This Week in Fintech's Podcast

Join Will Lawrence, CEO of Greenlite, who specializes in AI for financial crime compliance, and Kurt Ruppel, CTO of Middesk, rethinking business customer identification. They discuss the evolution from manual checks to AI-driven solutions in fintech. The pair dives into the critical differences between KYB and KYC and the need for ongoing business monitoring. They also explore how AI is transforming compliance, navigating regulatory challenges, and uncovering new opportunities for innovation in fraud prevention.

Join Peter Hazlehurst, Co-Founder and CEO of Synctera, and Matt MacDonald from Wolf & Company as they dive into the evolving landscape of banking as a service. They discuss the partnership model between banks and fintechs, emphasizing compliance not as a hurdle but as a growth strategy. The conversation also sheds light on the importance of establishing strong compliance cultures in fintech startups and navigating the challenges of regulatory management. Founders will find invaluable insights on innovation, trust-building, and fostering successful banking relationships.

In this episode, we sit down with Lukas Haffer, CEO and Co-founder of Casca, and Ryan Hildebrand, Chief Innovation Officer at Bankwell, to explore how AI is transforming small business lending—starting with SBA loans. They discuss the challenges of building on top of legacy banking systems, the stress-test of the COVID-19 PPP era, and how a human-in-the-loop approach is key to deploying AI responsibly in financial services. You’ll hear how their partnership evolved from a small pilot into a full-stack platform that slashes loan processing times from 90 days to 3. We also dive into fraud prevention, the reality of deploying AI agents in banking, and why trust—not hype—is the foundation of true innovation.Thanks to Fundbox⁠ for sponsoring this week's episode. With over a decade of experience, ⁠Fundbox⁠ delivers customizable credit solutions including invoice financing, lines of credit, term loans, payroll protection, and more.

David Messenger, CEO of Global Businesses at PingPong, dives into the transformative world of cross-border payments. He discusses the rapid evolution of real-time payment solutions and the challenges they tackle in B2B transactions. The conversation touches on the integration of AI and blockchain in payment systems and the essential partnerships between fintechs and banks for seamless services. Messenger provides insights into emerging business models and the future of risk management, emphasizing the role of trust and compliance in this dynamic landscape.

Art Levy, Chief Business Officer at Brex, shares his journey navigating the fintech landscape. He discusses his unique decision-making framework, the art of forming strategic partnerships, and the intriguing 'Rabbits, Deer, and Elephants' concept for value maximization. Levy also highlights Brex's shift to 'Founder Mode,' emphasizing hands-on leadership and efficiency. Insights on the importance of adaptability in partnerships and hiring diverse talents for innovation round out this engaging conversation.

Rex Salisbury, the founder of Cambrian Ventures, and Erica Dorfman, Head of Financial Products at Brex, dive into the intersection of fintech and AI. They discuss the transformative role of AI in enhancing user experiences and streamlining processes in expense management and insurance. The conversation also covers the evolving consumer expectations in fintech, highlighting how companies are adapting through innovations like embedded fintech. With insights on what's hype versus what's real, this dialogue is a must-listen for fintech enthusiasts.

Prashant Fuloria, CEO of Fundbox, and Anchit Singh, CBO, discuss the future of small business lending. They emphasize how embedded finance is transforming funding access for SMBs, leveraging partnerships with platforms like QuickBooks. The guests dive into innovative underwriting methods, including cash flow assessments and data integration. They explore how fintech innovations are shaping lending solutions and the potential for future collaborations with banks. Technology and strong partnerships are key to empowering small businesses in today's economic landscape.

Join Reggie Young, Chief of Staff at Lithic, and Jesse Reiss, CTO and Co-founder of Hummingbird, as they dive into the intersection of compliance, AI, and fintech. They discuss the significant changes AI brings to regulatory strategies and internal tooling. The conversation addresses data privacy concerns, the growing complexities of fraud detection, and the importance of robust AI policies. With insights on innovative practices and secure AI integration, this chat is a must-listen for anyone navigating the evolving landscape of financial services.

Shannon Scott, SVP and Global Head of Product at Airwallex, dives into his transition from Palantir to leading innovations in fintech. He shares insights on building a global financial platform with features like multi-currency wallets and Airwallex Spend. The conversation touches on using AI for fraud management and improving customer onboarding. Shannon also discusses scaling elite teams in the competitive North American market and emphasizes the importance of technology in enhancing user experiences for businesses.

In March, we traveled to the inaugural HumanX conference in Las Vegas to meet founders, builders, and investors at the bleeding edge of AI. The conference was a great gathering of AI leaders, and we're excited for it to relocate to San Francisco next April. While at the conference, I had the chance to sit down with May Habib, Co-Founder and CEO of Writer. If you've been around AI x FS over the last few years, or drive the 101, you've likely come across Writer. Writer is the leading Gen-AI platform for enterprises, and has been one of the few AI companies to find repeatable, scaled success with the enterprise. They help large enterprises deploy secure + reliable AI applications and agents that transform mission-critical workflows. Writer’s platform is supported by Palmyra – Writer’s state-of-the-art family of LLMs – alongside its industry-leading graph-based RAG, customizable AI guardrails, and suite of development tools. Palmyra LLMs include one of the world’s highest-benchmarked frontier models, topping leaderboards for natural language understanding and generation, as well as top specialized models in finance and healthcare.Their customer list speaks for itself, including household names like Vanguard, Salesforce, Qualcomm, Accenture, Franklin Templeton, Intuit, Dropbox, Hubspot, Prudential, L'Oreal, and the list goes on...When you meet May, you can see why. She is a phenomenal leader, communicator, and executor who lays out why Writer's full-stack technology and deep appreciation for how large enterprises function allow them to have such success.Writer is fresh off a $200M Series C valuing the company at $1.9Bn. They are supported by investors including ICONIQ, Radical, Premji Invest, Adobe Ventures, B Capital, Citi Ventures, IBM Ventures, Workday Ventures, Insight, Vanguard, and others...quite a long list of strategics.Enjoy the show.--May Habib is the CEO and co-founder of Writer, the full-stack generative AI platform delivering transformative ROI for the world’s leading enterprises. May is an expert in natural language processing and AI-driven language generation. She has led Writer to become one of the world’s fastest-growing generative AI companies, securing its position as a Forbes 50 AI company and inclusion in the World Economic Forum's Unicorn Community. May graduated with high honors in Economics from Harvard University. She is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, a Fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, and a recipient of Inc.'s Female Founder Award.Writer is the full-stack generative AI platform delivering transformative ROI for the world’s leading enterprises. Its fully integrated solution makes it easy to deploy secure and reliable AI agents that automate mission-critical work. Writer’s suite of development tools is supported by Palmyra – Writer’s state-of-the-art family of LLMs – alongside its industry-leading graph-based RAG and customizable AI guardrails. Hundreds of customers like Accenture, Intuit, L’Oreal, Salesforce, Uber, and Vanguard trust Writer to transform the way they work. Founded in 2020, Writer is backed by world-leading investors, including Premji Invest, Radical Ventures, ICONIQ Growth, Insight Partners, Balderton, B Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Adobe Ventures, Citi Ventures, IBM Ventures, WndrCo, and others. Ryan Zauk is the Host of the This Month in Fintech Podcast and Bay Area lead for the broader This Week in Fintech platform. In his day job, Ryan is an investor at OMERS Ventures, the direct investing arm of one of the world’s largest pension plans with over $130Bn in net assets. Prior to OMERS, he worked in Morgan Stanley’s Tech Investment Banking team focused on M&A and capital markets. He is based in the Bay Area.You can find him on Linkedin or Twitter.