Wharton FinTech Podcast

Miguel Armaza is joined by Donna Parisi, Global Head of the Finance Business Unit for Shearman & Sterling, a global law firm with over 850 lawyers in 24 offices worldwide. Donna is one of the firm’s Financial Services Industry leaders and also leads Shearman & Sterling’s FinTech Foundry and Shearman Women, the firm’s women’s initiative. About Shearman & Sterling With more than 850 lawyers in 24 offices, Shearman & Sterling is a global law firm that partners with corporations, major financial institutions, emerging growth companies, governments and state-owned enterprises to provide the legal and industry insight needed to navigate the challenges of today and achieve their ambitions of tomorrow.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Craig J. Lewis, Founder and CEO of Gig Wage, a company building modern payment tools for the future of work. Gigwage’s innovative vision aims to modernize an antiquated industry by designing a service that meets the needs of on-demand workforces. Craig graduated from Morehead State University and upon graduation became a Professional Basketball player across Europe, until returning back state side and becoming an expert in payroll technology. Prior to building Gig Wage, Craig became the Chief Strategy Officer of Kairos, a facial recognition/emotion detection startup. Craig was an excellent guest and is an ambitious dreamer who believes is technology’s capacity for wealth creation and its ability to improve lives. He is committed to building this legacy for his family, wife, and 4 children, while elevating the community around him through mentorship and growth.

In our latest episode of the Wharton Fintech podcast, Anchit Gupta (WG '21) sits down with Nitya Sharma, CEO and Co-Founder of Simpl. Simpl is a technology company that offers Pay-later solutions in India. Simpl has revolutionized online checkout in India by creating a market-leading Pay-Later platform, empowering e-commerce merchants to offer their consumers 1-click checkout, a line of credit at POS, and full buyer protection. Before starting Simpl, Nitya worked on Wall Street for more than 10 years, where he structured, traded and risk-managed structured credit portfolios at Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs. Before that, he was a co-founding portfolio manager at JNF Financial, a distressed credit hedge fund from 2010–2014.   Nitya initially moved back to India with the objective of starting an emerging-markets focused hedge-fund. However, he experienced the shortcomings of the Indian payments and credit stack first-hand when his credit card application was declined. This experience prompted him to dig deeper into the Indian payments landscape and subsequently led to the founding of Simpl. In this interview, Nitya shares: - His educational background and journey as an entrepreneur - His motivations for launching Simpl - Simpl's business model and the challenges of underwriting risk in a cash-first economy like India - Differences between banking infrastructure in India and the US - Simpl's plans to compete with financial incumbents as well as big tech firms such as Amazon and Google - The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on Simpl - Nitya's future plans for the organization Nitya has his B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College and his Masters in Financial Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Sarah Hammer, Managing Director of the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The Stevens Center is the premier research, education, and thought leadership institution in the world for financial technology and blockchain. Amongst Sarah’s many interesting initiatives, she is now leading and helping organize the upcoming Wharton Hackathon, COVID and the Economy, taking place September 21-27, 2020! Visit the website at https://whartonhackathon.com/ for full details, rules and to register yourself or a full team. Hackathon Prompt: How has COVID-19 affected different aspects of the global economy and financial markets? The Wharton Hackathon is open to anyone around the world and we are seeking a diverse group of participants from all levels of experience and academic and professional backgrounds. Teams can consist of 1-4 members and no technical expertise is necessary. Registration closes Friday, September 18th at 12:00 PM. There is no cost to register. Submissions are due Friday, September 25th @ 5:00 PM. Participants will compete for prizes totaling $4,000. We are also excited to announce that throughout the hackathon, academics and accomplished industry professionals will hold virtual discussions on the effects of COVID-19 on a variety of topics related to the economy and financial markets.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Lupina Iturriaga, Founder and Co-CEO of Fintonic, the leading financial platform in Spain, solving the main financial needs more than 1 million users, by enabling them to make payments worldwide with the Fintonic account and to control their finances in the same app. Launched in 2012 at the height of the financial crisis in Spain, Fintonic has raised over $50 million in funding from backers including Atresmedia, Blackbox, ING Ventures, Premier Specialty Network, All Iron Ventures, Ideon Media. Lupina graduated in Business Administration and Management from CUNEF, where she was awarded a scholarship based on academic merit, which proved her worth within the business and financial sector. For some time she was fully dedicated to the world of banking, first in New York and then in Madrid, where she spent some years in the world of treasury and commercial banking, to finally join the company IDEON as a partner, leader in the area of financial consulting. Lupina Iturriaga's professional career positioned her as an expert in financial planning from a very young age and this, together with her entrepreneurial profile, led her to found Fintonic in Spain. FINTONIC was born at the end of 2012, proving a success among those interested in taking advantage of new technologies applied to simplify and control personal finances, saving, getting the best financing and a very exclusive card and account available to its users. Today, more than one million users are already taking advantage of this application, which offers information in a neutral and objective way, so that any citizen can make the best decisions regarding their money, save and also contract the best products from more than 50 entities directly from their mobile phones. Fintonic's usefulness and efficiency in managing personal finances has earned it the first Mobile Innovation Award in the Finance sector from Google, and it was named by IOS as the best Finance app, included in the select ranking of the best 20 apps, with Fintonic being the only one in Finance.

Miguel Armaza is joined by Shinichi (Shin) Takatori, Founder and CEO of Kyash the largest digital bank in Japan offering digital wallet, mobile payments, and credit card services. Launched in 2015, Kyash has raised more than $70 million in funding from backers including all three major Japanese megabank groups and venture capital investors including Greenspring Associates and Broadhaven Capital Partners. Prior to Kyash, Shin worked at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and Kurt Salomon Consulting. He is a graduate of Waseda University.

Vanessa Colella is Citi’s Chief Innovation Officer (CIO), Head of Citi Ventures, and Head of Citi Productivity. She is focused on harnessing the power of Citi to help people, businesses, and communities thrive in a world of technological, behavioral, and societal change. Before assuming the role of CIO, Vanessa led venture investing and D10X for Citi Ventures, and previously ran marketing for Citi’s North American Consumer Bank. She joined Citi in 2010 from U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) after having held senior roles at Yahoo and McKinsey & Company. Vanessa received her masters’ degrees from Columbia University and M.I.T. as well as a Ph.D. from M.I.T.’s Media Lab. She holds an S.B. degree in molecular biology from M.I.T. and currently serves as a member of the Corporation’s Visiting Committee for the Media Lab.

In our latest episode of the Wharton Fintech podcast, Anchit Gupta (WG’21) is joined by Marwan Forzely, co-founder and CEO of Veem, a global payments company helping small businesses transfer money internationally. Veem is revolutionizing global business payments and wire transfer systems to help small businesses grow at home and abroad. Marwan is also the author of “Small Business in a Big World: A Comprehensive Guide to Doing International Business." Formerly of Western Union and eBillMe, Forzley is a thought leader in global finance, innovating in the space through disruptive technology like blockchain. In this interview, Marwan shares: - His background and journey as an entrepreneur - The difference between SWIFT and bitcoin-based transfers - The various ways in which Veem is helping businesses transfer money across borders - The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on Veem as well as their response to the pandemic and SBA Paycheck Protection Program - His opinion on the future of contactless payments - Advice to young entrepreneurs hustling through this crisis

In this Wharton Fintech Podcast episode, Miguel Armaza is joined by Iñigo Rumayor, Co-Founder and CRO of Arcus, the leading platform making fintech possible for everyone in the Americas. Arcus’ fintech-as-a-service platform helps any business launch a fintech business across the Americas including BBVA, Santander, Walmart, 7-Eleven and Rappi. Based in New York City, Arcus has raised $16M from Y-Combinator, Ignia, Maverick, Winklevoss, Initialized, HOF and Kapor. Inigo Rumayor Inigo is the co-founder and CRO of Arcus, the leading platform making fintech possible for everyone. Arcus’ fintech-as-a-service platform helps any business launch a fintech business across the Americas including BBVA, Santander, Walmart, 7-Eleven and Rappi. In his current role, Inigo is responsible for generating, managing and ensuring the growth of Arcus' business. As a founding member of Arcus, Inigo has served in several roles at the company, including a Vice President and CFO. Prior to Arcus, Inigo worked at Morgan Stanley and as the Managing Director of Rumayor Genetics, his family business, managing all aspects of the operations and expansion of the company. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. About Arcus Arcus is the leading platform making fintech possible for everyone. Arcus’ fintech-as-a-service platform helps any business launch a fintech business. The world’s largest and most innovative companies choose Arcus to launch fintech products across the Americas including BBVA, Santander, Walmart, 7-Eleven and Rappi. The company is based in New York City and has raised $16M from Y-Combinator, Ignia, Maverick, Winklevoss, Initialized, HOF and Kapor. For more information, please visit https://www.arcusfi.com/

On today's episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Tim Levene, Co-Founder & CEO of Augmentum Fintech. Augmentum invests in fast-growing fintechs disrupting financial services and is the UK's only publicly listed investment company focusing fintech in Europe. Launched on the London Stock Exchange in 2018, Augmentum gives businesses access to patient capital and support unrestricted by conventional fund timelines. This structure also gives public market investors access to a largely privately held investment sector during its main period of growth. Their portfolio of 19 fintech companies includes Tide, interactive investor, iwoca, Zopa, Monese, BullionVault and Farewill. In this episode, we discuss: - Getting started in a fledgling EU VC & Entrepreneurship Scene - The Decision to go Public as a VC - Why fintechs stay private and how it hurts the public investor - His portcos and some he's kept his eye on including "death services" …and more Tim Levene is Co-Founder and CEO of Augmentum Fintech plc. As well as being an active fintech investor, Tim is an experienced entrepreneur, having also co-founded juice bar business Crussh and betting exchange Flutter.com, the latter of which became one of the highest-profile internet businesses in the UK after it merged with Betfair.com. Tim subsequently served as Commercial Director of Betfair. For more insights and analysis from FinTech leaders, follow us below: Medium: https://medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: https://twitter.com/whartonfintech Ryan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/RyanZauk LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/