Wharton FinTech Podcast

Anirudh Singh sits down with Arvind Purushotham, Global Head of Venture Investing at Citi Ventures. The two discuss Arvind's early career at Menlo Ventures, developing partnerships between portfolio companies and Citibank, investments in Doconomy, DriveWealth, and TRM labs, Citi impact fund, and much more. Arvind Purushotham: As Global Head of Venture Investing, Arvind leads Citi’s efforts to identify, invest in, and partner with leading startups as a way to bring cutting-edge technologies and capabilities to Citi’s businesses and functions. Additionally, he serves as a partner to Citi’s business leaders and helps identify market trends based on the 1000+ startups the Venture Investing team meets every year. Under his leadership the group has partnered with category-defining startups such as Square, Plaid, DocuSign, Honey, Betterment, Braze, Netskope, and Tanium. In his capacity as head of venture investing for the company, he also co-leads the Citi Impact Fund. Prior to Citi, Arvind spent nearly a decade as a Managing Director at Menlo Ventures, where he was an investor and Board member at companies including Kazeon Systems, Cavium Networks, Solidcore, nCircle Network Security, Intelligent Results, and Vhayu Technologies. Previously, Arvind was a design engineer and a Program Manager at Intel Corporation. Arvind obtained his BSEE from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, an MSEE from Case Western Reserve University, and an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School. He enjoys running, photography, and reading in his spare time. Arvind is passionate about golf—a passion, sadly, that his skill level does not match. He lives in Palo Alto, CA with his wife, two sons, and their black lab Rocky. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Anirudh's Twitter: twitter.com/avsingh_24

Gabriela Ariana Campoverde sits down with Mike de Vere, CEO of Zest AI. Zest helps lenders make better credit decisions -- increasing revenue, reducing risk, and automating compliance. The company serves its customers by providing them with custom credit models leveraging more data, better math, and smarter software. Today Mike is leading Zest to fulfill a mission of making fair credit available to everyone. In this episode, you will learn all about: - How it builds more inclusive underwriting models for its clients - The loan decision and funding journey - Zest’s company culture - Insights on how the lending landscape is changing - And so much more! About Mike de Vere Mike is passionate about expanding access to fair credit. He has a rich career in leveraging customer insights given his time at Nielsen, Harris Interactive and JD Power & Associates. He earned his MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and studied Business Administration at the California State University, Northridge. About Zest AI Zest AI makes the power of machine learning safe to use in credit underwriting. The Zest Model Management System enables lenders to analyze vast amounts of credit data to help increase approval rates and reduce the risk of faulty credit decisions. The platform also provides the ability to explain data modeling results to measure business impact and help comply with regulatory requirements. To learn more about Zest, visit zest.ai. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Gabriela’s Twitter: twitter.com/byGabyC Gabriela’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gcampoverde

Anirudh Singh sits down with Nathan McCauley, Co-Founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital, a leading digital asset platform for institutions. Previously, Nathan worked as an early employee at Square and at Docker. They discuss the lessons Nathan learned from helping scale Square, getting a banking charter at Anchorage Digital, Nathan’s thoughts on key crypto trends moving forward, and much more. Nathan McCauley: Nathan McCauley is the Co-Founder and CEO of Anchorage, the leading digital asset platform for institutions. He started his career at Arxan Technologies, where he worked on anti-reverse engineering and key management for commercial and military applications. As an early employee at Square, he worked on the infrastructure security platform now used to move over $80B in annualized GPV. Later, at Docker, together with Anchorage Co-Founder Diogo Mónica, he built and led the security team, developing code that helps secure containers, one of the core underpinnings of modern infrastructure. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Anirudh's Twitter: twitter.com/avsingh_24

In today's episode, Anirudh Singh sits down with Christina Melas-Kyriazi, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures. Previously, Christina served as Head of Product for Consumer Foundations at Affirm and Senior Product Manager at GoFundMe. They discuss being at Affirm as the company IPOed, launching her whirlwind career at Bain Capital Ventures, and helping founders go from 0 to 1. Christina Melas-Kyriazi: Christina joined Bain Capital Ventures in 2021, where she focuses on early-stage investments in fintech and commerce. Christina was previously Head of Product for Consumer Foundations at Affirm, where she led a team of product managers to enable a delightful, frictionless customer experience from account creation to loan servicing. Before Affirm, Christina was a Senior Product Manager at GoFundMe, where she worked on growth and new product areas. Earlier in her career, Christina also spent time in business operations at LinkedIn and as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Christina is an active angel investor and an advisor to early-stage companies. She has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Stanford University. Christina grew up in Los Angeles, CA and now lives in San Francisco with her husband John and son Theo. She loves running in the Presidio and skiing. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Anirudh's Twitter: twitter.com/avsingh_24

In today's episode, Anirudh Singh sits down with Liran Zelkha, Co-Founder and CTO of Lili, an all-in-one banking app designed for freelance workers. In this episode, they discuss the thriving startup ecosystem in Israel, why it's so hard to manage your money as a freelance worker, and how Lili hopes to make freelancers' lives easier. Liran Zelkha: Liran Zelkha is Co-Founder and CTO of Lili, the all-in-one banking app designed for over 500K freelance workers. He has over 20 years of tech industry experience, including as a freelancer, which inspired him to create a solution for independent workers’ unique pain points. From strategic management to hands-on coding, Liran specializes in turning lofty ideas into functioning businesses. Prior to founding Lili, Liran served as CTO and VP, Research and Development for Pepper, the first and only challenger bank in Israel. Liran was also CEO and CTO at tech consulting firm Tona and owner / co-CEO of Aluna, Israel’s leading Java and service-oriented architecture (SOA) consulting firm. Liran received bachelor's degrees in computer science from Universitat Ben Gurion Ba-Negav and The Academic College of Tel-Aviv. He is based in Israel.

In today's episode, Ally McCloskey sits down with Jason Wenk, Founder & CEO of Altruist. Altruist is an all-in-one digital platform for Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and their clients that helps make financial advice more efficient, more affordable, and accessible to more people. Using Altruist, advisors have cutting edge tools on an investment platform that significantly streamlines and reduces their costs, enabling them to serve more people, better. The upstart most recently raised its $50mm Series B led by Insight Partners, with follow-on participation from Series A investors Venrock and Vanguard. Ally and Jason discuss: - How the space has evolved over the decades he's been a founder in financial advice and wealth management, and how he was able to get "more efficient" with each new company - Where he stands on the human advice vs. roboadvisory trade-off and why Altruist only works with RIA firms - How he cold solicited the Top 10 Financial Advisors To Watch on Linkedin as part of customer discovery - Launching the Human Advisor Podcast (https://apple.co/3KMghnX) to elevate the stories of a new breed of modern advisors - Building a "dreamy" group of board members, including Wharton Alumni and Former Chairman and CEO of Vanguard, Bill McNabb, Jonathan Rosenbaum (Insight Partners), Nick Beim (Venrock), and Ryan Barrows (Vanguard) as an observer. - Attracting folks to the challenge of taking on 2 major incumbents controlling 80%+ market share and each with $100 billion dollar valuations - Why Altruist's people quotient centers on kindness, brilliance, and grit - And a WHOLE lot more About Jason Wenk Jason has excelled as a leader in the financial services industry over the past 20 years, working as an advisor, investment systems developer, analyst, and founder of multiple companies. He is dedicated to making finance a collaborative space between advisors and consumers, emphasizing the importance of human connection and interaction to improve financial wellness with affordable and accessible resources for more people. After a number of successful and innovative business concepts including FormulaFolios and Retirement Wealth Advisors, Jason chose to focus on creating meaningful experiences for advisors and their clients with fintech firm, Altruist. Jason was awarded GRBJ Newsmaker of the Year in 2016 and 2017 (finance category) and was named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018. About Altruist Altruist is a Los Angeles-based company on a mission to make financial advisors more efficient, more affordable, and accessible to more people. The team builds products to provide advisors cutting edge tools, and offers an investment platform that substantially lowers costs. As a completely digital brokerage, Altruist helps advisors provide their clients with a delightful experience with their money. Learn more at altruist.com, follow on Twitter @altruist, and check out the Human Advisor Podcast here: https://grow.altruist.com/introducing-the-human-advisor-podcast. Honorable mentions: - WFT podcast episode with Bill McNabb, Former Vanguard CEO & Chairman: https://medium.com/wharton-fintech/former-vanguard-ceo-chairman-bill-mcnabb-the-future-of-finance-leading-in-crisis-esg-436f1c031907 - WFT podcast episode with Henrique Dubugras, Co-Founder/Co-CEO of Brex: https://medium.com/wharton-fintech/reinventing-financial-systems-henrique-dubugras-co-founder-co-ceo-of-brex-8dc7ab820765 -- As always, for more Fintech insights and opportunities to collaborate, please find us below: WFT Blog: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Ally's Twitter: twitter.com/AllyMcCloskey Wharton FinTech Home: https://www.whartonfintech.org LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ Suggest a Podcast Guest: https://airtable.com/shrdbokQPxAJzgVh7

In today’s episode, Anirudh Singh sits down with Eddie Serrill, Business Lead for Stripe Capital and the site lead for Stripe’s New York office. In the episode, they discuss what makes Stripe so good at offering products to online businesses, how Stripe leverages banking relationships to bring the best products to the table, the impact that Stripe Capital has had on the small businesses it partners with, and much more. Eddie Serrill: Eddie is the Business Lead for Stripe Capital and the site lead for Stripe’s New York office. Stripe is a technology company that's building economic infrastructure for the internet. Businesses of every size—from new startups to public companies—use Stripe's software to accept payments and manage their businesses online. Stripe Capital provides Stripe users with access to financing, and enables platform partners to offer financing to their customers with an end-to-end lending API. Prior to Stripe, Eddie served as the COO of Bond Street and the VP of Revenue & Operations at TrialPay. He holds a degree in Economics and Philosophy from Duke University and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Gabriela Ariana Campoverde sits down with Ronen Assia, Managing Partner at Team8 Fintech Foundry, a venture fund within Team8 that partners with entrepreneurs to build companies in the fintech space. For over twenty years, Ronen has successfully merged technology and design together into useful and accessible products, and defined user experience across various devices and platforms. Most recently Ronen served as eToro’s Chief Product Officer, managing product and engineering, and helped grow the company into a Fintech unicorn serving 13 million users in over 140 countries. eToro pioneered Social Investing, enabling every investor to see, follow and automatically copy the portfolios of other investors in the network. In this episode you will learn all about: - How Team8 works with fintech talent - Ronen’s insights into the Isreali fintech ecosystem and global investment outlook - Blockchain innovation, NFTs and art curation - How start-up’s can marry the old and new worlds of fintech - And so much more! About Ronen Assia Ronen Assia is a Managing Partner at Team8 Fintech Foundry and a Co-Founder and Executive Director at eToro, a social investing platform. Ronen currently resides in Israel and studied Product Design at the Royal College of Art and Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. About Team8 Fintech Team8 Fintech partners with entrepreneurs to co-found transformative fintech companies. For additional information on Team8 Fintech, please visit team8.vc/team8-fintech. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Gabriela’s Twitter: twitter.com/byGabyC Gabriela’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gcampoverde

In today’s episode, Anirudh Singh sits down with Basil Darwish, Managing Director and Fintech & Enterprise Tech lead at Wells Fargo Strategic Capital. Basil joined as the team’s first hire in March 2016, coming over from Citi Ventures. In this episode, they discuss a range of topics, including Basil’s winding path towards venture investing, the pros and cons of different corporate venture capital models, a deep dive into three of Wells Fargo’s investments: Trovata, H20.ai, and Arkose Labs, and much more! Basil Darwish: Basil Darwish is a Managing Director at Wells Fargo Strategic Capital and leads the group’s focus on Fintech and Enterprise Software. His investments range from early-stage to growth capital investments in companies that are strategically aligned with Wells Fargo. One of his goals is to bring technology-based innovation into the Bank. Basil’s investment focus areas include B2B/B2C Fintech, RegTech, AI & Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics, and Cyber Security. Basil has been in the domain of venture investing for the past 12 years, across Silicon Valley, New York, and Southeast Asia. Prior to joining Wells Fargo in 2016, Basil was with Citi for 8 years most recently as Senior Vice President at Citi’s growth ventures and innovation group (Citi Ventures), where he focused on venture investments and innovation initiatives across the US and Asia, in the domains of Payments, Big Data Analytics, and Information Security. Prior to moving into financial services, Basil spent several years in the technology industry in various roles across the value chain, from semiconductor product engineering and system-level product development at Analog Devices Inc, as well as digital design engineering at Chinook Communications, a technology startup that emerged out of MIT in 1999 developing spectrum enhancement technologies. Basil currently serves as a board director of Trovata, H2O.ai, OpenFin, and Droit. He also serves as a board observer of Arkose Labs, Socure, Volante Technologies, Elliptic and Atscale. Basil holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business with a double major in finance and entrepreneurial management, a Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University with a focus on semiconductor design, and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Jordan. Basil lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two daughters.

Gabriela Ariana Campoverde sits down with Raghu Yarlagadda, CEO and Co-Founder of FalconX. The company is a digital assets brokerage that provides a single account connected to global crypto liquidity pools. Asset managers can execute trades at prices routed across liquidity sources, and settle with a single counterparty. Raghu and Prabhakar Reddy launched the company just four years ago, and today it is valued at $3.75 Billion dollars. In this episode you will hear about: - How FalconX works with institutional clients - What it’s like to run a start-up which is live 24/7 - Innovation for cryptocurrency retail investors - Raghu’s career and his commitment to education - And much more! About Raghu Yarlagadda Raghu Yarlagadda co-founded FalconX in 2018. Prior to FalconX, Raghu worked at Google and Motorola Mobility and in 2014 launched Sarada Educational Institution which leverages edtech to improve education for its students across India. He is also a graduate of Harvard Business School and the University of Texas at Dallas, where he studied Electrical Engineering. About FalconX FalconX is a blockchain, cryptocurrency, and fintech-focused cryptocurrency brokerage and digital asset trading platform. For additional information on FalconX, please visit FalconX.io. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Gabriela’s Twitter: twitter.com/byGabyC Gabriela’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gcampoverde