranked global #201:45 Meet Apis Partners, fintech growth investors Matteo Stefanel & Udayan Goyal
03:06 From Wall Street to growth capital, building a fintech platform
05:01 Relationships as alpha networks turned into exits07:56 Exit-first model designing for strategic buyers11:24 Value creation buy-and-build and customer access16:21 Partnering with founders, trust and alignment18:20 Stablecoins & 24-hour liquidity, treasury reinvented23:54 Micropayments & continuous finance, real-time money flow
27:27 Agentic AI, automation reshaping financial services
31:15 Embedded finance & subscriptions, banking disappears36:52 Who owns the customer, brands vs banks42:46 Finance as social engine,from UBI to capital ownership47:00 Democratising wealth, opening private-market access50:20 Bitcoin vs stablecoins, new financial infrastructure
54:28 the future of finance