Rebank: Fintech Analysis

Anil Hansjee, General Partner at Fabric, discusses payments innovation, from legacy systems to blockchain and stablecoins. Topics include the evolution and complexity of the payments industry, Fabric's Web3 investments strategy, NFTs in gaming, and future areas of payments innovation like 'no friction finance'.

Sunny Parikh, co-founder and partner at Reflexive Capital, dives into the intriguing world of early-stage crypto and Web3 investing. He shares insights on aligning incentives through blockchain, and how liquid trading strategies enhance venture investing. Sunny also discusses the unique challenges of valuing token businesses compared to traditional equity, the critical role of product-market fit, and the impact of new regulations on e-commerce. With a background in fintech and blockchain, his expertise makes for a captivating conversation!

Jannick Malling is the co-founder and Co-CEO of the investing platform Public.com. Public has raised more than $300M from investors including Accel, Greycroft, Lakestar, and Tiger Global, as well as celebrities like Will Smith, The Chainsmokers, JJ Watt and Maria Sharapova. In Public's short life, Jannick and the company have experienced the COVID market crash, GameStop, the 2021-22 crypto meltdown and rapid interest rate hikes, all while building a community-led finance app for engaged retail investors. In this conversation, Jannick and I discuss building a community-led business, fans versus users, counterintuitive learnings about retail investor psychology, the trajectory of retail trading activity, running a company that ships product fast and more.

Christian Faes is the founder of Faes & Co, a lending business builder and F2 Finance, a US bridging lender writing loans since 2023. Prior to starting Faes & Co, Christian founded, ran and ultimately IPOed LendInvest, a UK mortgage lending fintech. Founded in 2008, LendInvest is an original fintech, having lent more than GBP 6 billion to individuals and property developers to date. In this conversation, we dive pretty deep into the bridge loan a.k.a. short-term mortgage market, the role of technology in lending businesses, Christian's goal of building a business in the US, the differences between the US, UK, Irish and Australian markets, all countries in which Christian has real estate lending experience, the economics of different types of fintech lenders and more.

Dan Kimerling is Founder and Managing Partner at Deciens, an early-stage fintech VC and investor in Chipper Cash, Treasury Prime and many others. Prior to starting Deciens, Dan co-founded Standard Treasury and served as its CEO until its acquisition by Silicon Valley Bank. Standard Treasury was one of the earliest players in what has evolved to become the Banking-as-a-Service space. The company was backed by YCombinator, Andreessen Horowitz, and Index Ventures. After the acquisition, Dan became responsible for API Banking, Open Platform, and Global Research at SVB. In this conversation, Dan and I discuss the strategy of concentrated bets, why he doesn't want to see every deal, what's next in startup funding, value accrual in AI and more.

Amias Gerety is a partner at QED with a specific focus on infrastructure, insurtech and payments. Prior to 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, fighting to restore order during the global financial crisis and impacting policy in the years that followed. Amias is a recipient of the Alexander Hamilton award, the Treasury's highest honor. In this conversation, Amias and I discuss a few counterintuitive views on venture capital, thematic vs. opportunistic early stage investing, opportunities in payments and more. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Amias Gerety.

Luca Prosperi is the co-founder and CEO of M^ZERO LABS_, a team building a new backend for the banking system. Luca is a deep thinking analyst, economist and builder, with a background in institutional finance, alternative and credit investments and more recently DeFi lending and governance. Luca publishes analysis on Dirt Roads, a must read for anyone thinking about the construct and evolution of money and associated topics. M^ZERO sprang into life recently with the announcement of a $22.5m seed round from investors including Pantera. AirTree, ParaFi, Mouro and Earlybird. The team is building decentralized infrastructure with the vision of ultimately replacing the commercial banking backend, starting with a better stablecoin. In this conversation, Luca and I discuss the inspiration and vision for M^ZERO, Luca's learnings from his time at MakerDAO, governance considerations for decentralized institutional infrastructure, the shortcomings of existing stablecoins and his team's proposed approach, M^ZERO with respect to the current banking industry turmoil and more. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Luca Prosperi.

Sheel Mohnot is Co-Founder and General Partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures, an early-stage fintech VC currently investing out of its $225m second fund. Sheel is a former founder, having built a tech-first card processor way back in 2010 which was quickly acquired by Groupon. Since 2014, Sheel has been angel investing and, as of 2016, investing full-time. Sheel is an incredible Twitter follow and constant source of information, insight and entertainment. In this conversation, we discuss how fintech VC has changed over the last few years, the state of the early-stage market today, what separates elite seed funds from others, building social capital as an investor, the investment areas Sheel is currently focused on and more. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Sheel Mohnot.

Matt Harris is an entrepreneur and investor and the founder of Bloom Credit, an API platform for credit data access and analysis. Currently, Matt is focused on investing and advising, working with VC-backed founders and advising companies in the credit space. Among other things, Matt is an advisor to Commerce Ventures, writing scout checks and helping the fund make fintech investments. Matt is also an active angel, having invested in 10+ fintech companies including TrueAccord, Karat and HM Bradley and a number of others. In this conversation, we discuss the level of understanding among VCs and founders of the credit business, the inputs to effective underwriting, how to build a great credit business, emerging opportunities like embedded credit and more. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Matt Harris.

Stephane Lintner is Co-Founder & CEO of Jiko, a new take on the money storage and transaction layer in banking, a.k.a. checking accounts and cash management. Jiko was founded in 2016 with the mission of providing consumers and businesses with direct access to spendable T-Bills, combining all the benefits of checking accounts with the safety and, depending on the economic cycle, yield of treasuries. Jiko has raised $89m according to Crunchbase, including $40m in October. Jiko offers accounts directly to consumers via an app and to corporates and platforms via API. Jiko owns and operates an OCC-chartered national bank, which it acquired in 2020, and a registered broker-dealer. In this conversation, Stephane and I discuss Jiko's concept and ultimate vision, the implications for the existing banking model, Jiko's successful bank acquisition, the relationship with adjacencies like stablecoins and CBDCs, and more. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Stephane Lintner