Wharton FinTech Podcast

Sarah Hinkfuss and Saanya Ojha from Bain Capital Ventures discuss their backgrounds and the impact of generative AI on financial services. They talk about the benefits and opportunities of generative AI in the industry, including compliance and insurance. The speakers also emphasize the importance of fostering community and building authentic relationships with founders.

Asaf Horesh, Managing Partner at Vintage Investment Partners, discusses the importance of building meaningful relationships in venture and the unique structure of Vintage's investment strategies. He shares insights on trends in early-stage fintech investments and offers advice for those looking to grow their careers in venture and fintech.

Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goel, co-CEOs of Esusu, discuss expanding financial access, their principled leadership, and lessons learned. They highlight the challenges of persuading credit bureaus to accept rental data and the power of collective resources. The speakers express gratitude for their work and reflect on the journey of building a company.

Airwallex's CEO and co-founder, Jack Zhang, discusses the company's growth story, their global money movement infrastructure, and their pursuit of AI opportunities. He also explains why he doesn't expect crypto to have a significant role in cross-border payments.

Bobby Morrison, Chief Revenue Officer at Shopify, discusses Shopify's uniqueness and fast-paced nature, their vision for enterprise e-commerce, Shop Pay's value, Shopify's approach to partnerships and building features, omni-channel features, and the migration of massive brands to Shopify.

Matt Watson, Co-Founder and CEO of Origin, discusses the importance of passion and understanding customer needs in building a successful business. They explore the challenge of balancing breadth and depth of services, the decision to launch a direct-to-consumer offering, navigating regulatory scrutiny, and the transformative potential of AI in personal finance.

Tommy Nicholas, CEO of Alloy, discusses Alloy's unified operating system for risk, fraud, and credit evaluation in retail financial services. They talk about overcoming early challenges, the future of Alloy and fintech, and end with a lightning round of quick questions for the guest.

In previous episodes we’ve touched on emerging fintech payments products that are attempting to take a piece of the payments pie. Today, we’re going to talk about Fiserv with Sunil Sachdev on the fintech giants’ approach to Embedded Finance and the changing paradigm in payments. About Sunil Sachdev: Sunil is a global fintech executive with a significant breadth of experience in banking, acquiring, DeFi and payments at companies such as American Express, Meed, Pershing and Fiserv. He has worked at Fiserv for nearly a decade in various roles and geographies, including leading the Fiserv payments business in international markets when Fiserv partnered with SWIFT to launch real-time payments in Australia. In recent years, he headed up the U.S. Community Bank segment for Fiserv before taking on a new role leading the Fintech and Growth segment to build out Fiserv’s self-service, low-code services and extend the dual-core and banking-as-a-service capabilities from Fiserv. These diverse experiences have helped deepen his appreciation for the power of collaboration between financial institutions, fintechs, brands and other businesses looking to extend banking and payment capabilities to their customers around the world. In 2023, Sunil was tapped to stand up the Embedded Finance business with true horizontal accountability across banking, merchant acquiring and issuing businesses at Fiserv. Sunil and his team leverage the full power of Fiserv for the benefit of its clients, including financial institutions, brands, ISVs, merchants and fintechs. About Fiserv: Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE: FI), a Fortune 500 company, aspires to move money and information in a way that moves the world. As a global leader in payments and financial technology, the company helps clients achieve best-in-class results through a commitment to innovation and excellence in areas including account processing and digital banking solutions; card issuer processing and network services; payments; e-commerce; merchant acquiring and processing; and the Clover® cloud-based point-of-sale and business management platform. For more FinTech insights, follow us on WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Rhea’s Twitter: @rheaadvani Rhea’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rheaa/

David Brear, CEO and co-founder of 11:FS, discusses the innovation in commercial banking driven by digital technologies and fintechs. He also talks about the changing competitive landscape in the banking industry and how it impacts incumbent banks. Additionally, he explores the differences in fintech and financial ecosystems globally, highlighting the role of generational and cultural differences.

Russell Matambo hosts Henry Ward, CEO and co-founder of Carta, a global equity management platform on a mission to unlock the power of equity ownership for more people in more places. They discuss Henry’s entrepreneurial journey, the challenges of simultaneously innovating and scaling a company, Carta’s mission to democratise ownership, and much more! About Henry: Henry is the CEO and co-founder of Carta. Carta manages over three trillion dollars in equity for over two million people globally. The company is trusted by more than 40,000 companies, and over 7,000 funds and SPVs to manage cap tables, compensation, valuations, liquidity, and more. Prior to Carta, Henry was founder and CEO of Secondsight, a portfolio optimization platform for retail investors. He also held leadership positions at software companies including Reddwerks Inc. and BetweenMarkets. Henry graduated from the University of Michigan with a BGS in Mathematics and Computer Science and holds an MSC in Market Finance from EDHEC Business School. -- 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 Russell's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/russell-matambo-cfa-a5900039/