Wharton FinTech Podcast

In our latest podcast, Shompa Choudhury (WG ’20) is joined by Luvleen Sidhu, Co-Founder and CEO (formerly Chief Strategy Officer) at BankMobile (https://www.bankmobile.com/index). In this extensive interview, Luvleen explains how BankMobile is leading the way in mobile-first banking by making banking more accessible and affordable. Luvleen also lays out the landscape for digital banking in the U.S. and explains how BankMobile’s B2B2C white label model allows them to create high volume customer acquisition at a low cost through partnerships with large consumer aggregators. Established in 2015, BankMobile is a division of Customers Bank and among the largest and fastest-growing mobile-first banking platforms in the U.S., offering checking and savings accounts, personal loans and credit cards. BankMobile employs a “Bank-as-a-Service” (BaaS) model, which enables BankMobile to acquire customers at higher volumes and substantially lower expense than traditional banks. Its low-cost operating model enables it to provide low-cost banking services to low/middle-income Americans who have been left behind by the high-fee model of “traditional” banks. Today, BankMobile provides its BaaS platform to universities and large consumer aggregators, such as T-Mobile, and currently serves over 60 million members as a top 15 bank in number of consumer checking accounts. Luvleen Sidhu is the Co-Founder and CEO (formerly Chief Strategy Officer) at BankMobile. She is also a member of the BankMobile Board of Directors and Director & Founder of the BankMobile Foundation, where she identifies and funds budding entrepreneurs and organizations that promote financial literacy. Prior to becoming a well-recognized name in the industry, she earned her MBA here as part of The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania as part of the Class of 2013.

In our latest podcast, Ronak Mehta (WG ’20) is joined by Sergio Furio, Founder and CEO of Creditas (www.creditas.com.br). In this extensive interview, Sergio explains how Creditas improves the lives of Brazilians by providing access to affordable credit. Sergio also provides context on the Brazilian retail banking and lending industry, shares his vision for Creditas’ future, and reflects on key learnings from his journey as an entrepreneur. Creditas is the leading secured lending platform in Brazil. With 1,000 employees and $315 million USD in VC funding, Creditas is one of the top fintech companies in Latin America. Creditas’ backers include Softbank, Kaszek, Redpoint eVentures, Vostok Emerging Finance, QED Investors, the IFC, Quona Capital, Santander Innoventures, among others. Creditas reduces the high interest rates paid by the Brazilian population by using borrowers’ assets, such as home and automobile, as collateral for loans. Before founding Creditas in 2012, Sergio was an executive at The Boston Consulting Group and in Deutsche Bank’s investment banking division.

In our latest podcast, Keane Ehsani (WG ’20) is joined by Amias Gerety, Partner at QED Investors (https://qedinvestors.com). In this extensive interview, Amias describes QED’s investment philosophy and how they selectively provide capital and add value to emerging financial services companies. Amias also dives into his experiences at Treasury, the current US regulatory landscape for emerging FinTechs, and how QED’s portfolio companies are disrupting financial services. Amias joined QED as a Partner in 2017 focusing on supporting the portfolio and finding new investment opportunities with a focus on back office technologies and infrastructure companies. Amias brings a deep background in financial markets, compliance, and RegTech to the QED team.  Prior to joining QED, Amias served as the President’s nominee and as Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In that role, he was the lead advisor to the Secretary on policies affecting financial institutions.  He also oversaw a number of programs focused on supporting small business lending and community development. Prior to Treasury, Amias was a management consultant at Oliver Wyman.  Amias is a recipient of the Alexander Hamilton award, the Treasury’s highest honor. Amias graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard with a BA in Social Studies. QED Investors is a leading boutique venture capital firm based in Alexandria, VA. QED focuses on investing in early stage, disruptive financial services companies in the U.S., U.K. and Latin America. QED is dedicated to building great businesses and uses a unique, hands-on approach that leverages their partners’ decades of entrepreneurial and operational experience, helping their companies achieve breakthrough growth. Notable investments include Credit Karma, ClearScore, SoFi, Avant, Nubank, Remitly, GreenSky and LendUp. We want thank Wharton FinTech's platinum sponsor, the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance at Wharton (stevenscenter.wharton.upenn.edu). The Stevens Center is the premier research, education, and thought leadership institution in the world for financial technology.

In our latest podcast, Anna Li (WG’20) is joined by Dr. Jing Wang, the Assistant Professor of Interactive Media & Business at NYU Shanghai. As China has been in the forefront of financial innovation and received a lot of venture funding in the FinTech space, the Wharton FinTech Club invited Dr. Wang to discuss the FinTech landscape in China as well as the evolving regulatory environment in the region. Dr. Wang focuses on studying how information technologies reshape the financial domain in the global context. At NYU Shanghai, Professor Wang teaches the course "Understanding Financial Technologies" and mentors students in the Program on Creativity and Innovation. Prior to joining NYU, she taught at Tulane University in Louisiana. Her writings are published on peer-reviewed journals and business and financial news.   In this interview, Dr. Wang covers the following:  1. Overview of the rapid financial innovation that has taken place in China over the last couple of years and how the regulatory environment has supported and then contained the rapid development of FinTech companies  2. Overview of the main regulatory bodies in China for FinTech (see details in Dr. Wang's forthcoming article in The China Quarterly) 3. Comparison of the FinTech companies in the US versus China and how the regulatory framework differs in the two countries 4. The difference in regulatory controls between China and Hong Kong 5. How social scoring is implemented in China and how the government collaborates with FinTech/Tech firms to set those standards 6. Chinese government oversight on different sub-sectors within FinTech (i.e. P2P, payments, wealth management, etc.) 7. Regulation of virtual currencies in China 8. Types of companies that will experience headwinds and tailwinds from Chinese government policies

In our latest podcast, Meghna Sreenivasan (WG ’20) is joined by Sankaet Pathak, CEO of Synapse (https://synapsefi.com). In this extensive interview, Sankaet explains how Synapse offers developer-facing APIs for companies building innovative financial products and bank-facing APIs so banks can automate their back-end operations. Sankaet also does a deep dive in how customers interact with Synapse, the trend from enablement to high fidelity user experience in financial services, and his journey as an international entrepreneur. Synapse provides payment, deposit, lending and investment products as APIs to FinTech companies who build and launch their financial innovations on top of their banking infrastructure. Synapse enables everyone around the world to access best-in-class financial products, regardless of their net worth. Sankaet Pathak came to the US from India to study computer engineering at the University of Memphis.  His experience of not being able to open a bank account due to his immigrant status, prompted him to launch a financial services company that could reduce barriers of entry for underbanked or unbanked folks. Through his efforts, Sankaet found that the true barrier to entry was an outdated infrastructure that kept everyday people from accessing best-in-class financial products. Today, Synapse services over 1.8 million end-users and processes over $10 billion in deposits. Many of Synapse’s clients are small FinTech companies offering innovative financial solutions that are both accessible and affordable for end users.

In our latest podcast, Shompa Choudhury (WG ’20) is joined by Pranav Barthwal, Co-Founder of Save Abhi. In this extensive interview, Pranav discusses the evolution of payments in India and how Save Abhi has re-envisioned savings and wealth management for millennials in India. Save Abhi enables easy building of savings by rounding transactions to the nearest rupee and saving the change for investment. Previously, Pranav was in the payments space, heading a joint venture between ICICI Bank & First Data - a leading FinTech payments player providing POS terminals to over 400,000 merchants across India. Pranav studied engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and completed his MBA from INSEAD. Overall, Pranav has over 17 years of experience across payments, consumer goods and online learning organizations like First Data, Amex, and Reebok.

In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG'20) is joined by Omer Ismail, the head of Goldman Sachs' US consumer business. In this role, Omer oversees the Marcus by Goldman Sachs and Clarity Money businesses as well as the Goldman Sachs/Apple credit card partnership. Omer was originally the consumer business' first employee, and under his leadership, Goldman Sachs' US business has grown to over 4 million customers, $5 B in loan balances, $50 B in deposits, and 1,300 employees.*   In this extensive interview, Omer dives into: • The story behind Goldman's decision to enter consumer banking and how it went about understanding consumer pain points to deliver a unique value proposition • How the consumer business operates as a distinct business within the broader Goldman umbrella, and how its focus on constant iteration of design and UX delivers a differentiated customer experience • Surprises and challenges that Goldman tackled as it scaled its consumer business • Thoughts on what's next for Goldman in the consumer banking space, as well as Omer's view on opportunities/challenges in the market   Prior to launching Goldman's consumer business, Omer spent a decade in the private equity division at Goldman Sachs, focused on investing in technology-enabled businesses in the financial services, media and healthcare sectors. Omer grew up in Karachi, Pakistan and earned a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Forbes, Fast Company and American Banker. He has been recognized as one of Business Insider’s 100 People Transforming Business, Crain’s 40 under 40 and Bank Innovation’s Innovators to Watch. Omer lives in New York with his wife and two kids. * Stats mentioned in audio may slightly differ; podcast was recorded at start of summer 2019.

In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG'20) is joined by Andrew Endicott, the CFO, President, and Co-Founder of Petal. Petal is a new kind of credit card company on a mission to make credit honest, simple, and accessible. Petal is one of the fastest growing fintech companies in the United States and is pioneering the next generation of consumer lending through its proprietary cash flow underwriting strategy, which promises to serve tens of millions of creditworthy borrowers that are currently ignored by traditional underwriting approaches. In this extensive interview, Andrew shares the founding story of Petal and how it expands access to safe and affordable credit by using underwriting cash flows instead of just credit scores; how Andrew tested the concept before launching, the unique challenges that lending companies face in establishing product-market fit, and Andrew's advice for entrepreneurs; and Andrew's thoughts on the industry's broader evolution, among other topics. Prior to co-founding Petal, Andrew was an investment banker at Lazard and focused on buy-side and sell-side acquisitions involving consumer-facing companies and non-bank lenders. Prior to that, Andrew practiced corporate law at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, where he focused on public and private M&A, along with securities offerings, including IPOs, equity and debt offerings, and other transactions. Andrew holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School as well as a B.S.B.A. from the University of Arkansas and is a periodic lecturer on strategic transactions at the Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, where he is also a member of the Dean’s Alumni Advisory Council.

In our latest podcast, Keane Ehsani (WG ’20) is joined by David Lessing, Chief Revenue Officer at Addepar (https://addepar.com). In this extensive interview, David explains how Addepar empowers financial advisors and investors to navigate the increasingly complex world of investment management. David also discusses how the wealth management industry has evolved with the proliferation of breakaway advisors, the regulatory hurdles that financial advisors and wealth tech platforms face, and how Addepar’s data aggregation, financial operating system, and real-time analysis help investors monitor their portfolios. Addepar works with hundreds of family offices, wealth advisors, and private banks representing more than $1 trillion of assets on their platform. Addepar gives investors and advisors a clearer financial picture at every level of their portfolios. With real-time analysis and customizable reporting, financial advisors can visualize and communicate relevant information to their clients. David Lessing recently joined Addepar after serving as a Board member, advisor, and CEO of several financial services startups over the past four years. He has spent most of his career in senior leadership roles in the wealth management industry, serving as Chief Operating Officer for Morgan Stanley’s U.S. Field Management Group and Head of Merrill Lynch’s Global Private Client Direct Division.

In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG'20) is joined by Chris Britt, the Co-Founder and CEO of Chime. Chime is a challenger bank that was founded with the mission of helping its members achieve financial peace of mind. Since launching in 2013, it has become one of the fastest-growing challenger banks with over 4 M accounts and recently raised $200 M in funding at a $1.5 B valuation. In this extensive interview, Chris dives into: * His motivation for founding Chime and the distinct value prop it offers in the market today * How Chime's customer-centric approach is fueling its rapid growth with a revenue model that is aligned with the happiness of its members * What's next for Chime, including how Chris thinks about partnerships and his thinking on whether or not to pursue a bank charter * The future of the US retail banking market and how it will evolve to the benefit of consumers * Advice for entrepreneurs in the FinTech space Chris Britt is the co-founder & CEO of Chime. Before founding Chime, Chris was the Chief Product Officer and SVP, Corporate Development at Green Dot. Prior to that, Chris held roles as a senior product leader at Visa and as one of the first executives at ComScore. In addition, Chris is a Board Member of coachart.org, a non-profit that connects chronically ill kids with free lessons in the arts and athletics.