Wharton FinTech Podcast

In today's episode, Wesley Aster hosts Jonathan Whittle, the co-founder and Managing Partner of Quona Capital, a global venture capital firm investing in fintech in emerging markets. Tune in to hear about: - Jonathan's journey from entrepreneur to investor and how his experience as a founder has shaped his approach to investing - Quona's mission to drive financial inclusion, its recent advanced impact verification from BlueMark, and success stories from its portfolio. - Insights into fintech opportunities in Brazil and Mexico, and how regulation influences innovation in Latin America For more FinTech insights, follow us on WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech

Oded Zehavi, Founder & CEO of Mesh Payments and ex-PayPal & Payoneer, talks about reshaping global finance. Topics include fintech challenges, revolutionizing B2B transactions, COVID-19 pivot, automation-centric company transformation, and enhancing CFO operations.

Kailee Costello hosts Davi Strazza, President of North America at Adyen, a global fintech platform. They discuss Adyen's unique value proposition, bank licenses, FedNow, partnerships with fintechs like BILL and Plaid, evolving focus areas, Davi's career path, industry outlook, and future plans for growth in North America.

Nate Gee hosts Eric Sager, COO of Plaid, whose technology links fintech apps and financial institutions in a network empowering the fintech solutions that millions of people use. In this episode, they discuss: - How Plaid has transformed the fintech landscape in the past decade - Eric’s journey into fintech and becoming Plaid’s COO - The role of APIs and open banking in modern financial services - The growth of digital finance in recent years - Instant payments and alternative payment rails - Other fintech trends and how Plaid fits in - And much more! About Plaid Founded in 2013, Plaid has become essential infrastructure in the fintech world, connecting over 100 million users to financial services and facilitating integration among more than 12,000 financial institutions and 8,000 fintech apps worldwide. Plaid’s technology enables simpler, faster, and more transparent financial services, making it a cornerstone in the ongoing evolution of digital finance. About Eric Sager With over 20 years of experience in financial services, Eric Sager joined Plaid as COO in 2019. Before joining Plaid, Eric held senior roles at BlueVine and Square. Originally from Germany, Eric worked at Bain & Company in Europe after graduating from Harvard Business School in 2006. For more FinTech insights, follow us on: WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Nate’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-c-gee/

Zoey Tang sat down with serial Investor, VC, Former Techstars Exec Jon Zanoff. Previously featured on the Wharton Fintech Podcast before, Jon is the founder of Empire Startups, one of the the largest FinTech communities of entrepreneurs, investors, bank innovators, and operators. As a fintech legend in New York, Jon is back on the show to share latest updates about Empire Startup and the New York Fintech Week on Apr. 8th - Apr. 12th. For more FinTech insights, follow us on: WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Zoey's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoeytang1007/ Previous episode with Jon: https://bit.ly/3VBahpY

Graham Weaver, founder of Alpine Investors, discusses his journey from dorm room startup to $16B AUM, investment philosophies, and Alpine's $4.5B fund. Topics include unique hiring philosophy, screening for will to win in candidates, entrepreneurial choices, and navigating social media self-help content.

John Beccia and Edin Trto share insights on FS Vector's capital raise, market volatility, and FinTech regulatory landscape. They discuss firm evolution, product refinement, and growth opportunities. Navigating regulatory challenges in crypto and FinTech, they emphasize strategic preparation. The podcast wraps up with a fun lightning round of questions.

In today's episode, Wesley Aster hosts Justo Benetti, SVP Head of Americas at dLocal. Justo formerly served as VP of Strategic Solutions at Worldpay. In this episode you will hear about: - Justo's background and new role at dLocal - Payment processing in emerging economies - Managing regulatory complexity across emerging markets - dLocal's $100M investment in Argentina, and how Argentina's new presidential administration will impact the fintech sector - Global fintech trends

A discussion with Irana Wasti, Chief Product Officer at BILL, covers strategies for success in fintech product management. Topics include building for small businesses, managing product organizations, leveraging AI, and measuring growth and customer value. Learn about the challenges and opportunities in serving small businesses, the significance of product strategy, and tips for values-based interviewing.

Rhea Advani Bobba hosts Tess Bloch, co-founder and Head of Operations of Spade, a fintech startup reshaping the card ecosystem with real-time merchant intelligence. They delve into how Spade is revolutionizing transaction data clarity, enabling FIs to enhance fraud detection, authorize more transactions, and foster innovation in financial products and services. They discuss the journey of Spade from its inception and path to product-market fit. The conversation also covers the challenges and successes faced in expanding globally, the importance of a clear ROI for financial institutions, and Spade's ambitious plans for the future. About Tess Tess Bloch is the co-founder and Head of Operations of Spade. In her current role as Head of Operations, Tess leads Spade’s operations, finance, sales, and people teams, and grew the employee headcount 5x. Before co-founding Spade, Tess spent two years at the leading income and employment connectivity API, Pinwheel, where she started as the Chief of Staff before becoming its Head of Operations. In these roles, she helped scale the Pinwheel team 14 to 100 employees and supported growth that helped the company raise a $50M Series B. Previously, Tess also worked for McKinsey & Company in London, where she focused on payments, private equity, and public and social sector work, but her passion for fintech didn’t start there. Already, before graduating from Stanford, she realized her interest in the financial services ecosystem early on in her career, starting an internship at Venmo in her freshman year and taking time off during her junior year to work there full time. About Spade Spade provides real-time merchant intelligence for the card ecosystem. Spade leverages its ground truth database to link any card transaction to a real merchant identity – providing granular merchant, category, and geolocation information. Spade leads the market in terms of merchant coverage, geolocation matching accuracy, and speed of transaction enrichment. Customers such as Mercury, Sardine, Ramp, and Unit trust Spade's data to authorize more transactions, prevent fraud, and build more innovative features. — As always, for more Fintech insights and opportunities to collaborate, please find us below: WFT LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Blog: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Home: www.whartonfintech.org Rhea’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rheaa/