Rebank: Fintech Analysis

Michael Sidgmore is a Partner at Broadhaven, a market leading fintech investment bank and venture firm, with clients including ICE and the CBOE and investments including MoneyLion and ScaleFactor. Prior to joining Broadhaven, Michael built the sales team at iCapital, now a multi-billion dollar platform giving investors access to leading alternative investment funds at low minimums. Michael is close to the ground when it comes to US fintech, with an interest in Latin American as well. In this conversation, Michael shares his views on SMB plays, opportunities in Latin America, platform trends, solutions for the gig economy and more. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Michael Sidgmore.

Catherine Wines is the Co-Founder of WorldRemit, one of the world's foremost digital remittance providers. Founded in 2010, WorldRemit has raised over $220 millionfrom Accel, LeapFrog and TCV. The platform lets users send money to friends and family in 150 countries, giving people in developing countries access to the financial system at a fraction of the cost of traditional remittance providers. In doing so, WorldRemit empowers local communities, especially women, as Catherine explains. WorldRemit is creating huge value and solving massive problems. It's great to speak with founders as mission-driven as Catherine. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Catherine Wines.

Vinoth Jayakumar runs fintech investments for Draper Esprit, a premier venture capital firm and backers of the likes of Revolut and TransferWise. Today we grapple with the backend infrastructure of banking, updating on a subject we've covered in the past with 10x, ThoughtMachine, Mambu and others. These and other players have continued to build, recently signing big name clients that expect the future of core infrastructure to be provided by fintechs. This is a complex subject, and we didn't cover everything. We'd love to get your thoughts on the subject on Twitter @RebankPodcast. If you enjoy today's episode, please take 30 seconds to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

Today, we have a very special episode for you. Last week in London, we put on a live event, supported by leading reputation management consultancy Lansons, whose clients include Lloyds, Allianz, Atom Bank, BlackRock, Fidelity, Hargreaves Lansdown, JP Morgan, Invesco, Societe Generale, Vanguard, AXA and many, many more. The topic of discussion was Crypto 2.0, Is Crypto Finally Getting Real? Considered fringe for most of the past few years, crypto and associated technologies potentially represent a meaningful force in mainstream financial services as they mature. Joining us to explore the near future in crypto and the implications for banking, finance and society as a whole are Lex Sokolin, Luis Carranzaand Alexi Esmail-Yakas. Each introduces himself at the opening of the discussion, so I won't duplicate it here. If you enjoy today's episode and are interested in future live events in London, the US and around the world, please subscribe to our newsletter at bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today, and a huge thanks to Lansons for hosting this event.

Ricky Knox is the Founder and CEO of Tandem, a UK digital bank. It's a fascinating time in digital banking, as tech-forward banks in the UK, US, Europe and elsewhere race for product and geographic coverage and players like Apple and Goldman Sachs, who recently announced a credit card partnership, encroach on retail banks' turf. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. As you'd expect, Ricky brings a lot of insight to this topic. If you enjoy today's episode, please take 30 seconds to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ricky Knox.

Francesco Simoneschi is the Co-Founder and CEO of TrueLayer, an Open Banking API platform. Since Open Banking went live early last year, progress has been slow, and reviews have been mixed. At the same time, companies like Plaid and Quovo in the US and Tink and Bud in Europe have raised eight- and nine-figure rounds to scale platforms to support the innovations Open Banking promises. TrueLayer is squarely in the mix of leading Open Banking API platforms, quickly rolling out functionality and seeking full coverage of Europe by the end of the year. If you enjoy today's episode, please leave us a review on iTunes. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Francesco Simoneschi.

Lex Sokolin started a roboadvisor way back in 2009, which was eventually sold to AdvisorEngine. As a result of that experience, and the strategy and advisory work he's done since, Lex has unique insight into the evolution of the digital investments space, one of the fastest moving areas of fintech today. If you enjoy today's episode, please leave us a review on iTunes. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lex Sokolin.

SME banking is a particular interest of mine, as long-time listeners know. We've covered it from a number of angles on Rebank, including challenger banking with OakNorth, digital lending with iwoca and Spotcap, payments with GoCardless and support services with Xero, to name a few. If one area of fintech has been getting increasing interest lately, it's SME banking, and it's about time. Last week, Pool A of the RBS Capability & Innovation Fund was allocated, with massive cash grants going to winners Metro Bank, Starling and ClearBank to enhance existing business current account offerings. The cash injections are sure to shake up competition in the space. Today, we're joined by Richard Davies to talk through recent developments and the broader trajectory of the space. Richard runs business banking and sits on the Executive Committee at TSB, the UK's 7th largest bank. If you enjoy today's episode, please take 30 seconds to leave us a review on iTunes. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Richard Davies.

Rishi Khosla is co-founder and CEO of OakNorth, one of the world's best funded and fastest growing fintechs. We've had OakNorth on the podcast a few times before. In the past, I've generally referred to OakNorth as a challenger bank, which they were, but the company has developed beyond that description. From its savings & lending origins, OakNorth has evolved into a world-class technology platform with a banking license, recently backed by investors, including SoftBank, to the tune of $440m, the largest ever fintech investment in Europe. Prior to starting OakNorth, Rishi and his business partner Joel Perlman founded and sold Copal Amba, an outsourced financial research company acquired by Moodys. It's energizing talking to great entrepreneurs like Rishi. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation, and I hope you do too. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Rishi Khosla.

Adam Dodds is the Founder & CEO of Freetrade, a free stock trading app and part of the trend toward intuitive, low cost retail investment solutions. This is an interesting discussion around providing value to customers, and what that means, especially in complex industries like investments. This episode feels less like a stand alone conversation and more like another instalment in an ongoing exploration of how technology can be used to optimize retail investor behavior, decision making and ultimately long term outcomes. Please share your thoughts on the subject with us on Twitter @rebankpodcast. If you have ideas for who else we should be engaging with to investigate this theme, please let us know. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Adam Dodds.